I'm West of you near Charlottesville just East of the Blue Ridge, 5 degrees colder between our zones. My garden is sited in a clearing of mixed woodlands & the soil is fairly rich clay loam. What's your soil? We're having an unusually hard Winter this year, for sure. Lots of freeze & thaw spells routinely over a more typical season, so grafts need to be at least a couple of inches below the soil surface. Find own root roses cope more easily with the weather here. Winter mulching is important to help modulate the surface soil temp. The major challenge is wild temperature swings - 70 last Sunday & a chilling 1 Monday night - and ice storms, which you probably didn't have to deal with in a more Southern clime. With high humidity you're already familiar, and likely the blackspot pressure that accompanies it. Seems the main adjustment would be selecting roses for their cold hardiness, which may not have been a criterion before. Like to choose those rated no higher than Zone 6, having lost a few roses rated less hardy to prolonged cold over the years... Garden organically & no spray, so roses must be very blackspot resistant to survive & thrive. Basically a shrubbery when we moved in, been working to make this a mixed perennial garden including roses. The soil near the house was a construction trash mess & needed thorough overhaul. The native soil here being high in clay cannot be walked upon when it's wet or compresses. With nearly 70" of average rain & snowfall, the earth is often damp. Stepping stones laid unobtrusively in the beds allow tending & a half sheet of exterior plywood cut into 2 foot squares work as temporary standing platforms on bare soil when creating new beds. What type of roses do you want to grow? The 30-40 roses growing here are a mixed bag, with the oldest Ballerina from the 30's, so no traditional OGR's. Jaune Desprez succumbed to a long hard Winter, although a Yellow Lady Bank's cutting I planted in a friend's garden has done beautifully for years. A few Austin's have made the grade, including Abe Darby, Golden Celebration & The Endeavor. Connie at Hartwood quit selling roses a few months after I first heard of her, to my deep regret. She's opening the garden twice this Spring & would love to visit there, too. Welcome to VA! Here is a link that might be useful: Hartwood Roses

Greengrassjunkie, I forgot that I don't HAVE your email address. I tried to post that fact earlier, but my computer was being tempermental, and I could'nt get back online to say so earlier. My email is julie.gogola@yahoo.com. Send me info on what you want for the acorns of Compton's oak in Va. ( Williamsburg, Va right?) I currently will be getting 3 Compton's seedlings from Mossy oak natives nursery, but would take a handful of acorns. I have explained in the Va forum how they are special, but, I don't want to pay alot for them. Maybe on ebay you can get a decent price for seedlings, but I will not pay much for them. My Compton's will produce seed in a few years themselves according to the nursery I got them from. Well, figure your price out and I will reply to you. If you choose to grow the trees and sell on ebay, about $9-$10 is your likely price range, unless those people check the Mossy oak natives nursery site, which is ever so slightly cheaper by 50 cents to a buck difference. If you want more than $1.00 per acorn, I will just wait til mine produce in 4-6 years. But you may be able to sell seedlings on ebay for 8-10 bucks when they are 2 ft tall. Just figure what your plans are. I will never be lacking in oak trees. A friend will be sending me a Libani oak soon. I will take an acorn or 2 at $1.00 or less. I don't mean to be smart, but they are rare but not super rare and unavailable in the US. The Libani mention is RARE and not available in the US. Tell me your price. Poaky1. Oh, P.S. You will need to put the acorns in a bucket of water, and those that don't sink are likely not good. Those that sink to the bottom are likely good. Any holes in the acorn are from insects that will eat the insides of the acorn and it will not sprout. I don't mean to be nasty, but the Compton's oak is rare, but not rare in my yard. I'll give you a buck per good acorn. Maybe ebay will get you the same amount of moolah, just make sure the acorns are good, you know no holes and they sink in a bucket of water.

I know I get tired of the cold and snow, but I am used to it. Better be, where I live. I make the best of it, get out and enjoy it as much as I can. However, I am prepared for it, have to be. I have every degree of warm or less warm outwear one can own, or so my DH claims, and our homes are built to withstand the cold. Our vehicles have block heaters in them, we put snow tires on every fall, change them back to all seasons in the spring. If the driveway gets blown in, we have a tractor and blade to clear it so we can get around. Our highway crews are out plowing all the time. I guess, for me it is an inevitable mind set and life goes on as normal. I do feel for those of you that don't get a winter every year. It can come as a shock to the system for sure. All I know for sure is that spring will come, and summer, and there are far more people I know that don't cope with the heat as well as the cold. At least that is what it seems from listening to the folks in this part of the country, anyway. LOL

Well, NWalton, I have several of these Compton's oaks, and 1 have 1 that's been in ground for at least 3 years and it is still green on the leaves that haven't been shed, but most have been shed, and I have a potted one with red/orange leaves, and another with a green and yellow color to the leaves, so I'm thinking that the soil PH or something about the soil is the reason, OR the temperatures or moisture level of the soil is the reason for the different foliage colors. I have 2 Pin oaks, and 1 usually keeps very nice deep Burgundy color for several months, the other may keep that Burgundy (which isn't so bright) only a month or 2. But my usually long showing vivid Burgundy color Pin oak is now a brownish red, mostly brown really now. So maybe it's temperature, or moisture, I've done nothing to change the PH under either Pin oak. My soil is usually a Neutral 6 or 6.5, my Pin oaks have grown fine. But, anyway, the potted Comptons is likley in a slightlty acidic potting medium and has the Orangish red leaves. But, the Comptons oak is considered as a late deciduous tree, so it just may keep green leaves up until it's really cold and the tree drops the leaves. I know this isn't a simple and short answer, but, I thought the fact that I have 2 seedlings that have yellow, and orangish/ red color should be mentioned, but, the tree in Williamsburgh, Va ( a champion specimen) was green as could be in October in zone 7. But, just expect no super great fall color from them, but, if your PH is acidic, you may get fall color. But, I should add that if you love nice big oaks, you'll LOVE the Compton oak. I hope you are not too elderly or you may just have to leave it for the kids or grandkids, it does grow at least 2-3 foot a year, maybe more if in a good spot. It will get as wide as a Live oak (Quercus Virginiana) which it shares half of it's genes with. The mature 1 at Williamsburgh, Va is quite impressive, I wish I could make mine grow faster to be just like the 1 at Williamsburgh, Va. I do know that if you provide extra water in the growing season (unless you are getting lottsa rain) the tree will grow much more vigorously. So if you would love a shade tree that gets nice thick branches growing horizontally, and has a huge area under the tree in shade, definitely get a Compton's oak, in zone 6 you MAY get some fall color, but, if you have the room, the Comptons oak is only #2 to a LIve oak, which in zone 6 isn't an option unless you get the smaller and slower growing Quercus Fusiformis, and I've only had success with the Quartz mountain Live oak, and it tops out at 6 inches to 12 inches growth a year, so very slllllooooow grower. I actually have a potted (the redish/orange colored 1) and I need to find it a place to plant, so if you want it I can send it to ya. My yard is packed with many oaks. I just hope you aren't too far from me in Pa to send it, if you have your own source that's fine. Later.