Shhh! Do you want to know the single greatest success factor for growing great roses? Pick your roses to match your environment instead of trying to change your environment to fit your roses. I get it, we all do it. You’ll be shopping at the garden center, big box, or even the grocery store and see a beautiful plant at a great price and you snap it up. Then it turns out the plant has not hope surviving in your climate and it turns into one expensive annual. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.
One of the best garden tools is readily available and free online. The United States Department of Agriculture publishes a plant hardiness map that is broken down by zip code and based on historical climate data. Hardiness refers to a plants ability to survive cold temperatures. The map is a great guide to your local growing conditions and helps you match your roses to your local conditions. You can find the USDA map here:
https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/
There are a couple of other great commercial sites that add in average temperatures, first and last frost dates, and historical trends and more. I suggest checking them out as well:
https://www.plantmaps.com/index.php
https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/
Once you know your conditions, you can search for roses by growing zone. We assign a zone designation to each variety we sell. Our designation is based on input from breeders, individual growers and historical information. We even have a few test gardens in exceptionally tough conditions to make sure your roses will perform. Look for zone information on each product page under the “Additional Information” tab.
We use the zone designation as a cold floor. In other words, a zone 2 plant would survive in zone 2 and warmer zones. Similarly, if you live in a zone 6 area, all of our rose with a hardiness rating colder than a zone 6 (zones 1 -6) would be appropriate. If you every have a question regarding a rose for a specific location feel free to ask at our contact form or 800-552-0899.
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1-800-552-2082