I think it's great all the extra attention the previous posters give their new roses, but if you want to simplify, your roses won't object and should still grow fine. You will find that there are many different and successful ways to grow roses. The Simple Approach: Dig that big hole everyone mentioned. Unless you have wonderful soil, it might be advisable to mix some compost or manure or peat moss in the loose soil. If you have some bone meal handy, you might toss a bit in the hole, but don't worry unduly about it. Plant the rose, and water DEEPLY--lots of water. I plant the graft a couple inches below the soil line--to protect it from winter freezing. Don't drown the rose for the next week or two, but water it regularly and keep an eye on it, in case something goes wrong. (Probably nothing will.) After the rose has some good strong growth and buds, get an organic rosefood--like RoseTone--and spread it around the base of the plant. And water it in. If you are inclined to use alfalfa cubes/meal/tea, spread it around the base also and water in. Nice stuff, but not absolutely essential. Enjoy your roses. After they are done with their spring blooming cycle, repeat the RoseTone (and alfalfa cubes, if you are so inclined). Make sure the roses get about 1 inch of water each week if it doesn't rain. You might want to add several inches of mulch around your roses to help retain the moisture in the ground (and keep down the weeds). Once you get used to that basic pattern and become more informed about other possibilities, you can begin experimenting with other ways of growing your roses, depending on how much you want to fuss over them. By the way, many of us would urge you NOT to use the systemic food you bought--that usually means it has things like insecticides mixed in it. Many of us avoid the use of insecticides because they can kill bees and other good insects. The most important rule about growing roses is ENJOY--and come here to this forum with any questions you may have. We just love to talk roses!!!! Kate

Jennifer, We've grown roses in the greenhouse, in pots, for several years, and they are fine. Just don't let them get too pot-bound. Crepuscule will get big in a hurry. Some comments on your list: Crepuscule -- super easy and carefree in Florida. Lasts many, many years own-root. It gets bigger faster on 'Fortuniana', but grafting is certainly not needed. Gruss an Teplitz -- I'd baby this one along. I don't know that it will be resistant to nematodes, own-root. Also rather black-spotty for us. Le Vesuve -- I think of this as a true Tea, but perhaps not. Always grown own-root in Bermuda; I don't have any long-term experience with it in Florida, but it may be fine. Caldwell pink (pink pet) -- as mentioned above, absolutely fine on its own roots. Lasts for many years that way. Princess de Sagan -- don't know about this one. Duchesse de Brabant -- I'd mulch this one deeply, but I do know that it has been grown own-root even in southern Florida, for a very long time. The Fairy -- never tried it own-root. Bermuda Anne Olivier -- a typical Tea rose. So should grow well, but may not last decades on its own roots. I would agree with posters above, that you should use a very deep mulch on everything. We use pine straw, at least 6" deep, preferably 8". Malcolm

If your 'Kanjiro' is blooming, that tells me that the plant is basically sound, though still stressed from the beating it took from the polar vortex. I don't know, but I do suspect that your camellia probably got zapped at a point when it was trying to put out its new spring leaves, and when it was already under stress from the prolonged cold temperatures. So even if it's still capable of leafing out all over, it may have been under too much stress to try, get zapped and then try again. If it were me, I'd see what I could do to protect the plant from cold winds and/or unusually cold temps this winter, and then wait to see what sort of new leaf growth you get in the spring. If you then believe that much of the trunk/plant is dead, you should remove the dead wood. I doubt you'll need to cut your camellia all the way down to the ground, but it would probably survive if you did. However, because camellias (even 'Kanjiro') grow slowly, I'd recommend cutting it back as little as possible. Concentrate on removing dead wood this season, and once you know how much of the plant is still healthy, you can prune according to what shape you want. Yes, you can lose future blooms if you prune your plant after it begins to set the next season's buds, but don't be afraid of pruning for shape. Even if you're pruning a bit late and you lose some flowers the following season, it may be worth it if you have an attractive plant in the long run. 'Kanjiro' is a variety that responds unusually well to proper pruning, so decide what shape you'd like then cut accordingly. Good luck, Virginia

I've taken an interest in learning about Florida gardening because I plan to move down there eventually. What I've read again and again about discouraging nematodes is to maintain a heavy layer of organic mulch. This will eventually break down and improve your soil. Some people mix in cheap clay kitty litter to make their soil heavier. Another possibility is to heavily underplant roses with Marigolds. There is one seed strain of French Marigolds in particular which tested as being very effective at deterring root-knot nematodes -- Tagetes patula 'Ground Control' (aka 'Single Gold'). The one caveat is that the effects won't be seen until the following year, and to maintain the effect, you'll want to replant them every year. As far as planting too deep -- I think many here would say I am guilty of this, but there hasn't been any negative effect which I can see. When I was putting this garden together, I planted my roses (own-root bands that were grown-on in pots for a few months) directly into the native soil in late Summer 2013. Prior to planting them, I had laid down sheets of cardboard to smother weeds and grass, and covered that with trimmings from a tree I was cutting back. This accumulated to about three inches, but it was a very "airy" three inches. Over all that, I put down an additional 6-8" of "proper" mulch (partially composted shredded wood chips). At first, I made concave "dishes" around each rose to allow water to be directed towards their roots and keep mulch away from the canes as I kept reading I was supposed to do, but after the first Winter, the beds were pretty much leveled out. In Spring, I worked an additional 2" of composted manure into that layer of mulch. This meant that what was once the border between canes and roots was now about 8-10" below the surface. Why did I do this? I wanted to give the roses an "early start" on having deep roots for getting water, and anticipated that canes buried beneath the mulch line would eventually root further up, allowing for easier access to fertilizer applied at the surface. Companion perennials were planted directly into this "mulch/compost" layer in Spring 2014, and they grew like gangbusters in their first year. Last Autumn, I wanted to continue adding organic matter to the beds, so I "harvested" fallen tree leaves and spread them to a "fluffy" three inches thick. I also started collecting used coffee grounds from Starbucks -- one 13gal kitchen garbage can-full per day -- and spread this about 2-3" over the leaves. It took about three months to complete. Winter snow has packed this down a bit, and the previous year's additions have started breaking down, so where I'm at now is about where I was after the first layer of mulch -- about 6-8" above the original soil line. This week, I started some early pruning. While there is some snow still remaining in half of the garden, where it is gone there was already life in the top layer of coffee grounds and leaves -- various soil critters are waking up and finding lots of food waiting for them. I've noticed some freeze damage (naturally) on some rose canes, but nothing soft and mushy which would indicate "cane rot". True, this could emerge later in the season, but I also never saw it last Spring when the roses' canes were also buried to about the same level. Why is this not harming my roses? Perhaps because what's covering the canes is actively being broken down by the various organisms in the soil, and that process is different than simply being a blanket of "wet" around the rose canes. Worms and critters keep moving the material around, and fungi digesting the material are sopping up the extra moisture. I don't know for sure -- all I can say is that I don't see any negative effects. :-) ~Christopher