Richie, I would keep your seedling in a sunny window when nights get below 50 degrees. Mist it occasionally as they are prone to spider mites. If leaves begin to yellow and drop you should reduce watering. Some seedlings don't go dormant their first winter. Monitor the soil. If the plant is taking up moisture you can continue to water carefully. If it drops leaves and does not take up water, reduce watering, since it's probably going dormant. The thickened stem will store what it needs to survive until it comes back out of dormancy -- anywhere from Feb to April.

Yes, and I'm not looking forward to it. But last year and the year before we got down that low -- even a touch lower, as I recall a night or two each year that dipped just below 0F -- and only two died outright. Those were 'Jaune Desprez' and "Secret Garden Musk Climber" after Winter 2013-2014. I replaced SGMC with a gallon-sized plant, and that one survived Winter 2014-2015. I gave up on the pipe dream of having a Tea-Noisette growing out in the open on my dying Japanese maple, and stuck 'Baltimore Belle' there instead. Many things had damage, but rebounded after I cut out the dead bits. Of course, the ones with little or no damage were the OGRs with little or no China/Tea in them. But even "Bermuda Spice", which had to be cut back to under 12" inches the last two Springs, rebounded to about 5' X 5' by the end of each season. I was hoping to see what it does when starting Spring with something more like 3', but this weekend may keep that from happening. Meanwhile, my potted roses look frozen in time -- few leaves dropped, but no active growth, and no discernible damage. They're hanging out in my enclosed unheated back porch, getting some sun from the windows. This cold blast is an anomaly this year, coming as a brief interruption in otherwise mild weather. I'm hoping that such a short dose of intense cold followed by temperatures in the 50s a few days later won't kill anything. The Chinas and China-Teas I planted in the ground in 2015 are mostly in a protected spot against the house and facing south. The few I put in my tiny front yard are a bit more exposed, but I planted them deeply. We'll see in just another month or so, when I start pruning. Being a zone-pusher, I realize I take risks -- but how else do we learn? And frankly, considering the more tender Chinas and Teas keep blooming through our hot and humid Summers, they're worth it. :-) ~Christopher

I don't have a feel for what Iowa winters are like, so I'll simply relate my experiences. Here, in an area with very unstable winters with a fair amount of all known forms of precipitation, putting anything around a rose for 'winter protection' is a bad idea. You are playing the odds that we will get significant cold without snow (a rare occurance) versus the odds that there will be a significant warm spell with a lot of moisture (something that happens at least once every winter). Wet winter protection kills. In a former life, on the very, very eastern edge of what my DH calls The Flat, winters were cold, but dry. The Alberta Clippers had dropped all their moisture hundreds of miles before they ever got to us, and we were south of the Erie snowbelt. There winter protection did nothing, as far as I could tell. If I protected them, the roses died back. If I didn't protect them, the roses died back. The winter protection wasn't an obvious hindrance, like it is here, but it also wasn't worth the effort. That has been the general consensus here, also. There have been a fair number of people in the Midwest who routinely winterized roses, but then had a winter when for various reasons, they couldn't. To their surprise, the roses did just the same as they always had. So if you want larger roses in the spring, plant hardier types. That's really all you can do. If you have dry falls, you can try cutting back on the watering in fall. A common problem with marginally hardy modern roses is that they are much quicker to go dormant from drought than from cold. So here, where fall is what passes for our rainy season, it can be very, very hard to get modern roses to shut down.

Kimberly - I am so silly - I meant to recommend Purezza, which is the hybrid banksia which Malcolm suggested above, but I forgot to put its name in my last post. HMF says it is "almost thornless". If you can find it on Fortuniana (which seems to be the rootstock everyone from FLA is advising you to use), I would go for it. I know for a fact that banksias can be pruned down to any size you like, as a grocery store near my house has the yellow ones (banksia lutea) planted in ten 3 ft by 2 ft raised beds (with cement sides) which they use as automobile stops for parking spaces in their parking lot, and they grow them on 2-3 ft high metal trellises, and keep them relentlessly pruned down to the height of the trellises. They bloom prolifically every Spring for a long time. That is why I think Purezza could certainly be kept short enough for your pillar. Malcolm, just saying, we don't get hardly any winter chill (meaning nights below freezing) at all here in some years, and my yellow banksia bloomed every Spring no matter what. However, FLA climate is of course WAY more humid than ours, so perhaps that has something to do with it, and Purezza is a better choice than the original yellow or white banksia. Kimberly, if you decide to try Purezza, remember that banksias are a VERY old type of rose, and you cannot expect any of them to grow to maturity in a few months. If you plant one, remember the rhyme for climbing roses: "First year sleeping", (growing roots underground - not much activity noticed above ground - this is NORMAL), "Second year creeping", (putting out short canes which sort of flop around), "Third year leaping" (climbing canes appear, which will need to be trained as horizontally as you can - many people wrap them around pillars. Good luck - and please let us know if you do decide to try one rose in your back yard. Your front yard design plans sound gorgeous - we would all like to see pics of both yards when you have platned the roses. Jackie