What's the alternative to planting them in the ground? Do you have an unheated garage or shed? Can you sink pots in the ground next to the foundation along the south side of your house?

Get them back in the ground. Wait until the summer heat has passed, and be prepared to keep them watered. The Fairy can handle a lot of abuse, and if they are growing they have enough roots to support themselves.

Keeping them in the pots is going to require finding an appropriate spot to keep them. It is usually an attached, unheated garage. However, putting them back in the ground is going to be by far the easiest way.

thank you cecily and mad-gallica :)

cecily: the alternative is to put the pots into the garage or the cold room downstairs but that would mean eliminating other plants that need the protection more ...other roses, geraniums, chrysanthemums etc.. So in short ...lack of room.

the other problem is that I might not be here in April/May next year, the lady next door is happy to plant them for me but I'd rather do it myself than to burden her.

mad-gallica: ? wait until the summer heat has passed? ...i'm not sure about your weather but we're already much colder now ...unless we get an Indian Summer ...which is very possible. I know The Fairy is an outstanding 'abuse' rose but 2 of the pots have only just started sprouting again and I know they didn't have lots of roots (or any roots except the large central one). Do you think I should spray them with wilt-proof or cover them with mulch etc... except those things don't help the roots ... I guess though ... our first hard frost won't be until mid November and if I plant them now they'll have 8 more weeks of growing.

:) I know i'm driving myself crazy over this.

I agree with MG - The Fairy is cold tolerant beyond zone 5, and as long as you have new growth you presumably have new roots as well. If you dug them 6 weeks ago and will still have at least 6 weeks or more of good growth in the ground, that should be enough to pull them through. I would be less optimistic about most Hybrid Teas and floribundas under those conditions, but I think the roots will be a lot healthier and happier in the ground than in a pot all winter. Even under good protection for a pot, you lose an effective zone of winter protection in a pot vs. in the ground.

Cynthia

:) thank you nippstress, that's very helpful.

You will know a lot more about your forecast than I do. We are currently comfortably cool, but early next week we are supposed to be close to 90F again. If you have something similar, I'd just wait until that has passed.

thank you mad-gallica.

Westerly pacific, I am about 2 1/2 hrs away from Toronto, I am in zone 6a. My 3 Fairy roses are pretty much cane hardy without any winter protection.

thank you summersrhythm ... :) ... very pretty.

You're welcome dear. :-)

If at all possible it's always best to plant them in the ground. Your Toronto weather is similar to mine so I would say to get them in the ground immediately. You should have at least 8 weeks of warm enough weather for them to settle in before it gets too cold and they go dormant. I would also mound/mulch them well for winter protection but not until they have gone completely dormant. The purpose of mulching is to maintain them in dormancy for as long as possible in the spring when temps can vary widely. You want to keep them dormant until the weather truly warms up for good in the spring so that they don't start growing too soon and you lose that growth to a late freeze. As said above The Fairy is a hardy rose and should do fine for you over winter.

Thank you Seil ... that is so helpful about the purpose of mulching ... I didn't know that ... we are just moving out some large hostas and are behind schedule but I think in the next few days they will go in.... it is very hot here right now ....lol... it's hard to believe ..we were freezing a few weeks ago.... but I will rig up some shade fabric to give them a better chance against the heat/winds and sun. :) ..thanks so much.

Sam thank you!!! I will look forward to watching that ... but these roses will be going into the ground .... although I've others that will stay in pots. :)

Mike McGrath says put them in the ground. Without the pot. I think the ones in pots Will freeze.

Potted roses have their best chance of survival in an insulated but unheated garage over the winter. They do better off the concrete and you have to water them some through out the winter. It doesn't have to be a lot but they need some water about once a month. When I kept my tree rose in the shed over the winter I used to put a shovelful of snow on them every time we shoveled. That worked pretty well.

When you put them in the ground, you may also want to plant them a bit deeper to give them a head-start on getting through Winter. When I planted the first of my roses here, they went into the native soil level. I built raised beds around them, and added 6-8" of composted shredded tree mulch in mid-Autumn. As it turned out, their first Winter was that harsh "polar vortex" one of 2013-2014. A few -- Chinas and Teas -- were cut to the soil level, or just above, but they had buried cane that was enough to get them going again. As I planted companion perennials the following Spring, I noticed that the roses started generating roots into the mulch layer, which meant that they had nearly 18" of root depth just one year after coming as bands.

My Winters aren't as severe as yours, but what I did worked for the "borderline-hardy" roses I planted. Out of about 75 planted that year, only 2 didn't make it -- 'Jaune Desprez' and "Secret Garden Musk Climber". I didn't replace the former, as I realize that was a bit of a pipe dream here. But I did get a more substantial gallon-sized SGMC, and it made it through last year's almost-as-harsh Winter.

:-)

~Christopher