I bought one of these roses (Lady Elsie Mae not May) at the beginning of last summer and never got around to planting it until the following spring - I live in Maryland and the poor rose sat in its thin plastic pot through snow and ice and freezing temperatures and it did just fine (would probably make a great container rose.) When I finally planted it, this rose just grew like crazy and has been blooming ever since. It gets a lot of sunlight (probably 8-10 hours a day.) My Lady Elsie Mae also seems very insect and disease resistant, even more so than my Knock Outs. I did see a lot of aphids on it in the spring but they didn't seem to do any visible damage.