Dcrosby, You may be right at the edge of zone 5/6. Check the map here. If you are still zone 5, you just need to do some winter protection. It should be fine. Climate affects disease susceptibility. In dryer, more arid climate like AZ or CA, they don't have to deal with fungal disease like we do here in humid East Coast. When you read people's recommendations, you want to see where they live. Different climate gives different results to the same rose variety. Spraying for roses every week or every two weeks is not my kind of fun (anymore). I didn't even want to smell the blooms after I sprayed the bushes. Now I don't spray, most of my roses esp. Austins look naked by mid summer. Here is a link that might be useful: MA new plant hardiness zone map

Hi Bruce, I dont want to turn this into another cottonwood/aspen rantbut I AM going to link one of the old RMG rants! Ever since I bought this house early in 04 Ive been battling these things, and over the years Ive come up with something that seems to work, so I thought Id let you in on my experiment results! I wont repeat all the stuff I said on that thread, but, first, even if your neighbor wanted to get rid of the tree, it only makes the situation worse. Once the "parent" tree is cut down, the suckers come up with a VENGEANCE! More about that in my 06.03.05 post! In April of 07 I resurrected the thread to report that using roundup on individual cottonwood suckers had been workingbut I was also killing a ring of grass around each sucker I sprayedand it was VERY labor intensive to try to spray the suckers without killing too much grass! And there were so many aspen suckers in my front yard that I couldnt use roundup on them without killing much of the grass! In July of 07 I did one more update to let everybody know that using Weed B Gon for suckers that were coming up in the grass worked very welland it continues to do so! My Final Plan included using Weed B Gon on any suckers coming up in grass, and using roundup on the suckers that came up in my perennial beds. To do that I cut the corner off of a plastic bag, pull the sucker up into the bag, and carefully (on a windless day) spray all the foliage inside of the bag, then fold the bag over and weight it down with something so the roundup doesnt "accidentally" get on the perennialswhich are often VERY close to the sucker. Closing up the bag also seems to help by "steaming" the sucker inside of the bag. When the sucker has completely browned, I pull the bag off and cut it off at or below the soil level. Since then Ive added another step to my faux eradication Plan! Now when Im digging to plant or dig up perennials and find a root thats bigger than about a half an inch, I dig the hole as big as I want/need it and then cut the root back to the side of the hole. Then I dig a little more soil out around the root, put a small baggie (non-zipper) over the end of the root, make sure the top/opening of the baggie is higher than the bottom which is around the end of the root, and pour a small amount of roundup over the end of the root into the plastic bag. Then I pack the top of the baggie shut with some of my nice heavy clay, plant what I want there, and fill the hole completely with (improved) soil. This, I have discovered, really seems to be a death knell for that particular rootnot that there arent a million-zillion more just waiting to make an appearance! But this method has successfully done-in the bigger roots that I had been spraying and/or cutting off ever since I moved in here. In case you cant tell, I have a BAD problem with cottonwood and aspen roots! The one neighbor behind me has THREE of them that are less than a foot away from my back fence. One of them has actually started moving the fence, and that same one is moving the (two-high) railroad ties that border the perennial bed that runs the whole way along the fence. The railroad ties that have found themselves in "a very moving position" are four and a half feet inside of the fence, so about 5 feet away from the tree! Mostly Im able to cut out the roots with a limb lopper, but Ive also cut out roots that were more than 3" in diameter, and I obviously had to saw them offincluding a few that were in my "escape-proof" garden which is between the back of my shed and my side fenceand is only about 20" wide! Its always fun working in there! In April 09, after years of cutting/spraying the suckers, I decided to apply a root mitigation program in my escape-proof garden! Here are some of the roots I cut out! And heres where they were cut out ofjust before "capping" the ends of the roots with plastic bags and pouring some roundup on them, and after refilling the hole with new soil! No suckers came up from these roots for the rest of the summer! And heres a picture of what I ran into when I was "trying" to dig up my Herrenhausen ornamental oregano to take along to the swap, and another one of some of the roots I had to dig out to plant my grape vinejust one, one-gallon plant! Ok! This has turned into another rant! I think Im justified! And after all the problems Ive had with cottonwood/aspen roots for well over 15 years now, I will definitely not be planting bambooor Virginia creeper or trumpet vine or mint or yarrow or gooseneck loosestrife (I LOVE the flowers!) or Mexican evening primrose or............... End of rantfor now! Skybird

Aureosulcata will live in a 5b. It's one of the most hardy bamboos for cold climates. It's rated for -10. The roots even colder. It will most likely top kill often though. But should come back big enough in spring to cover the windows. Phylostachys Bissetii would be my first pick though. You have slightly better luck with that I think. Keep it well mulched. I think being so close to the house and windows that the heat from it will help too. Barrier is not really hard to install. Just dig down and and plop it in and cover it back up. Here is a good guide: http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier.htm

I would suggest getting a tray with deep sides. Fill the bottom with pebbles and put the pot on top. Put water in the tray but NEVER let the water touch the bottom of the pot. This should bring up the humidity around the plant. Only water the plant when the soil is dry about an inch down from the top. Make sure that the water drains freely and the bottom of the pot is never sitting in water. You can get a light but I don't think it's necessary. You will need to be very vigilant about watching for spider mites which are often a problem for indoor plants.