Those are all great varieties that should work out fine for Zone 5. I've got a 3-year-old Sweet 16 that hasn't fruited yet but there are a TON of fruit buds this year. I'm actually grafting half of this tree over to Kingston Black this spring because I want more cider varieties. I already have one branch of Foxwhelp (actually Fauxwhelp, another supposed cider variety) grafted to my Cortland tree and it appears ready to burst with blossom any day now. Seems to be showing a little pink with the green in the buds right now. If so, the Fauxwhelp will be my first variety to bloom this year, followed by Cortland which has the next biggest buds, with Sweet 16 close behind. Macoun is very similar to Cortland so I think that will be a good choice for Zone 5. Nice thing about the McIntosh family of varieties is that you can use them for eating, pie, juice, sauce -- it's all good -- and I find them to be beautifully shaped trees that grow very well in Zone 5 with minimal need for spreading and pruning. You can't say all these things about many other apple varieties.

Well done Seil, and that's the perfect antidote to winter rose death. Nothing like new plants to add excitement to the rose season! Among those you list, I've had good hardiness pretty consistently from Lady X, Legends, Pink Peace, Tiffany, and Valencia without any particular fussing. None of those bloom tremendously frequently for me, as many show HTs don't, but I agree with the enthusiasm for Valencia. The blooms are to die for and my plant has regrown well from the roots even this last winter. Among the others, I've had Bella Roma and Cinnamon Dolce die on me once, but they were relatively late delivered bareroots and didn't make it through the summer. I've tried again with Bella Roma and also have Bee's Knees planted this spring, and so far so good. Gemini has survived reluctantly in my warm zone 6 pocket in the ground, so it might prefer some babying in your real zone 6 in pots. Have fun, and if you want more "N" rose suggestions, I agree that Neptune is a good HT that has survived well for me, as does my preference Nostalgie (Heirloom now sells this one) and Nigrette (lovely dark red blooms, but not show worthy). If you go outside of HTs, the floris Nimbus and Nina Nadine are both nicely hardy for me, and Nimbus is a haunting russet-lavender color. Nymphenburg is a plant and forget Hybrid musk and Nicole would be an ideal choice as a Kordes flori except that most of the plants sold are really Hannah Gordon (hence no "N"). Neil Diamond looks very promising for a striped HT that has show potential, but I can't report on hardiness till next year. Of course, if you have room for a climber Nahema is a hands-down winner on all accounts. Any "X" roses out there beyond X-Rated? That's the only letter I'm missing, and I'm not as much into minis if I can do that letter otherwise. Anyway, enjoy your purchases and have a great time watching them bloom! Cynthia

I'm glad you got giggle out of it & have the same experience. It was suppose to be sarcastic, Rita. I seriously think dls should be treated as speciman plants. One has to get up close to appreciate all of their suddle beauty characteristics & viewing it 6' away is not happening. I can see myself getting in there a few times a day to admire up close, but to not even see it's face all day walking by was annoying. I can get in there now, but in a couple years when the clumps grew in, it wouldn't be as easy. The hardest part was using my body as a block from the sun to get a picture. One of these days I will break off a scape from stepping over them to get to one that's in bloom. My next dl beds are going to be long strips with only 2-3 dls wide w/ paths between each row. It doesn't have to be straight strips either, I was thinking about doing an area at my next garden creating a maze out of dls, or some curvy design bed with paths in between. I tried the umbrella trick a couple of weeks ago when I had a bloom or 2, it still didn't work on GR. The white paper trick too, still can't get it right. All of the other dl colors come out true, but not GR! That is why it is on the snob & sassy list. It really is a beautiful flower & the green edge pops with that purple. Jury is still out on flower form & longevity. The new bloom on the new scape was the best it has been yet so it seems promising. I had a duet of LTA today, 1 bloom was being more polite, LOL!

I sold my snowblower last year. We couldn't use it anymore. Hubby has multiple sclerosis, I'm just a skinny little slip of a girl on kidney dialysis. I've been ordered by doctors not to do any lifting with my left arm. It was in our garage. we had paid $900 when it was new, an Ariens. In January, while DH was in the hospital, I decided to replace the fan over my stove. Called in a very nice electrician who was going to charge me $200. As he was putting it in, he want to the garage to check the circuit breaker. He saw the snowblower, asked how I liked it. I told him I can't use it, I'm looking to sell it. He then offered to do the stove fan for free plus pay me $250. He went away to an ATM, back with the cash. I gave him the keys and instruction books. He was happy, I was happy (free stove fan and "made" $250). And even DH was happy to have the darn thing gone and a big empty space in the garage.