I live reasonably close to the lake North suburb of Chicago, zone 5 / last frost date is May 15/ and have shady garden, most people usually start planting out their begonia, coleus and impatiens on Memorial Day weekend or possibly a week or two earlier if the spring is fine, which is not often. Yes, I can WS many annuals including impatiens but they would not start blooming at least until mid July and even then it takes them a while to look gorgeous and bushy. So I would get gorgeous plants by end of August- Sept and then first Oct frost will do them in. Kind of not worth it doing for me. So I start my annuals indoor, coleus and begonias are started already, tuberous begonias I start in Dec- Jan. I started pansy/ viola in Dec and they are pretty much getting ready to bloom. They are outside in enclosed Florida porch under plastic wrap, getting their share of our chilly weather. I will set them out in couple of weeks into protected spot and will plant out containers in early April. Pansy can take a light frost and I could always bring in few containers when the weather turns real nasty. I will start impatiens shortly, mid March or so.This year my snowdrops opened as usual on Feb 20 so spring is not going to be early in my neck of woods.

Thanks mrclint for the link and stanofh I do have a tr hovey also that I got for a cheap price that was very reasonable. I got it from Florida hill nursery for $6.99+shipping. As I understand it was quite hard to get one of these baby when they first were release, but now a lot of nursery carries them. I've also seen them at quite a bit higher price on logees site for about 3x as much, but not sure how big their plant they offer are. Mine was about 12 inches. I don't think I'm going to cover up and just see how they do and if I only get green ones before winter comes, I could just make green papaya salad...yummy(mouth watering). If you might want to try your hands at one for a reasonable price I suggest Florida Hill Nursery or Well Spring Nursery.

Hi! I live in NWFL (8b) an hour east of Pensacola and I grow only own root roses because I don't want to deal with rootstock growing and having to prune it off. I'm pretty new to roses so I only had mine for a full year and they are going into their second spring. I bought all Austins except for 1 Eden. Not sure if there are nematodes this far north since I am like 50miles from Alabama. I guess I'll find out the hard way! But I do amend the soil per HR's instructions and I add a banana peel to the bottom of the planting hole if I have one. My soil is sandy in some areas and loamy in others. Also I want to have a no spray garden but if I do see a TON of blackspot or aphids I will spray. I want to try the cornmeal or baking soda trick I've seen on gardenweb to control those issues since I like cheap and organic gardening. Of those I got last year: INGENIOUS MR. FAIRCHILD: the first year it was in a spot that recieved 4-5 hours of sun (E side of house) and it grew thin, thorny spindly canes and didn't bloom at all. So this spring I moved it to the NE side of my yard and it gets a TON of sun @least 6-8 hours and so far it's looking good after the transplant with new canes and leaves within a two week period after the move. No blackspot in both locations! Hopefully it will bloom! JAMES GALWAY: I love love love this rose! I planted him E side of my house next to a brick column near my porch. I'm trying to grow him as a climber or pillar and he's doing great! He got a lot of good sun and the breeze was good there! He got afternoon shade from my house. He's also planted right next to a sprinkler. He bloomed so well his first year! And no black spot all growing season except for after winter which I removed those leaves and he grew new ones fast! Not sure if this year I should remove leaves to prepare for winter. He responds so good to pruning and is covered with like 7 buds. He had one octopus cane last year that I didn't prune the tip so I don't see a bud and I tied it horizontal the other day to try to produce canes off it so we'll see if that works. The flowers smelled faintly last year if you get your nose in the bloom and inhale but it was a good smell. Really pretty apricot pink or medium pink blooms. It was my favorite last year! HERITAGE: I have 3 of these in my front garden near my house (E side). I need to do some rearranging because i want to move 2 of them in an 18inch triangle to make one big bush. They get 4-5 hours of morning sun. They bloomed very well! Smelled really good! But I found out the blooms shatter quick if you cut them for the vase. So I plan on just letting them stay on the bush. Pretty light pink blooms. They did BS a little during the end of growing season and a lot in winter so this spring I took off like all the leaves. Bounced back fast after that and pruning it with really heathy leaves and is budding now! EDEN: I am growing as a climber on the W side of my house against a tall brick wall. It's still short though. About 1.5feet. About 6-7 hours of sun. There's a garden web post about hook anchors with galvanized wire in the brick and her climbing roses were gorgeous like that!! This rose is my second favorite in my garden! BS's a little where it is because my house is on a pond and it's humid in the backyard, but it's not enough to spray. I just pick the infected leaves off. Loves fertilizer and has a bunch of buds forming. Also had a really thick cane shoot up this year! The buds are so big on some of the thin canes they are almost touching the ground. I should probably tie those up. Planted near a sprinkler and does good there. OF MY NEW ONES I bought this year (recieved 2 weeks ago!) and planted in a garden bed I got the pleasure of filling since the previous owners of the house had nothing in it except for some boxwoods: GOLDEN CELEBRATION: planted in partial sun. Looks green and no BS yet. Heard mixed reviews on the BS issue so we'll see. CROCUS ROSE: planted in partial sun. Heard nothing but good things. So hopefully it will be good. MOLINEUX: in at least 6 hours of sun. With shade halfway in between the day. Really straight up growth from what I see from the nursery. It's kinda stiff and weird looking compared to the other roses I've bought so it's new to me. Heard a lot of good things so I have high hopes this works out. LICHFIELD ANGEL: planted in 6-8 hours of sun. Thin canes from the nursery plant so I hope it gets stronger canes. I want to plant an older Austin, SYMPHONY rose when HR has it ready to sell next year. also, I have two lady banks yellow roses on my backyard fence that are a year old. They are not in an ideal location for them, about 5-6 hours of sun and the rest shade or dappled sun. I hope when it gets bigger and climbs the fence it will get better sun to bloom. It BSed a little but it's in a not ideal spot, 10 feet from a pond so that's my fault. I plan to leave it be and see if it survives since I hear they are pretty tough... Well I hope that helps and I'm curious to see how your own roots do! Good luck!

That's so awesome to hear!! Born & raised in St.pete, I lived there my entire life. I Moved to brooksville 2 yrs ago- I'm in a cold pocket considered 9a-9b but didn't do any research b4 moving :( apparently, Fla gets 30% more rain than the US & brooksville gets 30% more rain than fla ?? last rainy season killed many of my plants :( they rotted. The thought of this rainy season scares me to death! Last year it rained weeks at a time. only a few min here or there of sunlight. I dread the rain now :( I potted up a bunch of dahlia tubers from Walmart. All growing well but still small -I'd like to start a dahlia garden for the heat tolerant varieties I just purchased from swanIsland but there are no trees on the 3 acres we live, so it's brutally hot, all direct sun! I compare brooksvilles temps to St Pete often. Even tho we're farther north, it gets hotter here than in st Pete. Maybe bc st petes a peninsula & brooksville's inland? I bought a chaste tree & rose of Sharon to plant for shade but they're still small :( I'm half tempted to c if i can find two 10-15' trees to have planted in the yard for shade- the heat here is brutal!! Even now in spring- yesterday was 95• don't know the humidity but it had to be somewhat high bc it felt much hotter than 95 outside especially without shade :( thankyou joey ! Anyone else is welcome to post their experience with dahlias in Florida - I would greatly appreciate it !! Thanks :)