Rosewest, There's a huge difference (from a rose's point of view) between below freezing and below zero. From what I've seen of west coast weather, you're probably 20F and above. If so, don't worry. New growth will be damaged below 26-28F, but not terminally. You'll have to watch for dieing spots aka cankers on the canes and trim below them once spring comes. Zone 5 is a whole different temperature profile. If you've had temps from -10F to -20F for five or so days, your roses will be damaged. In my part of the world, there was a period of three or four days that got to -28F in the mid 80s. Modern Rose gardens were destroyed. I don't think your cold is that aberrant, but it just doesn't feel right for you. For my roses, below freezing is something I've watched them weather without much damage. Snow takes getting used to; can you bring yourself to look at it and see nature's free insulation for your plants? Once snow is around the roses, the parts that are protected by snow are not going to feel winds that are colder than 32F. Here is a link that might be useful: Your part of the world with temperature scale

Good Morning, Everyone! I'm sorry I didn't post earlier, it's been a long busy week! I posted my query over on the rose forum,like Ideefixee suggested and I did get more info there. But I tried here too, just incase :) No one knows your climate like your fellow neighbors :) Thank you, everyone, you've really been helpful to me in helping me with deciding if I should plant the David Austin roses. In my search on the internet I did find a family that grows and sells roses an hour from me. He and his staff are very knowledgeable for the best kind of roses for me and my climate, so I think this fall I'll take a trip on over :) I guess the family sells over 9,000 roses with 600 varieties! So I'll Definately find Something for my area!!! I'm a person who has to see it in person before I buy, so this'll be great. I've been guilty of buyers remorse at times because of big exspectation in my roses, then being let down :) Gardenguru, Thank you for the email addresses. I appriciate them very much! I certainly will email them. Anything to find some really nice roses! Thank you again, everyone! :) ~Amanda

I have purchased from just about everywhere in order to feed my addiction....lol. When I first started out I gave no consideration to anything but a pretty face and ordered whatever from wherever. Now that I have hundreds of daylilies I've kept note of which ones are my best and worst performers and where I got them from. With the exception of Blue Ridge (whose plants were huge when I received them and still the biggest and most vigorous)...bigger isn't necessarily better when it comes to daylily fans. Most of the ones from southern growers were huge and have dwindled down not only in size but vigor. Northern grown plants came smaller in size but have bulked up. Of course there are always exceptions and I have some that came from the south or California and are great plants.....but the majority from warmer climates just aren't the stars in my garden. I don't have to worry about rust here (zone 4) but hardiness is the biggest concern and which ones will bloom the most in my shortened season. If they barely survive my winters I end up losing fans or the entire plant and those that struggle end up composted. I used to mail-order exclusively but now I visit local daylily farms (New England in general) and see what does well and base my purchases on performance and vigor mostly. Celeste

Look at the fruit and you can see it's covered in those green scales. The edible part is under those scales, but only edible when those scales are lifting off. The flesh becomes a bit soft like the flesh of a ripening banana. It starts at one end of the fruit so you can say it's a "progressive meal". You need to eat it as it ripens and not all at once. The taste is a bit like a mix of pineapple, bananas, sort of a tropical fruit salad, which is where it gets one of its common names from: Fruit Salad Plant. I've eaten plenty of them but the novelty tends to wear off and the tedium of dealing with the way they ripen makes them less interesting. It's not really all that toxic, more of an irritant, unless you force the green scales off and start eating the hard flesh before it's softened.