That's interesting , Hazel, your first frost can hold off till November, whereas it's a rule of thumb here that you don't plant tomatoes till Melbourne Cup Day, the first Tuesday in November, to avoid the last of our frosts. I just took a look at the Zones in my Botanica(of 10,000 garden plants) and see that there would not be many roses at all that could thrive in Canada's climate. That's sad, but shows it's not your fault if you can't grow them, it's your climate.
Hey, I'm getting back into bulbs too.
I've always had daffodils, Spanish bluebells, grape hyacinths, red nerines etc., but this year I have 3 different lachenalias, , 3 different grape hyacinths(pale blue, white, and one that is sort of maroon on the bottom and lavender above), Dutch Iris, pink nerines, babiana, crocuses etc.. I don't have a lot of luck with things like Tulips and Dutch Hyacinths but maybe because I've never put the effort into looking after them properly. I've started a collection of Hippeastrums, and also had some different types of lilies given to me by a friend in Queensland. Love it when I'm growing something for the first time. Another love is poppies, all sorts of poppies.
I'm on garden forums and people keep feeding my addictions.
Like I mentioned that I'd had 40 different types of heritage tomatoes in this season, but wouldn't do that again unless I had a different 40 to try, and lo and behold, the woman who gave me the lilies emailed this morning to say she had 19 different lots of seed to start off the next lot of 40.
I was thinking maybe a rest next year but looks like it won't happen.
LOL.
Incidentally, I always have more luck germinating things in my little mini hothouses than by direct sowing them. All I have in them right now is Shirley and Iceland poppies, but I have the seed raising mix and just have to find the enthusiasm to plant more seeds now.