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!

@ostrich do you take it down and cover it for the winter? from what I read, our hard winters kill the buds so we need to take extra care to protect it. Here is what Terry suggested for our harsh climate: "Twros(z 4 Ab. Can.) Hi beal_17 ... the wisteria had gotten very large and stretched out a total of 45 ft in two directions. In the autumn of 2014, after taking the vine down for the winter and applying protection, the darn mice had gotten to it and chewed it up badly and the next spring I needed to cut it back severely. Then, as the summer progressed, I decided that I hadn't liked the way the thing was looking and thought best to cut it right off at the base in hopes it would resprout ... though, it hadn't liked me doing so and the remaining stump had rotted down to the roots. Last summer, I started anew with a large on sale plant from CT. Again, I'll stress that this vine is not hardy for the Canadian prairies, or at least I've never seen photos or heard word of anyone having it eat up and consume the side of their home. This past winter was very mild and I'm sure many vines had wintered very well with no protection whatsoever, though a normal winter will more than likely knock them right back down. What I had learnt was to keep the thing growing as late in the autumn as possible by protecting it from severe frost, planting next to a building is a good idea. When taking it down in preparation of winter, snip off all remaining foliage that has not yet fallen along with green unhardened wood. I've had good success when covering the vine with about 3 or 4 inches of dry peat moss and placing a sheet of plastic upon the area to help keep it dry. Vines are very flexible until reaching a sizable thickness and can be wrapped up around themselves, though do not force them otherwise they might snap ... and be sure the darn mice have been dealt with! :)"

Mat, yeah I have 2018 and 2019 to write up. I have all my notes. Just have to find time. I checked out Pepiniere casse noisette website. They do not list their rootstocks anywhere that I can find. What rootstocks are your pears, peaches, apricots on? Honestly, a lot of what they are selling, at least in apricots, peach, nectarines seem to me to be VERY marginal for their climate. In many case they mention useful for growing in pots but if that is the case how are they propagating for sale? I don't want to disparage them without information but my impression is they might be reselling . You absolutely need to be buying based upon root-stock. For apples I am not only buying on Bud118 as it has best cold hardiness and is vigorus for our short seasons - Bud9 is just too slow. Train and prune to keep the size you want. Pears on OHxF87 or 97 and prune/train. I have found PAW-PAWs to be marginal in 4b - still 3' tall after 5+ years. Blueberries don't like my soil so Haskasps and Currants are much better. You have better options than Indigo Gem, Aurora is good though. Pink Lemonade is like a zone 5/6 plant, I see little chance of it surviving. Both Whiffletree and vigneschezsoi are good options. Be aware that a 1-2 year old bare root grape vine will bear fruit 1-2 years faster than the same year rooted cuttings you will get from vigneschezsoi. If you are only buying a couple might want to spend a couple extra $$ to get fruit a whole year or 2 earlier. Somerset and Trolhaugen are good. Had a couple Brianna this year, not enough to really say. Get Bluebell as well. I suggest 10-15' between vines. Can go closer but I am of the hack back 90% every year and then let grow. Trollhaugen can put out 12-15' of growth in 1 year alone - plant closer and you have to keep on top of canopy thinning to avoid overgrowth. Apples and pears will benefit from bagging with ziplocs. Grapes I bag with Organza bags when starting to turn color. So far I am loosing 99% of stone fruit (plums) to plum curlico and the rest to birds/racoons (can't bag plums - they rot). All peaches die. Trying apricots but no fruit yet. Don't get too caught up on types of fruit. Buy something disease resistant on a hardy, vigorus rootstock then topwork as you get enough branch structure. You will then be able to test fruit to see what you like or not within 3 years of grafting. My crabapple is now up to 65+ different apples grafted to it.

I'm a zone 5a, but I'm still confused if that's a Canadian or american zone 5. Anyways, as for hardiness in roses it seems to be a trial and error process for me. I have had much better luck with Austin's than other roses. Obviously the hardy Canadian roses do well for vigour, but they are not all as pretty as many other roses that are available. Almost all of my roses get pruned to the ground come spring due to winter dieback. But some Austin's spring back much quicker than others. I have also lost roses that were rated for zone 4, but others have survived no problem. Sceptre'd isle was a dud for me & died after 2 winters. Gentle Hermione died after it's first winter. Crown Princess - one is doing well & a second one died after last winter. Those are all recommended in zone 4. Graham Thomas survives here, but has never been particularly vigourous. Whereas, Teasing Georgia is a nice big bush at 6 x 3 feet by mid summer. Charlotte, Gertrude Jekyll, Crocus rose, Benjamin Britten, etc. are very vigorous here. I'm willing to try any of them that strike my fancy anyways.