Gardening in Indianapolis - suggestions? (Greenwood: how much, houses, live in)

[Alien!]

Hello all,
We are going to move to Indy. My wife loves gardening, but she's afraid of the cold weather there that she may not be able to do gardening. She loves to have roses, etc. How much gardening is possible in Indy's weather? What kind of plants grow there? I'm talking about outdoors, not indoor planting.
Thanks

[hoosier07]

Well, it gets pretty cold in the winter, but drive around and you will see, plenty of gardening according to the season. I'm not an expert here but from mid April to mid October your wife will be able to play with the plants outside.

I live in Greenwood, IN (suburb south of Indy) and a neighbor a few houses down the road from mine have roses on their front yard and they were beautiful last year.

We don't have much time for it, therefore I planted a lot of perenials that came back this year without problems.

[domergurl]

I am a wannabe landscaper and my plants THRIVE in Indiana. Year round gardening is out, but once the spring comes, you can go crazy! We had roses and kicked butt, but I became allergic to them and had to kill them, or they would kill me (I still have outbreaks of sporotrichosis 2 years later!). I put out pansies as annuals in early April, and even with the big cold snap we had, they drooped a little, but I kept them watered and they are still here! My daffys were really confused, but they came and went during their usual bloom time. Now my lillys are coming in and they will be spectacular. We are moving in 2 weeks and I am getting giddy at the thought of being able to start fresh!

I can't wait to get veggies in the ground.

[sweetana3]

I have grown roses (checked for hardiness), perennials, and annuals. One year I had a stunning vegetable garden but found it was so hot in August, I did not want to do a lot of outdoor vegetable garden work. You really can grow most anything but tropicals.

[Southside Shrek]

Gardening is sensational in North Central Indiana. You can grow just about anything from the ground up.

[laylaindy]

If she loves gardening it means she knows a lot a things about it. Just tell her we are in Zone 5 and she will probably know what she can have or have not in her garden. I am a gardener myself and crazy about it :-) I have trees (fruit and flowering) and shrubs as well as hundreds of flowers and bulbs. I even have a few banana trees and a palm tree in my garden!(which is pretty unusual for Indiana). They do not need any lift in fall nor protection over winter as they are hardy to zone 5 and made it through winter. Roses do well...better said "very well" in my garden . The secret to a "happy" gardening and thriving plants in your Indy garden is respecting 2 important rules : always check for hardiness and (most of the time) change the soil. The soil is awful here. It's a pure clay that lacks nutrients and it's hard like cement. Many people I know complain their plants die or look bad. I don't... as I did a crazy thing : I changed the soil (removed the existing one and replaced with a mix of dirt,clay and compost) on a depth of 2-3 feet in the entire garden. I added a layer of mulch to protect my plants over winter and keep moist during summer and that's it. Your wife can find a lot of info about plants(flowers,shrubs,trees) searching on google. Just type in "the name of the plant" followed by "care".
I hope this helps.

[sweetana3]

An elderly friend just gave me last week a huge bouquet of roses. He also runs a farmer's market garden.

I have grown a garden and can be wonderfully successful. People are always bringing in excess produce. There are fruit orchards around Indy although peaches are usually frozen out.

Cold weather is actually necessary for some plants to make them go properly dorment.

So dont worry about gardening. There is a Master Gardener program she may be interested in.