Like some others have said, stick with cool weather crops in cool weather mostly. I grow these even in winter simply by covering the crops when it's going to freeze. They really have a head start in the spring so the growing season is longer. Varieties do matter. I've found the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce grows well. I've had tremendous luck growing Swiss Chard...almost year round...no problem. You also might try checking with some of the CSA's in your area because if it can be grown, they will grow it and know the varieties. Check out Barefoot Farmer. In one of his books he mentions varieties (his first one, I think).

I think you will really enjoy growing roses here. Roses seem to love our climate and really flourish except for the blackspot issue and those dreaded Japanese beetles in early summer. Be forewarned that most roses will get much larger here than their tags say they do. If you want to try some floribundas, I would highly recommend the Easy to Love roses from Weeksâ¦they all do very well for me and are as no care as Knockouts here. Easy Going and Easy Does It seem to be the best for no spray. The others will spot a little without spray, but not badly and doesn't effect their ability to bloom their heads off. Website link for info on them is below. I love all my HTs, but I do spray them when necessary. Some easy ones for our area that don't require too much spray are Double Delight, Dolly Parton, Chris Evert, Pope John Paul II and Grand Dame. All the Peace varieties do well here, but require frequent spraying. Same for Fragrant Cloud and Rio Samba. My best lavender is Royal Amethyst, but it does need frequent spraying, too. For local rose sources, HannaâÂÂs Garden Shop in Birmingham has a good selection. A link to their current inventory is below. Some of those are left over from last year and should be on clearance now. I picked up several for $5.00 each last February and those are doing great. Bennett nursery (Mr. Bennett is the sweetest and most knowledgeable man around) and The Greenery, both in Huntsville, are also good rose sources. They have websites, but donâÂÂt list their inventory. Bennetts roses aren't in yet, but should be within the next couple of weeks. The Greenery plants theirs from bare roots and do have theirs out now, but won't sell them for about another month. Petals from the Past, just south of you in Jemison, is a wonderful source for antiques roses, and they carry a good many moderns in the spring, as well, but those arenâÂÂt listed on their website. The owner there is SO helpful. He carries Quietness, a Buck rose, that's on my wish list. It supposedly is very disease resistant here and grows much like an HT. Let me know if there is a rose you are interested in and have questions about. I grow about 130 roses now...mixture of old and new...it's possible I'll have the rose and have local experience with it and pics I could share. Sorry for such a long post, but hoping it's helpful. Have fun! http://www.weeksroses.com/_RoseGroups/EasyToLove.html http://www.hannasgardenshop.com/inventory/department.php?id=26&nozeros=on http://petalsfromthepast.com/ HereâÂÂs a picture of one of my rose beds last August:

Came back to this thread to check on Comte de Chambord, yes, Val grows it, and I agree that needs loamy soil, lots of rain, and healthier if alkaline. Comte is rooting easily in my wet baggie, and rooted easily in heavy out-door rain, while other cuttings rot. Comte has aggressive root and can root easily in alkaline sand, but I need to make my rooting-medium more acidic for the cuttings which are harder to root. Pink Pet definitely likes dry/loamy soil and warmer climate (Val's pic. is awesome). But died in my soaking wet clay last winter.

I tried dormant cuttings, softwood cuttings, outdoor winter cuttings (never fails for my mother), indoor rooting, various potting mixes, burrito method, soda bottle...nothing worked for me. Here's what I do now: I have never been able to root roses until I accidentally did this method (on my friend's mystery rose which turned out to be Old Blush). I fill a 2-1/4" pot with perlite (even re-used perlite), stick in a 4-6" cutting (with or without rooting hormone, I haven't noticed a difference), I put that pot in a second container (I use a ceramic cache pot as you see in the photo), and fill up to the estimated bottom of the cutting (you can see the water line on the pot in the root picture) with reverse osmosis water or distilled water (NOT tap which has poorer success rate). I put the combination in with the orchids (although on the windowsill worked just fine also for 'Old Blush'), and wait 6-8 weeks when roots emerge from the drainage holes into the water. Pot up into high porosity potting mix after roots form. Voila! Best to take the cutting from the stem just after the flower has faded on plants that are actively growing and not drought stressed. The first time I tried it was with Old Blush, which was very easy. Then I was getting 100% success with other roses...until I tried some harder roses, or tried to use cuttings from roses that were suffering from lack of water. Those failed miserably. So as they say: YMMV. I've also since discovered that about 80 degrees is best for rooting for me. Marie Pavie, using this method: Here's a link to a thread on mist systems: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4014541/misting-system-for-cuttings?n=8 , in case you want to try that.