Good luck with the move, Kitty. WS is such a beautiful rose that it is worth the effort of a move. Often the Austins take a few years to settle in. Some of mine have been quite impressive the first year (when it's still leafing and blooming off the big healthy canes that came from the grower) and then struggle a bit after their first winter here in zone 4 or 5, and then slowly rebound as they build a strong root system, including new feeder roots on that 3-4" section below soil level between the graft and the soil surface. I often see this transition with my roses so I always give them 3-4 years to reach their peak.

Sounds like you got very lucky, but my friends in the "snow zone" say that snow does insulate. You might ask the same question on the lilly forum and see if anyone can advise you as to their experiences. Kristi

One of my favorite topics, since I love conifers, but have a property with minimal full sun spots. In my experience pungens will punch you in the face if they are placed in shade, yet engelmann will tolerate it rather well (at least when young). We will have to see if it continues to thrive as it ages. The same is true here with pinus strobus, they will grow in hemlock dense shade when young and still look full and healthy, but they are just waiting for an "event" to occur, that will allow them to surge up toward the sun. At some point in their maturity, I assume they begin to decline if no opportunity for sunlight is presented Tom & Dax are both correct about looking to the species natural habitat and response to competition, to gauge how the cultivars of that species will handle shade. Searching the web for "shade tolerance" of conifers will generally yield the same answers about yew & hemlock. To dig deeper, you need to read through some of the scholarly papers that have been written, some of which have actually run controlled experiments on growth rates and overall health of conifers when covered with 30%, 60%, ect... shade cloth. So far, I have had really good luck with Abies concolor in just a few hours of direct sun, then bright shade. I decided to give it a shot after finding one growing in very dense shade near my house. It was a little bit sparse, but considering the amount of deciduous shade it was growing in, I was very impressed. lasiocarpa is supposed to do even better, but I have not yet experienced with this species. For my shaded spots that I don't want to use tsuga chinesis or diversifolia, I plan to use conifers with white/light foliage such as Picea orientalis 'Sulphur Flush', Cryptomeria japonica 'Knaptonensis', & Picea sitchensis 'Bentham's Sunlight'. *Also, I have been planning to get more scientific about how much sunlight my conifers get, as it changes from season. I found this really cool YouTube video on how to use a solar analog alarm clock to record direct sunlight hours precisely. Measure Direct Sunlight Hours Video. That alarm clock can be found on amazon for $14Equity by La Crosse 65901 Hybrid Solar Analog Alarm Clock This post was edited by SC77 on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 16:48

I have native red spruce trees growing on my timberland in Western MD. I have a few that are very old, probbly well over 200 years and about 28 to maybe 30 inches in diameter and 85 feet tall. Beautiful! But, these trees are very sensitive and do not grow well anywhere I have seen them planted outside their natural range. Even those dug up from the nearby woods and planted in yards--I have several such around an old farmhouse on my timberland--do not grow especially well, and most develop some kind of fungal infection that causes a lot of pitch to bleed from the trunk and which often kills the lower limbs. They are also very slow growing except when they grow out in the woods naturally, where their growth rate is at best moderate. But on the tops of the higher mountains in the central Appalachians, elevations 3700 feet, or better over 4,000, they often form very, very dense pure stands, called "balds." They dominate these sites and hemlocks can barely compete with them. These sites often build up a thick layer of peat-like organic material over the soil. So, if you want to try these in Scotland, it may be an interesting experiment--I would not discourage you if an experiment is what you want. But if you want to see a nice spruce tree grow, Norway spruce should be your #1 choice. Red spruce is one of the most "site sensitive" trees I know, Norway spruce is one of the least sensitive. --Spruce