Oh my. What is a passionate rose lover like you doing in that glacial hell hole? Reading about your endeavors has exhausted me and I haven't even lifted a shovel. I admire your grit and determination, but would love to see you rewarded with thousands of blooms on your rose bushes for all your hard work. I bet they could use engineers in zones 7 to 10!

Hi Edmmonton, It's really nice of you to start this list to help others. I have 3 John Cabots; 2 of them have grown a lot in the last 2 years. However, they are almost like once bloomers and, they surprisingly get Bspot. I'm wondering if John Davis or Louis Joillet have better rebloom? My MIL has William Baffin. Hers is like a once bloomer as well. Henry Kelsey blooms more. Not the color I'm going for right now but, pretty if you want red. same with Champlain. I had it at my previous home, bloomed all summer. It was a small bush. Orangey/red Cuthbert Grant has a darker red that I like. I just put it in this year, in too much shade, so not much bloom. I think my old neighbor had it and it bloomed all summer. Purple Pavement isn't exactly purple but, I don't think many are. It is very bright kind of magenta. I like it but, it is bright. In some instances that's good. It suckers too. That, for me, is a good thing. Sir Thomas Lipton is a pretty white. It doesn't bloom much for me though. Probably too much shade. Sven has been here 2 summers. It's a cute little bloom machine (I deadhead it). It is kind of lavender. It's blooms are not big but, they are pretty and they fade to near white. So, it can have purple and almost white at the same time. I like it. Quadra is my favorite of my hardy roses. It blooms nonstop. It's flowers are a good size and they are that gorgeous, old rose shape. The color is a pinker red but definitely red. Oh, I also had Hansa at my old house. It is a very pretty purpley color. I think I have to get that one again. Thanks, Kitty

I personally have at about 5000ft elev in SW Montana: 1)William Baffin - reachingabout 10' now after 10 years, up and over an archway, with Clematis "Bluebird" threatening to take it over each summer! Low care, rarely dead to cut out, no spray, annual feeding of composted manure and annual Bayer Tree and Shrub application. 2) Adelaide Hoodless: Never much die back but i cut it back pretty hard becasue it is a flopper otherwise - 3-4 ft H & W, a nice recurrent red. 3) Champlain: Took them all out last year - one of the prettiest hardy everblooming reds but two years of dieback followed by recurrent bouts of powdery mildew means they can't stay in my postage stamp size of a garden... 4) Flower Girl: a floribunda with minimal dieback and pretty clusters of baby pink single flowers. to 2 ft. No disease issues. 5) David Austin's Gertrude Jeckyll: Dies back some years but rebounds well to 3-3.5ft and the fragrance from these large mauve blossoms is out of this world!!!! 6) Rosa glauca - red leaf rose to 8 ft H That foliage, those hips!!!! 7) Austrian Copper - a bugger with black spot but needed the orange in that spot - it will go when I expand the grape arbor! 8) John Franklin - a lovely red with the sweetest form in bud and flower, nice clean foliage and overall shape. I don't grow any of the rugosa hybrids that have the matte foliage such as hansa and Belle Poitevin - the flowers are gorgeous but they are particularly resentful of our alkaline soils, even with heavy ammending. That is my current inventory but I have grown others in this area: a quick list...Bonica - lt pink,Graham Thomas - a DA yellow, Henry Kelsey - red climber, Knock out - red, any of the Morden series, Winnipeg Parks - rosy pink with good foliage, Therese Bugnet - nice pink but sometime chlorotic... Looking to try Starry Night as I don't currently have a white and maybe add another DA or 2! happy rose growing to all!

For shade I like common bleeding heart, tradescantia(widow`s tears), brunnera(Siberian bugloss), lamium, heuchera(coral bells), ligularia and aquilegia canadensis(columbine). You can get quite a variety of foliage colors for most of these to add more interest when plants are not blooming. For full sun you could consider asclepias tuberosa(butterfly weed), Russian sage, salvia coccinea(red sage - annual), peonies, Morden chrysanthemums, veronica(spike speedwell), lupines, delphiniums, penstemon, maltese cross, false sunflower and of course some spring flowering bulbs. For part shade, bee balm(Raspberry Wine - for the hummingbirds), bluebells of Scotland, wild columbine, yellow foxglove. I usually pick 4 colours(red, blue, white, yellow) and then start thinking about planning the bed back to front - so for a sunny bed I would choose blue delphiniums at the back, then maybe red maltese cross in front of those, yellow false sunflower in front of those, white shasta daisies then some red salvia(annual) and blue spike speedwell. Put your spring bulbs like crocus, tulips and daffodils in the very front. I`m not the most creatively, imaginative gardener but I always plant for butterflies and hummingbirds -they just add so much more to the life of the garden. It usually takes me about 3 seasons to get a whole big bed planted, but I`ve always considered gardening a work in progress. I`m not sure winterberry is hardy here but it would be lovely.