I used to grow Early Canada (the regular one, not the "improved" one... it was about 30 years ago) when I lived near Ottawa, ON (zone 5). It was an iffy crop there -- if it was a long hot summer I would get quite a few to ripen but if it was a cold summer I would get few, maybe none to ripen. And if they weren't ripe by early September, they were never going to ripen (as fruitnut points out about ripening temperature). They never got to 10-15 lbs. Five or 6 lbs was probably average. I don't know if the improved ones are bigger, earlier, or both. Try to make it as warm as possible for them, and good luck.

I plant mine facing any way - according to how I want the clump to look if I am planting several, or according to the way I want them to grow in the row. I'm zone 9 here in Australia so the sun can get pretty intense in summer. The plants seem to all do as well as each other, whichever way they face. As far as plant labels - here in Australia they would clearly be better to face South! I have a lot of trouble with "permanent" markers fading - now more than a few years back so the manufacture of the markers has probably become cheaper and shoddier. I use pieces of aluminium venetian blind, and i write the label at the top and the bottom. The bottom bit gets pushed into the ground and the name NEVER fades. when the top name fades, I can still check the bottom before i relabel. This way I can see the name as I walk along the row, and if I can't read it, I can still find it underground. Cheers, Jan

The major difference between the two methods, if that hardwood cuttings, which are stuck in the ground in late fall, and which you could do now, are taken from fully ripened wood. The reason you could do this now, is because that is what the roses currently have. Softwood cuttings are the ones done inside with humidity. They are taken from semi-ripe wood. This is easy to determine because it's pretty much the same age that a cane has to be to flower. So if the take the cutting from a flower stem, it's good to go. This is true of pretty much all roses, so the timing difference between a gallica and a hybrid tea is that you can take HT cuttings throughout the blooming season, but the gallicas should be taken in June or whenever they bloom. Whether or not you would plant out multiple cuttings in a pot probably depends on what you are trying to do. I've gotten several potted roses from Sequoia that have multiple rooted cuttings. Usually I separate them simply because that way I get more roses.

you either need to try to separate them or "off" all but the bigggest/strongest one, or the plants will fight each other. Everyone has their own method for separating..I like to dunk them in a bowl of water and try to wash away the dirt - once the dirt is gone, the roots disentangle. When yo plant them, take off some of the side leaves and plant them much deeper than they were. This way, if you damaged the roots, the stems will put out new roots. Even if you completely remove the roots the stem should be able to send out roots to keep the plant alive, so it's not a terribly risky venture to try to split them - and you get bonus plants that way!!