Gmshack - I have read of using both plastic and Agribon, but haven't gotten around to the plastic part yet. There are two main issues with overwintering and some studies suggest that dehydration is a bigger problem than cold tolerance in cold climates. I used drew 51's technique of Wilt Stop this fall, so we will see if it prevented desiccation. I also used two layers of Agribon. I find that one layer does not provide the protection that the company claims. I start covering mine around late August when our first frost hit. This is both to protect berries and reduce temperature shock from early season frosts. In the spring, I am leaving the Agribon on for a few weeks. This next spring I will leave it on until each variety begins to flower. This substantially increases growth for me (in our very cool Mays) and hastens flowering by a few weeks. I do remove it on days with temps over 70F. Desiccation is a real problem for me since our ground is frozen solid for at least 6 months out of the year. Add to this that preliminary probing this last summer suggested that blackberry roots up here only extend 3 or 4 inches into the ground (it is too cold below that, with an average annual temperature at 3 ft of around 31F). In this situation I believe that the roots cannot take up water to replace what the canes transpire during the winter and they end up desiccating and dying way back (from 8-10 ft long to about 2 ft). We will see. As far as the weed block, it will probably not increase the soil temperature as much as removing it. I'm not sure of this as I don't have experience with it in the Lower 48. Up here, it must be removed in the spring for about 4 weeks to allow the soil to thaw and then reapplied. Your soil is already thawed and substantially warmer, so you shouldn't have to do this. What I think I get from weed block is increased heat above it = though I have no data to show that. I just know that of two Wild Treasure plants I have (that are one year different in age), the one grown over weed block is much more vigorous than the other. I trellised the very vigorous one last year and it continued to grow strong even though most of the canes were not directly lying on the weed block. A study at Oregon State Univ. also supports this. However, Wild Treasure is a crown-forming variety, not a spreading variety like the ones you have, so covering around it with weed block is a simple process. I do not grow primocane blackberries because the season is too short and there is insufficient heat. Everyone of them has died completely. I have one Triple Crown left and a very wimpy (it grew 2 whole inches this year) Chester. Neither has canes that survive - but then I have not covered them. I am guessing that if your TC canes survive and leaf out, but don't flower, that the flower buds are damaged by the cold. Flower buds on many plants are much less tolerant of cold than non-flowering buds. I have two varieties of erect blackberries that I am trialing that might be of interest to you. They are Nelson and Stenulson. Stenulson has been in the ground for several years, but moose have browsed it down each year and voles girdled anything that was left. Thus, I don't have an idea of its ripening season, but it is likely too late for me. It grows pretty well here and is spreading (unlike TC and Chester which only get smaller each year). I have had a few green canes survive the winter and start to leaf out and then die because they were girdled by voles at the base, so it is pretty hardy (though these were covered by snow mid-winter, when air temps dropped as low as -35F). I just got Nelson last year and it actually flowered earlier than any other erect I have. Its berries are somewhat frost tolerant, as well, to at least 28F. It still did not ripen early enough, but it was in a pot and not established. The timing could change in the future, especially if I put an Agribon "sack" over it early in the season. Both of these are thorny. I got Balsor's Hardy Black from the USDA germ plasm repository this fall, but it failed to root before it rotted. This is another possibility, but it is not commercially available in the US. Happy New Year!

Yes, Jean, even with spraying 3-4 days before the freeze, spraying as soon as we got things cut back somewhat and watering and spraying again. Some of the roses I am a bit surprised about having so much blackspot includes Mrs. B.R. Cant who to my knowledge has never had visible blackspot although I am sure every rose in my garden has microscopic, at least. Even Jaune Desprez has blackspot. Don't even ask about the Meillands which have been more resistant than HTs in the past but they have it pretty bad. I am not sure what to do, because we have done the dormant sprayings and then the Mancozeb x3 and one Banner Maxx, which followed the spraying of Daconil about a week before the freeze. I am sure Michael is right, that it is probably stress but this is some ugly blackspot to have had so much spraying. I know everyone is wondering about my frequent spraying, but I have garden shows coming up this week and one of them is kind of a biggie, so I wanted the garden to be presentable. A paucity of blooms and abundance of fungus is not exactly a pretty garden.

Another hummer this morning. Since corunum AKA Jane discovered that links to videos were still being posted while jpg pics were not, I took a video - you can see the urgency with which she fills up with the nectar solution. The migrants are still coming through the pipeline - a good reason to keep feeders up. Claire (sounding like a broken record)

Thanks a lot everyone for liking my roses. I am traveling nowadays so wont be able to long in much and wont be able to post any pics. Sam: Thanks for you input. As far as I know the nursery from whom I bought this rose didn't have Queen of Sweden. He sent me three pink roses at that time if I correctly recall. Heritage, The Alnwick Rose and Geoff Hamilton. The tags were later mixed up and lost when I shifted my house. I wonder if this is one of these roses or a different rose. best regards