I would think Belle ÃÂpoque might do well in a pot. I ordered a band for my mom last year that is potted up and doing nicely here in So Cal. It's sitting in a hole where it will likely be planted if it keeps it up. Hybrid Teas seem fairly amenable to pot culture from the posts I've seen on here.

Jay

Sounds like a good idea. I'm newer to HTs and haven't actually planted one in the ground yet (I've got Ingrid Bergman locked in my garage right now.) I'll probably feel the need to baby Belle a bit this summer and I'll do that better if she's potted up.

Four down and twelve to go!

Cynthia -
Would you call Darlow's Enigma an anchor shrub? Is it that full and substantial? I may end up removing a dogwood and was thinking it could replace it in the back of the border. I'm also considering it close to a tree. Would it be able to duke it out with a tree's established root system? (In that case I might pot it up for and year so it can get a better root system started.)

If it makes you feel any better.. i placed a few orders over winter and just counted at 38... something must be wrong with me. Good luck with your selection! They all seem beautiful.

{{gwi:219772}}

Darlow's Enigma

Mine is about 20 ft from a 60 ft pin oak. They both seem to be doing fine.

R. primula is another one that makes a nice shrub. I'd get it in the ground even though it will be years before it does much of anything.

Hi Zaphod

Mad gallica's picture eloquently answers your question about being an anchor shrub. Most definitely, it can hold its own, but it's not as tall as a dogwood tree. Mine is in almost full shade under some limbed up mature pines, and it grew without a hitch from a band plant under those conditions. Potting it up is always a safer option, but it should do fine under the conditions you describe.

Cynthia

Zone 6- nj., I know THAT feeling all too well. Order all the roses and then when they start arriving .....it's like UH OH. What was I thinking?

Every year I say no more roses but fail badly every year! I have about 30 coming, mostly English!! I do get the what was I thinking when they arrive but when they bloom I'm in lala land. Love them!!! Judy

I think I have about 20 coming as well. Darn that winter itch!

Just FYI, my Lady of the Mist is waaaaay bigger than I expected to her be based on catalog descriptions.

I just say have fun. It's good exercise to garden! YOLO as the kids say.

I have no idea what I am doing, either. I always read the gardening books and they always scold me to plan, plan, plan, and I DO try, but....things like Lady of the Mist being huge are hard to predict. It's part of the fun of gardening/part of the frustrations. Then just as soon as I think I have the sun all figured out, I take a out a big plant that isn't preforming well, and the sun all changes. Or a tree gets taken out by the wind, and everything is different.

This post was edited by DrPekeMom on Fri, Jan 31, 14 at 20:43

It's crazy! I hope I'm not going to regret getting all of this when around 35 roses appear on my doorstep in spring!

Lady of the mist looks beautiful in pictures I've seen, I would order it this year but I should probably hold that off! Lol

Drew

LOL, Zap, that's how it all starts! The first year or so you try to plan then eventually you just start buying more and more that you "have to have" and pretty soon you're out of space and still buying and the next thing you know you're into pots!

As for those pots, you can grow any rose in a pot. I've had everything from micro-minis to a towering 8ft Reine des Violets and everything in between growing in a pot at one tme or another. I've grown Austins and two different climbers in pots as well. They all did fine as long as the pot was big and there was some support for them. In your zone they are never going to be as big as they would be in a warm zone and because of our shorter growing season they take much longer to out grow the pots to where they need root pruning.

Enjoy and post pictures!