I dipped a toe into growing teas last season with some success and tried a few more this season. I am in zone 6b south of Cincy in south central Kentucky. I started with containers which I overwintered near my house's south facing brick wall (I'm too lazy, I have no basement, and my garage is too cramped to move them inside.) I was successful with Mme. Lombard, Devoniensis (the bush form) and Georgetown Tea. I had actually planted GT in the ground in the fall of '06 after growing it in a pot all summer. It came back with flying colors. I lost the Cl. Devoniensis however - remember we had that Easter freeze after a warm spell and it developed canker and did it in. Poor little Mme. Lombard, a one cane wonder, survived all summer and through the winter in the little one gallon pot it came from the nursery in - and half the soil was gone! I had to find a place in the garden for this tough gal, so I finally planted it this fall, after another summer in that same pot (bad gardener!) It has three blooms on it now, what a trooper! This year I tried Mlle. Franziska Kruger, Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux, Marie Van Houtte, Souvenir d'un Ami, Miss Atwood, Mme Jules Gravereaux (not to be confused with Rhodologue JG), and Lady Hillingdon. Most were grown on in BIG pots this time, with only Rhodologue JG and Mme. JG immediately going into the garden. LH grew a lot over the summer, it's a real beauty. I would definitely try it, at least in a pot for the first year to see how it does for you. Use a large foam or fiberglass pot and you'll be able to overwinter it outside. The foam pots provide root insulation and there is no worry about the pot cracking. I have 16 different roses in pots on my deck (this year) that I am overwintering. The varieties and number of roses change from year to year. Some go in the garden after a season or two. Some just don't make the cut and are given away or composted. It's a good way to test them out and grow them on (all mine were own-root babies when I got them.) On top of that I can justify my "pot ghetto" if they are in "real" pots and not the nursery pots they came in, decorative or not! BTW I also have Hermosa in the ground, it does very well, and has a very nice fall flush.

Scot, I'm doing the same thing. I love my 'Meader' American persimmon, but the fruits from Americans are really very different from the Asian -- like the difference between a date and a mango in texture and culinary use, IMO. I'm going to protect mine the way Artictropic protects his awesome palm trees in the mountains of North Utah -- foamboard structures with a few cfc lights for warmth. Go to the Palms and Cycads forum and look at his pictures on some of his numerous posts. Truly awesome to see how well he overwinters palms in a Zone 4 climate with lows as cold as -45 degrees. The only concern I have doing this is tht I've always had a LOT of problems with voles getting into my structures and under mulch and destroying things, so I have to do a lot of vole proofing as well -- right now, the plants are in pots, but I guess I'm going to plant them into a cylinder of hardware cloth, and then cover the soil and trunks with the same. Next year, though, I'm going to overwinter them in pots in the barely heated garage one more year to get some size on them before throwing them to the mercy (or lack thereof) of winter in Michigan.

Water rains down from the top in a good shower instead of a mist. After the first set died I wondered if the Strawberries were just constantly too wet. For this grow I put the pump on a timer and started with a cycle of 15 min on / 15 min off. Later I changed this to a 15 mins on / 30 mins off which they seem to like better. I think the hydroton must hold on to a lot of water. I have occasionally noticed that mold around the crown that you mention. As such I decided to take those collars to allow them more air flow. I have also added a fan pointed at the tower. I discovered the Hydroguard while trying to save my first grow and I use it now on everything, including this grow. I also saw a lot of root growth with the Great White. In regard to the nutrient. I started it out at the recommended strength and the plants seemed to do well for a while with a lot of growth in leaves and flowers. When I saw the early signs of root rot again I read that the nutrient can often allow it to keep growing so I emptied the tower and replaced it with just water. I also took 6 plants out and put them in a dwc system with just water to see if it made a difference in recovery. 4 of the 6 plants in the DWC container have died and I've lost another 3 or 4 in the tower. I moved the other 2 back to the tower. Every few days I pull the plants, clean anything off the roots, replace the hydroton and re-add them to the tower. Some plants still seem to look pretty healthy but I'm not really seeing ANY new root growth which I find concerning. I've also been using the Hygrozyme I mentioned previously but I can't honestly say that I see any difference. I am hoping that removing the collars from the plants and adding more air, in combination with the change in the water timer will further hope to aid some kind of recovery. I am continuing to keep the Water Temperature in the 60 to 65 degree range with a PH of 5.8 which I had read was recommended when fighting root rot.

It would be perfect if the rose bush grew like a normal shrub but the rose is very vigorous and wants to be a climber. Pruning always activates a rose and if the rose is vigorous it will just get mad and grow back to the height it was. Keeping a rose down requires summer pruning as well as spring pruning. Try next fall cutting the rose back hard as well and giving it a cut in the spring and summer. However if your climate is a warm one as well as your winters, then the odds may be against you. Roses usually grow better in warmer climates.