I don't think roses on Fortuniana can go dormant. I've growns (and continue to grow) both R. x fortuniana and four or five roses on fortuniana. From it's parent R. laevigata, fortuniana gets genes that make it grow through winter and to set bloom very early in spring. Remember that where it comes from, winter is not what we know as winter...it's just shorter daylight. Fortuniana roots keep pushing nutrients and wanting to grow into the above ground parts, whether they are fortuniana or something else put on by grafting or budding. Jimmy Moser out in warm, warm Memphis years ago wrote about overwintering his roses on fort...in plywood boxes that fit over his roses. That said, you need to grow a rose on fort in conditions where it never slows down. It's both eyeopening and a bit depressing because never will you and I get growth like that, short of moving way far south with the flying cockroaches and fire ants and buckmoth caterpillers and chilli thrips and need to air conditions six to eight months of the year. WIth two decades in Houston and NOLA, I say that without wistfullness.

Hi, I divided my mature hibiscus this past spring with excellent results! I dug up the whole plant just after the first shoots were popping up and shoved a spade into the center of the root ball. Then divided each half a second time. Ended up with 4 much smaller hibiscus plants. This was an experiment I decided to try as I have 2 in a relatively cramped area and wanted to see how it would deal with the trauma of the division. I left the other alone for comparison. The hibiscus I divided is currently only 3 feet tall and has nice healthy stalks with buds. Just the size I wanted. The undivided hibiscus is over 5 feet tall and is wildly out of control. I plan on dividing it in early fall. I agree that you should wait until the temps die down a bit more. Wait until the average temps are in the low 70's to 60's. Good luck! Tracy

I'm a zone up from you (or is it down?) I'm in zone 4. The full shade plants that look good for me all summer are celadine poppies, lamiastrum Herman's Pride, christmas and Japanese painted ferns. Lamium can get ratty, but if I cut it down, it fills right in. Same with sweet woodruff. Blue lobelia, turtlehead, and toad lily bloom late summer and can hide some of the shaggy foliage of others. I'd guess that the shade isn't the problem with the hosta size, but lack of moisture (or they may just be hostas that don't get very big).

The condition "dormancy" is, in respect to the majority of Hippeastrums, including all the TETraploid Dutch "Gardeners' Amaryllis" hybrids - ALREADY fullfilled by a prolonged period at 13° Celsius and 9 to 17° Celsius respectively, with very sparse watering perfectly from below . During which period the crop will not even loose its leaves. The removal of the leaf crown is technically required BUT for a dry storage without light - for the inconvenience of handling 100s and 1000s of bulbs during a lack of appropriate locations indoors, if not even as bare bulbs without Substrate for commercial purposes. And it allows for a closer inspection of the bulb and for sanitizing measures. The most promising Approach for a year around cultivation is imho: At the windowsill with substrate heating by the central heating unit underneath, up to 27° Celsius, during November to May of the new year, then relocation to outside at a place shielded from rain, and then you will obtain new bloom 3 months later. One of my specimens of "Flamenco Queen" surprised me with a late Bloom in October, outside that was, and now, after re-relocation to the windowsill, I am about to obtain one scape more.