Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been tempted to make this video for a while but as you all point out the situation is so different for everyone. But if I do go ahead can I start with a few general rules of thumb like. 1) It begins, as mad gallica points out, with selecting a hardy rose for your area. While the guidelines from nurseries and sites like HMF are a good place to begin there is nothing like local knowledge via forums, rose societies, garden clubs etc. 2) If you buy a grafted rose bury the bud union deep like 4"-6". 3) Use a hardwood mulch for insulation and anyway this should always be part of your regular gardening routine. 4) Piling up leaves and/or mulch depends on the kind of winters you get. Wet winters with periods of warm temps can lead to problems like canker etc when you pile up mulch so it's best not to. If you live in an area with dry winters it's okay to do so. 5) Keep your roses healthy throughout the year. A healthier rose can better survive a winter. Now to me a healthy rose to survive winter means a rose that is NOT pampered all year but instead is left to, as I talk about in my other videos, fend for itself so it pushes out deep roots and builds up immunity to the local pathogens. 6) Here is my question to all of you. I realize where you live it's best to purchase an older plant and that usually means grafted. However when you purchase an own root band and it's delivery to you in say spring or summer what do you do? Plant right away, grow it on in a larger pot and plant in fall, keep it in the pot for a year overwintering it in the garage. I'll need to address this. Keep in mind nothing complicated - this is meant to be simple. Anything else I need to cover?

I agree with Jim, it should be fine. On occasion thou a very tender newly emerging shoot can be damaged. Count me in as another rose grower getting hammered by the cold here. Once strongly leafed out frost might damage a few leaves but the cane will be fine. During the Easter Freeze what hurt the roses so badly from north to south was the duration of the cold. Nearly everyone east of the Mississippi River saw damaged roses that year.

Rebecca, Lettuce transplants very easily. To ensure I have no problems, I always start the seedlings in paper cups I can plant (I use the tiny Dixie cups sold to go in bathroom cup dispensers) or in peat pellets. That way, no matter the age of the plants, I can transplant them with no real root disturbance. Lettuce seedlings generally need more light that the light shelf can get them and will get leggy fast, so as soon as the first tiny sprouts appear, I move them outdoors. I can carry then indoors, if needed, but since they're pretty cold-tolerant, I really don't need to carry them in very much if at all. Mary, Sow the seed slightly later than OSU recommends and you'll be fine. Carrot seed is slow to germinate in cold soils, but much quicker in warmer soils so the trade-off when planting later is minimal. It can take carrot seeds up to 30 days to germinate in cool soils but significantly less in warm soils, so you can get seedlings up before the end of March from a mid-March sowing or you can get seedlings up before the end of March from an early-March sowing. The difference is that the extended amount of time the seeds spend in cool soil between early and late March increases the chance something will happen to the seeds. Honestly, carrots are fairly easy if you sow them when the soil is a bit warmer. Look at how easily the closely related Queen Ann's Lace self-sows itself around by the hundreds and thousands of plants everywhere every year. Kim, I occasionally have harvested carrots even later than that---well into July in one year without an appreciable loss in quality, but it must have been a fairly wet, cool summer. Dawn

Hi flowersaremusic, Apparently there is quite a bit of variation in zone 5. They may be revising the zone maps to account for climate change. The map I see divides zone 5 into zone 5a (the upper cooler part) and zone 5b (the lower warmer part.) Here in east central Kansas we have been having Spring-like weather. We got no snow and very little rain for February. I will make successive plantings of zinnia seed in-ground starting in mid April (a bit risky) and my zinnias will be a bit slow to germinate because the soil is still cool in April. But I will have a good stand of zinnias by mid May. Our killing frost usually comes late in October. My zinnias start to bloom in about six weeks after they come up and continue blooming until Frost. So they are in bloom in part of June, July, August, September, and part of October. Your Zone 5 does seem much more arctic and short-growing-seasoned, for maximum enjoyment of zinnias. " If my soil heats up by June, I will direct sow. I do have an all day sunny spot, about 5'x12', that was dedicated to irises, but they have all been moved. " You might take a chance on planting some zinnia seeds in-ground in May. That is assuming you aren't expecting any killing freezes in May. " I'm a bit confused about amendments. I've read zinnias do not like rich soil..." Zinnias are fast growing heavy feeders, and they do like rich soil, provided that it is well drained. Their roots need a lot of oxygen as well as soluble nutrients. I add sand to our native silt soil to help the zinnia roots breathe. I also apply foliar feedings of Miracle-Gro Tomato Food (for extra Magnesium) to supply plenty of nutrients. I notice you have felled a lot of trees to improve your garden's sun exposure, and that is commendable. I did the same when we lived in Maine. And you mentioned wood mulch. Just be aware that wood mulch in contact with soil tends to deplete the soil nitrogen supply to feed the wood-eating soil microbes. I use a sand mulch to prevent pillbugs (sow bugs or roly polys), earwigs, slugs, and snails. All of which hate and avoid sand. Since you went to a significant effort felling trees to improve your outdoor garden, you might justify some effort to improve your indoor gardening. You could purchase a few inexpensive T8 fluorescent 4-foot shoplights for the lighting you need for an indoor growing space. I am a zinnia hobbyist, so I grow zinnias year round, both outdoors, and indoors when the weather outside isn't conducive to gardening. This picture was taken in January.My growing setup is in our basement in the utility room. I have some chrome wire shelving and fluorescent shoplights in there. I start my zinnias in 3.25-inch clear square "orchid pots".You can see the roots through the sides of the pots when they need to be re-potted to larger pots.I adjust the height of the fluorescent shop-light fixtures to accommodate the growing plants. You could get indoor seed-starting capability for a lot less effort and expense than felling trees for your outside garden. Obviously the light on the kitchen table won't do the trick. But T8 4-foot 2-tube fluorescent shoplights are reasonably priced, and they put out a lot of light. ZM