I have about 35 roses in pots. From OGRs, Austins, HTs, Minis, you name it. They survived at least one winter here in pots so they should thrive in your zone. They are arranged all around my patio because that is where I get the most sun. Actually it works out welll. I have them all on those wheeled pot trolleys and can move them around the patio as the season prgresses and the days get shorter so they can still get optimal light.

Thanks, to all of you who have taken the time to answer my post, I really appreciate it. To answer a few of your questions, I had my husband build a coldframe, but it is up on a large table instead of on the ground. Therefore, heating cables running through soil isn't going to work unless I move it to the ground. The table is a thick work table and the coldframe sits on it perfectly, so cold air shouldn't be able to get under the coldframe. I put it up on a table since it is easier for me to tend to my plants. Maybe I will try to put it on the ground and try the heating cable thing, but I have animals and when the lid is open they like to eat my plants. I am either losing plants to cold snaps or animals and I am quite tired of it. Since it is always recommended that you wait until the night time temperatures are in the 60's to transplant outside, I figured that it needed to be at least 60 degrees inside the coldframe or greenhouse at night to keep them from freezing and dying. So I wanted to keep them as toasty as possible. So now my question would be how cold is too cold for the little seedlings or plants? To answer one of the other questions that was asked, I'm not really sure what I would consider the contraption that my husband built for me. Looks like and is built like a coldframe, but could be more like a minature greenhouse, but regardless it isn't working for me the way I visioned that it would.....Lisa

Cry all you need to for it does hurt like h*ll to lose a best freind and furkid. They are family and no one can tell us differantly. Dixie was a beautiful girl and she had the best family to be part of. No, there will never be another Dixie, but I hope you find a new freind some day, when you are all ready to open your big hearts again. Hugs to all of you, Peppi

Thanks for your response, Sweeby. That is a very interesting point about whether the relationship was good or not. Generally, I think you are right about that. Odd, one would think the better relationship would be more sorrowfully mourned. But one also mourns the lost opportunities. No, there is no unfinished business. I did everything I could have done to try to save that marriage. And I negotiated with him much longer than I had to in order to arrange issues with the children. There is nothing more I could have done. He has gone on with his life and so have I. As it turns out, he is o.k. There was surgery which showed that there was no malignancy after all. The growths on his spine were removed and with therapy he should recover. I am glad about that. But I am puzzled by how emotional my sadness felt. My relief doesn't feel that way at all. There are just a lot of practical reasons that it's good he will still be around. It is very strange not to understand why I feel the way I do. I'm just glad the crisis is over.