Found in Phoenix: roses from the bargain bin

For those who haven’t heard, Arizona is weird. No, I don’t mean our politicians (though if the shoe fits…). I mean our climate. Or climates, as we have quite a few. I live just outside Flagstaff, where winters are cold (USDA zone 6, the same as parts of Ohio), and we get quite a bit of snow, all because our elevation is 7000 feet. 140 miles south is Phoenix, which has hardiness zones 9b and 10a and is hotter than the surface of the sun all summer. Like I said, Arizona is weird. The point of this little discourse on the weather is to explain why I was able to find bareroot roses on clearance while we’re still shoveling snow. I had to run an errand in Phoenix a few days ago and found these beauties for $3 each at Lowe’s.

Gold Glow:


Blue Girl:



Olympiad:


Arizona: 



Our ground is still frozen and partly covered in snow, so we potted these guys in nursery cans and tucked them in our warmest, most sheltered spot since they're already leafing out. The poor things are going to be displeased the first time they experience a Flagstaff winter night, but they should survive. Once I can actually dig in our dirt, I'll put them in the cottage garden I'm creating and hope the grasshoppers don't eat them down to the nubs.