I moved the poll over to the left-side bar of my blog (below the Daily Garden News). I was getting complaints from some readers about it being located in the "blog area" of my blog. Only 30 voters so far, but 170 folks have visited the blog in the last two days. Yes, you can select multiple companies. Yes, you can change your vote. Yes, you can view the results. The polling closes in 4 days. I will save the results into my next blog about planting bulbs. Cameron Here is a link that might be useful: poll moved

This is my Luna Moth. I think the color is a little more subtle than the camera suggests, in person. Softer. Not sure where I got it, for some reason I neglected to record it, but the label says 2011 so this is the 3rd year here. Sandy

PM2, problem with HD is that individual stores don't know what they'll receive untill truck will be there. Even when they got their shipment invoice will say something like 'Assorted japanese Maples' and someone has to go out and physically check what tags on a plants says. Which is not going to happen, as you may guess :-) In my neck of the woods the following cultivars are pretty much common parts of the mix: 'Inaba Shidare', 'Tamukeyama', 'Red Select', 'Viridis', 'Butterfly' and 'Sango Kaku'. However, when grower for whatever reason can't fullfill order's quantity with 'common' plants it will throw in something from his 'premium' stock...but to get them you should be lucky to be the one of the first who sees them...and know what you are looking at :-) That's is how I got my 'Koto Hime' and 'Oridono Nishiki' (which at first glance looks like a 'Butterfly' reverting to original green form).

You're hearing from a lot of folks about preferred winter protection methods for those of you who've planted roses in the fall and want to give them their best shot. In answer to the OP, I agree not to choose fall planting unless you're experienced enough to know what works for your zone and like a bit of a gamble. Spring is much safer and gives roses maximum time to establish before winter. For winter protection, one of the key factors is to wait until the ground is FROZEN to do the protection. That way the critters have already chosen their hiding holes and are not likely to choose your rose as the all-you-can eat bed and breakfast for the winter. They can chew through the side of an astonishing number of materials or burrow a little under the soil to get through barriers if they're still active, so don't count on keeping them out mechanically if you protect before the ground is frozen. My tip for winter protection is when the highs hover around 20 for a stretch of time. Nights below freezing with days above freezing can still be active bloom times for some roses, so I don't find they go dormant enough to protect until December or so. As Dingo says, I've moved from creating individual collars to fill with mulch - you can use empty leaf bags and pine needles or OAK leaves (that do not mush up in moisture like other leaves) to protect particularly fussy roses. I found that was way too much work however, and I get as much benefit from just providing a wind break next to the roses. You want to leave the tops open for air circulation to prevent mildew and mold wrecking the roses, coincidentally one of many problems with the "rose cones" that get sold these days. Snow is your friend and ice isn't a particular problem except for breaking canes if it gets too heavy. You can also do nothing and learn about rose protection in your zone. The two David Austins are pretty reliably hardy in your zones and should be fine. Julia is more of a traditional HT and mine likes zone 6 temperatures but wouldn't be hardy much below that. Edith Schurr in my experience is the least hardy of the bunch and she's died once or twice on me in zone 5. So the latter two would appreciate the protection the most. If you're in WV as I guess from your user name, you do have to watch moisture problems being on the east coast. In your case, you might choose a little less dramatic protection than I might in a dryer climate. Definitely leave room for air circulation. Don't worry or second guess yourself if some or all of them don't make it. Life is about a learning process and you'll be able to share "I told you so" stories with us if you do something unconventional and it works for you. Every yard and rose is different. Cynthia