During autumn days the sun's intensity is much less so the plant can usually be put close to the window---but watch out for sun burn through the glass....and less watering because they are not growing and as such, then are not given fertilizer. Flowering will eventually stop but if they can survive, will re-flower when the sun returns in mid February. The trick is to not let them dry out too much, water them only as it is used, dump the excess drainage, and not let them be hit by air currents--which is always the case when the furnace is on--the nighttime temperatures will agree with them...60ð - 65ð and keep them from drafts---such as near a door that is continually being opened and closed. It can be a struggle but with care plants should come through well. I think the biggest mistake is in watering. People tend to water much as they used when the plant was growing in summer. But they use much less and if they are not growing, need no food

Lynn....... I think you are making the overwintering of these roses too hard. I know you are a planner, but sometimes you just have to wing it. I started my rose life in San Diego and was given the same advice as above. San Diego is also considered to be Rose Heaven. Note the ARS giving that advice in San Diego gave that timing so that the first flush of perfect roses would be ready for the rose shows in early April. It takes about six to seven weeks for a rose once it has set bud to bloom, so if your timing is early April you work back from there. You do not have to follow that timing if you are not worried about having roses ready for a show, but are just growing roses for your garden and don't need perfect roses, but need healthy roses. Cooperative Extensions and Master Gardeners have been parroting the advice given by the local rose societies for more than 60 years. That's because they do not specialize in roses and figure the ARS must know what should be done for their care. In San Diego, we stopped dead heading our roses in October and then began our pruning in December to be completed by Valentine's Day, so that they would be ready to show. My experience and personal opinion is that you stop deadheading in October, allow the rose to set seed and then the rose will go as dormant as nature will allow that rose to go dormant. When we dead head, we are interrupting the plant's natural cycle of getting pollenated and then setting seed, which stimulates the rose to re-bloom. If you don't dead head, the plant will complete it's natural cycle and rest. There is no need for dormant sprays unless you have a serious disease problem or unless you want perfect foliage for a rose show. I believe in leaving the leaves because the rose will abandon them when they no longer perform the function needed for the rose. Studies show that the photosynthesis process stops when temps reach around the 70 degree level. So you can take them off or not. I think they provide a larger mass for the top growth and leaving them on helps protect the canes from the colder temps. Cluster your pots on your patio and surround them with bags of leaves or mulch and stuff the same material in the gaps between the pots to make a bigger mass and to protect the outside pots from the colder temps and to keep the temps within the mass as constant as possible. If you feel you need to protect the top growth from freezing temps, you can cover them just as farmers do with their crops. These are small roses, they don't need to be pruned for the first year except to clean out the rose and shape it. (Note: I don't even shape the rose until it's been in the ground for at least two seasons, but I live where temps get colder.) You want it to grow out of those gallon cans, so you might as well just let it grow. Cutting them back/pruning them when they are small just slows down that process because the roses are storing nutrients in their canes. I now live in a climate with temps lower than you have reported. I over-wintered roses outside for six years in containers before I got them all planted. None of them died. I should have replaced the soil in those pots, but I was too busy digging rose holes in rock. I had to over winter the pots in a totally unprotected yard and I did not go out in the rain or snow to cover them. I also had to maintain those roses in direct sunlight in high temps that lasted for months. The key to my success was the larger mass. Not taking off leaves, spraying or taking off leaves. It kept the temperatures and moisture more consistent. In my best year, I could only get about twenty out of over one hundred roses planted. The only thing you need to do differently than I have done, is to make sure the pots don't dry out while they are resting on the patio. I've been told watering once a month is sufficient, but it doesn't hurt to check and see if you need to do it more often in your climate. Once I got them in the ground, they my roses took off even better than I expected because they finally had a chance to spread their roots. So your choice is to go by the book or wing it. Smiles, Lyn PS ... this rose, 'Kim Rupert', looked horrid in the pot, this is how it looked the first year I got it in the ground.

Pinetree: Did you try to explain all of this to me once before? I am not sure, but I remember we had a discussion of the summer shoot growth on one of my very fast growing (a lot of growth each year) white pines. I thought it was some growth that developed from a new bud, like an oak tree that puts out a second flush of growth after the initial spring growth. And I think you explained that this growth with the pine tree was different--that it was a summer elongation of the base of the bud that would be the basis for the growth of the following years shoot. Do I remember right? And is this what is properly called "lammas" growth? I think we also had some discussion of the "free growth" that I thought I saw on some NS trees after weevil attacks (maybe), and on some very young seedlings that seemed to put out new needles at the apex of their shoots without any evidence that I could see that it was an unfolding and extension of a shoot that came from any bud, whether that formed the previous summer/fall or had formed earlier in the summer. I can't remember exactly what you said about this kind of growth. I think you may have expressed some doubts about how I understood and/or described what I saw. Now what I was trying to describe in the post above, and incorrectly calling "lammas shoots", and what gnome posted a picture of, seems to me to be something different from the "free growth" I am describing in the previous paragraph. Now my question is, well, two things: first, is this growth that gnome pictures, and which I describe having seen on my own NS trees a few times, similar to what you described as happening with my special white pine tree (and a few others as well)--a premature extension of the basal elements of the terminal bud that would be the basis of the next year's growth, or is it something different? I think you are clearly saying it is something different. And if it is different, I think I understood from our previous discussion of white pine, that this kind of growth can't happen with white pine. And my second question is: if it is different, could it also be different from what I am calling "free growth." It seems different to me in that the free growth I have observed, at least in young NS seedlings, is continuous with the initial shoot growth--there does not seem to be any stage where the growth seems to have stopped and then resumed. It is more like how a tuliptree grows, unfolding one leaf at a time, than how an oak tree grows when it sends out a new flush of growth from a new bud after the elements in the initial bud have fully extended themselves. To summarize what I am trying to get at here--just how many kinds of, or sources of, summer growth are there, "technically" speaking? I am guessing there are three: Lammas shoots, free growth, and what gnome pictured and I described above--growth coming from the full extension of a new growth bud, like with an oak tree's second growth flush, followed by the formation of a completely new bud for the next year's growth. Well, when I started this reply I had no intention of making it so long. Forgive me, but I have a streak of curiosity about such things, but at the same time don't want to make a pest of myself trying to delve into technical issues. Generally I am a man who hates "delving," in any of the metaphorical senses this term may have. I am happy to delve under the surface of the soil to plant a tree. But as for "delving," in the more general metaphorical sense, I know am best off when I remain satisfied with very superficial understandings of things. "Delving," if that means penetrating the surface to gain a deeper understanding, has proven to be a frightening activity for me and has generally lead to confusion. So I do my best, usually, to avoid it when I can. --Spruce

Ken thanks for jumping in to assist. I see now that I did not offer enough information so I will answer all your questions 1 by 1. Later on today I will take some photos & post them. I can not right now as it is raining hard. 1. As for the pots. They are the typical black pots that the nurseries use to display the specimens for sale. The sizes of each are listed below next to the description/size of each plant. 2. My location is zone 6a in Pennsylvania between Allentown & the Poconos. 3. About my soil, it is terrible, a mix of clay & pulverized shale, I'm in the Slate Belt area. For all my landscaping I have brought in literally "tons" of enriched topsoil, compost etc. which I have ammended to the planting areas, turning in deeply & well. I have been working on this soil for many years. Right now there is an area in the rear of home (shaded most of the day, early morning sun only) that is ready for planting, drainage would be good & the hose bib is close by if needed. 4. Well if size matters, here goes..... (all measurements taken from where soil & truck meet to top of specimen) Norway Spruce #1 is 3' tall in a black 12"w x 9"h pot. Norway Spruce #2 is 2 1/2' tall in a black 10"w x 9"h pot. Boxwood Spiral is 3 1'2' tall in a 15"w x 12" h pot. 5. When I take the photos later today I will tip these babies out of the pots & shoot photos to show the condition of the roots. 6. Now as for the bargain, the Norwood Spruce were $7.50 ea. & the Spiral Boxwoods were $8.50 ea. At those prices I thought I would give it a try to bring them home & hopefully be able to save them from danger. Even though I am a novice & will follow direction & work hard to protect these guys. My ground is not frozen at this point & I do have a nice shaded area behind my house. I am not sure how you "make sure to keep them dormant", watering, mulching etc in this situation. Any education/input would be greatly appreciated.