I would be tempted to take out some of the soil, fill your planters with those wood chips and mix in coffee grounds--Starbucks gives them away--and/or grass clippings, and then keep piling on whatever you can get in the way of organic matter. Top off with the reserved soil in early spring and you are ready to plant. Look up lasagna gardening and see if you could make in work in those boxes. Good luck. Sounds like an opportunity to get some really good soil going.

I have a moonflower growing with a climbing rose by my front porch. It is lovely to have the moonflower blooms in the evening and on cloudy days, and the fragrant rose blooms during the day. The only thing is that you do have to keep the moonflower in check but it is not really that big of deal and gives me an excuse to go "messin' with my plants ;P" I say go for it, If you don't like it you can always take the moonflower out. ~SJN

Hi Mila Welcome to the fun of rose gardening and we all understand, since we're in LOOOOVVVE with roses too. One way to keep the love going both directions is to pick roses that will easily love you back. I would question the rating of Dortmund as zone 4, since it died like a dog in my zone 5 Nebraska winters, and Kate reports that hers just barely squeaked by in zone 6. I'd guess it's more like a zone 6 rose at best, and it wouldn't be the easiest rose to grow as a climber in zone 5. The most important thing about climbers isn't just getting them to survive the winters at their roots, but to have surviving cane to climb and bloom from. That means choosing roses that are hardy at least a zone colder than yours (as you were trying to do with Dortmund as it was reported to you). Otherwise, you're likely to end up with a "climber" that's no more than knee- to waist-high, with skimpy blooms on the ends because it doesn't have enough strength regrowing from the ground each spring to put out the laterals that are the good blooming canes. Doing this means you don't have to mess with any winter protection at all, which is not only a heck of a lot less work and more fun, it makes for nicer blooming roses (because they're already hardy and healthy in your zone) and it makes your neighbors happy. My husband has requested that I keep the front yard "neat", but he's fine with several hundred roses with bare canes, since the trees are bare anyway and no one expects leaves. The untidiness came from my old winter protection methods with bags of leaves chopped all over the front rose beds (now I have a low fence and just dump leaves around the edges of the beds a bit). All of the winter tip methods and other ways of winter protecting roses are likely to be unsightly, and might not even work for a climber that's not suited to your zone. I do absolutely nothing for any of my 30 or so climbers, and most of the time they're the only roses in the spring that have live cane left on them. So, if Dortmund is a risky choice, you have 100's of other options that will be more fun and less work, some of which folks have already mentioned. Madgallica listed some Explorer roses that she grows, and most of those roses are rated to zone 3 or even 2. I agree that Quadra is indestructible and even in a bad year it covers my arch comfortably. It does need an arch or something very substantial to grow on, as it gets big and is very thorny. Here's mine on a better than average year. On the north and east side of my house, it's effectively a zone 4, so this and other Explorers are great choices for me, and they mostly seem to repeat pretty well. If you're on the south side of your house, you may be flirting with zone 5b or even 6 effectively. Here's a shot with Alexander MacKenzie and John Cabot joining forces (very similar hot pink flowers) to try to climb the wall on their own. They really need some support - the canes are well over 7' tall - but I've been kinda lazy. If you're intrigued by Dortmund, you may want something further on the red end of the garden "red" (often a hot pink). Two options are The Prince's Trust and Florentina, both of which are nicely hardy and healthy in my zone, and are already getting big in their second years. I don't have full bush shots, but here's a flower from Florentina. The Prince's Trust has been intriguing me more and more lately. It absolutely was DESPERATE to grow right out of the pot - my band from Rogue Valley was easily 3' tall when it arrived, and it has put on nice growth ever since. Again, I don't have a full bush shot but it's easily 8' in each direction from the base by now in its second year. There are climbers that would work for you in almost any color scheme you would want in zone 5 (OK, purple would be a tough stretch), so let us know what you're thinking and we can help you and your rose come to a lasting and meaningful relationship (smile) Cynthia

My garden center told me it can get 8ft tall in our area and are medium growers. That's pretty tall for a foundation plant. I love the way they look.... And if I do choose these, I'm prepared to keep them trimmed to around 4ft. I'm sure that can get pretty tiring to trim 6 bushes every year. I may look into something that doesn't get as tall. I've also been eyeing the Yaupon Holly but have read they only live for 15 years compared to 50 years with the burford.