Adrift, did you get your answer from the other place you posted this? Gean

Well MaryAnn I went and picked this up from Rite Aid at lunch. It is just full of buds. I figure any rose that can do well shoved in with ten other small rose bushes with apparently no water in the shade of that building must be tough. Can't wait for them to open. Kate

"Scardan do you raise any ground cover roses? Will they keep spreading? How far does one bush reach?" I have about a dozen groundcovers, but many are still very young (1 year or even less). They are all either knirps or Gartnerfreude. The older ones cover about 1 square meter each, at least (= 10 square feet), it's more like 1.5mq (15 = sq feet). AT least. I consider 1 square meter each to have a fast complete cover. Some can cover also 2-3 square meters (20-30 sq feet) each if you are willing to wait one year or two. Growth is fast. These two sorts are very low, very healthy and very reblooming. Meilland has some good groundcovers that get higher (these stay under 1 feet, meilland has some reaching 2-3 feet and crawling on and on until they cover everything). BTW: I have also fairy and satina, but they look to me more like mini-roses than real groundcovers, they are more suited for small spots, were they do well.

Most of the Meidiland ground cover roses should be reasonably hardy even in a pot in zone 6. They're pretty much tip hardy for me in zone 5, so even losing a zone's winter protection by being in a pot still keeps them in a hardiness range. Mad Gallica is right - go ahead and plant them when they arrive outside, and they'll wake up and leaf out when the weather tells them it's OK to do so (usually when the bulbs are coming up). You might think about how large the pots are for these roses. Ground covers can take up a fair bit of space when they're happy, and I'm having trouble picturing window boxes with enough room. I don't grow roses in pots so I don't know how big is big enough, but you'll need to have a big enough pot to support the roots about as much as the size of the top part of the rose when fully grown. Sounds like a good plan! Cynthia