Not all roses are as fast growing, durable nor vital own root as budded. Some bands are going to explode as soon as they get their "feet" out of those tight bands. Many others simply won't. Some climates permit planting directly from the band into the ground. Many others, don't. If you're intending to put the rose in a particularly difficult spot, such as against a hot wall, or in a bed fronted, surrounded or backed by hot hard scape, the rose will be MUCH more successful if it has some plant mass and momentum under it than a small, immature stick with shallow roots might. Of course, conditions vary greatly from one climate and garden to the next, but there have been many complaints over the past two-plus decades bands have been available about how easily they are lost because they are so small, soft and immature. If you are able to grow your bands in those small pots successfully, great! Don't 'fix it' as it ain't broke. But, MANY of us are sure to lose them due to aridity, heat, wind, sun intensity, etc. Planting them into larger containers, permitting them to mature, develop root and plant mass before setting them free in the soil is the surest method of guarantying success. Even if my climate permitted planting bands directly in the garden, the blamed rabbits and squirrels would make sure they didn't survive. Kim

Just throwing my twenty eight cents and a couple pictures into the pot (see what I did there). I broke the rules and tipped mine upright over this past weekend when we had our first 60 degree day on Saturday. The ground has been thawed for about three weeks now. The daffodils are 4-5 inches out of the ground with buds, crocus in full bloom, snow drops are done and the hellebore are beginning to open up. With all this activity I got nervous the hostas might pop early again this year. So I did my research and looked to see what the average temps would be and sure enough we are into the 40-50 highs with 33-35 lows. So I figured better to tip them all and get them cleaned up and ready for spring because it never fails that someone will show their pips too soon for their own good. Sure enough, two of my three Andrew and Sea Gulf Stream had pips beginning to emerge from the soil. So . . . I removed all of last years leaves I used as insulation to make sure that there was nothing obstructing their drainage and put a fresh coat of pine mulch over them to hopefully keep them asleep for a while longer. When they break my mulch barrier I will know there's no turning back and will have to begin covering them until April. Like the gentlemen have advised, it is best to wait until your hard freezes are done. My zone 7a is fickle in March and everything always has a tendency to think it's spring and shoot 4 inches out of the ground only to get some weird single day snow cover the last week in March (never fails). So I figure this way I am prepared to cover what does decide to show up early. We will also be getting a lot of rain this month but since I know the pots won't freeze and the drainage is good I have nothing to worry about. So here I was Feb 4th, little over a month ago during our two weeks of 20F. Brrrrr. And today March 12th with everyone ready to go. :) The green in the one pot in the middle is a tough-as-nails Pulmonaria that never really went dormant and has started putting out new growth already. AND THE FIRST ROSE OF SPRING !!!! Well . . . not a rose, but cute. Ludi

Mine are going crazy with blooms right now, and we've been harvesting for a little over a week. So far the harvest hasn't been huge, but it has been steady. They seemed to stall on those days our high temps were in the 93-98 degree range, but now that it is a little cooler here, they are a little happier and putting out new growth and tons of blooms. I think the rain we got, which only was a half-inch, pleased them greatly. I'm hoping this week's cold front makes them even more happy. At least our sugar snap peas aren't being hailed upon, flooded or being hit by tornadoes. As long as they are still alive and rain is falling, I think they'll keep producing for a while. The wind today did beat the crap out of them. Kim, I always freeze some, but only about 1 year out of 3 do I put tons and tons of them in the freezer. Tim was out of town on business most of last week, so I didn't even pick them and take them into the house. I just picked them and munched on them while working in the garden---instant, garden-fresh fast food. In the fall, you'll probably need row cover to keep them happy long enough to produce. While they tolerate very cold temperatures, if the cold temps hit while they are blooming or about to bloom, those cold temperatures can knock the blooms right off the plants. I don't cover them up at night unless we're expecting temperatures below the mid-20s. Sometimes we get a night or two like that in late Sept or early Oct, but it is more common to get them in November. If you want to grow a variety that doesn't need to be trellised, I grew Cascadia two years ago and Sugar Lace last year, and both of them produced tons and tons of peas----more than my Super Sugar Snaps or Sugar Snaps growing on trellises were able to produce. Because we've already had high temps here hit 98 degrees a couple of times and 93-95 more often than I can believe for May, I am worrying that the green beans won't begin blooming early enough to avoid heat-related blossom drop. Instead of succession sowing some more green beans, I'm going to plant an enormous number of southern peas instead because the heat can't stop them from producing. My mind has moved beyond the warm-season crops to the hot-season crops because it seems like we have gone from the cool season to the hot season in a very brief period of time. My short day onions are bulbing up. It always happens at this time of the year, and it always catches me by surprise. I have to count backwards from now to the time I planted them, realize it is time for them to start bulbing up and say "okay, this is normal". All the cool-season plants I planted are doing better than the sugar snap peas, but that is not unusual. They are the most finicky when it comes to having 32 degree temperatures one morning and then 98 degree temperatures a day or two later. They don't like those crazy temperature swings. I get the best sugar snap pea harvest when we consistently stay cool and moist. This year cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as cool and moist---hence the sugar snap pea behavior.

Jackmanii is a very robust clem - once established it will easily hold its own with other perennials and even small shrubs. Ostrich ferns are pretty aggressive spreaders so that might be a concern. They also prefer a much shadier situation than the clematis would prefer. Regardless, I would make sure a newly planted clem wasn't overcome by adjacent plantings but would not be overly concerned once it became fully established.