My 2 yr. old, own root Grand Dame was not cane hardy this year, however, this was one of the worst winters we've had. She had black canes to the ground. I pruned her so severely (literally to the ground) that I wasn't expecting her to come back. It took awhile, but she's back, still small, but has buds and looks healthy - deep green, glossy, perfect foliage. I think with normal z5 winters, she will be fine. I will add that I usually lose hybrid teas to winter, but sometimes, you just gotta try. This is a rose I'm willing to pamper and coddle and do whatever it takes to make her happy. Carol, I've never seen a Grand Dame as perfectly shaped as yours. Desertgarden, those are magnificent blooms! It must be a challenge growing roses in Las Vegas.

We are in a zone 5b/6a. Because we wanted to have fresh figs that we could grow outside with out winter protection. We started testing for cold hardy figs maybe 8 to 10 years ago. At the time, Hardy Chicago was considered the most cold hardy fig there was. Because it was discovered growing in a suburb of Chicago. Which is a zone 5b/6a. But, after testing it here for some 10 years we found it was not. But, that was for our cold zone 5b/6a. With any one trying to grow northern climate cold hardy figs, in zone 6b, a good number of figs for that zone, have been discovered in the last twenty or so years. At the time this information made us very happy. But, that was because we thought we were in a zone 6b. Then we found out that we were not. After watching figs in our collection like Hardy Chicago get top killed. We started all over again, looking for figs that would be successful in our 5b/6a zone. We have some twenty figs in here at our home that we have been testing, for the last 8 to 10 years. We found that there were only a few that could take our cold 5b/6a zone But, for any gardener in a zone 6b, there are about half dozen or so figs that one can grow. I have not figured out how to make attachments to this forum. But, I can send our test results to any one who would like to see what will grow in a zone 6b with out winter protection, If you send to me a email to robertcharper@gmail.com I will attach the list to your return email. Bob Harper

Ah...that makes sense....we didn't get any hotter than 75F. Darn. Just to show you how long Grande Dame lasts - here's the same set of flowers. Unfortunately they got hammered by hail. But if your climate doesn't get serious, thundering rainstorms or hail...it might look beautiful for a long time. Carol

Some of my previous threads on hardy HTs and floris that Dingo mentioned were from when I was a less experienced rose gardener, and I've found fewer of them that are hardy over multiple years than I'd originally thought. Moses is right (of course) that few HTs are truly tip hardy in zone 5, but I have a few that meet that criterion as well as several more that meet his second criterion of hardy with acceptable winter damage and at least half of the cane surviving. I'll start with some that I can state with assurance would be tip hardy in zone 6, since they're either tip hardy or at least half surviving cane in my zone 4 pockets of the yard. Anyone surprised that a lot of these roses are from Kordes? I didn't think so. However, my first favorite and most reliably hardy and incredibly bushy and long lasting HT is by Kirkham, who has bred relatively few roses. It's Jack's Wish, and it is a monster 5' freestanding bush that puts out clear medium pink roses with beautiful healthy foliage all summer with little to no cane loss in virtual zone 4. The only problem is you can't buy this rose in the US yet, but I've talked to the company where I sent cuttings two years ago and they think they might have roses to sell of this plant within another year or two. I mean, what's not to love? All the pink you see in this shot is Jack's Wish except for a little off to the right that's Carefree Celebration. Jack's Wish blooms so frequently I have trouble keeping up with the deadheading (clearly) Another virtual zone 4 HT with at least half cane survival over the winter is Queen of Hearts Freelander (Kordes), though in part sun it's not exactly a quick rebloomer. It is shorter than advertised in this zone 4 spot, but you can see the foliage is clean as would be expected from Kordes. Zone 4 root hardy, so probably zone 5 half cane hardy and zone 6 tip hardy: would be Passionate Kisses (Meilland). It's still relatively young so I don't have great pictures of that one yet. Typical zone 5 at least half cane hardy: Liverpool Remembers (Fryer). I love this rose - it's a reliably knock your socks off bright coral-orange, stays short at 3', and reblooms well on a bushy plant. Mine is grafted, which may help, but I'm getting a second own root plant this summer, which says a lot as I rarely intentionally buy a second rose of a variety I already have. Wedding Bells and Beverly (both Kordes). You've seen blooms of these ones - huuuuuge pink healthy blooms on the end of a tall narrow bush. They both grow like an HT for me, meaning a couple of large exquisite blooms at the end of tall canes with a 6 week rebloom cycle, but it's worth it. Wedding Bells is a bit smaller and bushier and a little more frequent bloomer, but Beverly has larger flowers. Soeur Emmanuelle (Delbard). This one has been impressing me more lately with a "whoa, what is THAT rose" head turn. Huge fluffy pink blooms on surprisingly long lanky canes that tend to want to go visit the neighbors. Still not a lot of bushy structure to this one, but it's only coming into its third year. Archbishop Desmond Tutu/Tutu Sunbelt (Kordes) - a true dark red compact 3' bush that puts out lovely bushy canes and blooms all summer with very little care or dieback. Safari Freelander (Kordes) - a true orange healthy bush that survives in adverse conditions (part shade, tree root competition, stiff west wind in winter). It is shorter under these conditions than it would probably be under better conditions, but you have to love a survivor: Caramella (Kordes). Mine gets well over 6' and needs a 5' fence around the outside to keep the canes upright, possibly because of the profusion of blooms it puts out. It does have a rest period, but it keeps nearly all its canes so I have the actual choice of shape pruning this one in spring if I want to. I love the mutable variety of the colors. It can fade to a cream color, but usually has more interesting mix of tones in the blooms. Garden Delight (Kordes) . My word, I love this rose. I'd put it in at least my top 20 roses, along with Jack's Wish and the next two roses on the list below. It's reliably 6' tall, bushy, blooms all season, usually tip hardy (though it loses a few canes to the base like Quadra does) and no two blooms are alike, but they're almost always vivid. Here is a picture from May last year - yes MAY in zone 5 when the tulips are still finishing and some roses are still waking up. Here it hasn't fully bushed out from the base with new growth yet, but it's already towering over a 4' obelisk nearby. Comtesse de Segur (Delbard) and Dames de Chenonceau (Delbard). I can discuss and show these together, since they're very similar roses. They're mostly tip hardy for me, and at least DdC is WAYYY bigger than the 3' I saw listed for her on hmf. Comtesse de Segur is more dainty and stays a more modest 3' or so. DdC puts out 6' long canes that I drape over a low fence to keep them tame, and it blooms off and on all summer. They both have fluffy very double OGR type blooms that I presume smell nice (I can't tell). They're clean and healthy and very hardy. The pink you see at the far right by the shed in DdC, and the medium pink poking its nose up here and there behind Heart 'n' Soul (the picotee red/white rose at left center) is CdS. As you can see, the ones in front of her are taller than they should be so she gets left out. Rejoice - HT/Grandiflora (McMillan). I'll use my last picture allotted for this rose since it doesn't get much press and I've never heard of any other McMillan roses. It's another "wow, what is THAT rose" that sneaks up on me and puts out a lovely display off and on all season. It's about 4' high and grafted, which may help the bushiness. The foliage is healthy and the blooms usually nicely high centered to start with, though like many roses they open out after a while. Dark Desire (Kordes). Yep, you know this rose from a lot of pictures that we post and it's reliably hardy for me. It might need a little tip pruning, and I might try some deeper shaping pruning this spring as it really wants to be a tall lanky almost climber in my zone 5. I loooove the dark red to red-purple blooms and I'm wondering if it would bush out better with deeper pruning, since it mostly wants to bloom on the end of long canes. I do a little half-hearted pegging horizontally, but I think I'll put more effort into this one now that it's mature to get a bushier form. Sugar Moon (Bedard). This one wasn't reliably hardy in my zone 4 spot but seems to have no problems in a normal zone 5 spot, and had half cane left when I pruned it last weekend. It's only two years old in that spot so we'll see how it does over time, but it's among the hardier white HTs I have. JFK has been root hardy in zone 5 and part cane hardy in zone 6, but it's more like traditional HT survival, and Sugar Moon does better in terms of survival. Tip hardy in my virtual zone 6: Aloha, HT climber (Boerner) and Dixieland Linda/Lady Ashe, HT climber (Bonnyman). You've seen photos of these here, so I'll just reiterate that they're very good climbers for cold zones and lose very little cane over the winter. Aloha probably holds more cane, but Dixieland LInda has the harsher conditions to contend with. Just my two cents but these are some options that would certainly be tip hardy for you in zone 6. Cynthia