My in-ground 'Karley Rose' plants are not only up, but have started blooming in the past couple of weeks. I have several others in nursery containers which are a good bit behind, but have been up since late April and are 8-12" tall now.

Your zone is pretty cold for any Pennisetum orientale. 'Karley Rose' is said to be hardy to 5A, but from a fall start, it's quite possible they never had a chance to get established before winter set in. When you're pushing the zone with grasses, it's always desirable to plant in spring, so the plant has a good long growing season to establish deep root growth. This better enables it to deal with winter.

I'd still wait a bit, but if you don't have some shoots soon, they probably didn't make it.

Here's a snap from this morning. It's the furthest along of all my 'Karley Rose.' It's about 3' all around.

I would consider them an annual in Zone 5 or colder, even in a marginal 6 here these types of Pennisetum almost never survive the winters, even mild ones like the last one.

I'm not sure I'd call 'Karley Rose' an annual in colder zones.

I think, with the proper care, it could be a hardy perennial in those zones.

I bought 50 4" 'Karley Rose' plants last year. I potted them up to trade gallon containers, and every one of them survived my winter, with no protection and no snow cover. Granted, the coldest temperature we got last winter was 12ðF, but these guys weathered it. Traditional thought is a loss of two zones for a container plant, above ground.

I think if this cultivar is given proper care, it will survive Z5 winters. Plant it out in the spring, so the roots can get some depth. Cut it down before the real cold of winter hits, and mulch it heavily, and I think it may surprise you.

Another interesting observation on 'KR.'

The plant in the photo above, and half of my potted 'KR' suffered a saltwater soak in last year's hurricane. They also got flushed by a few inches of freshwater rain in the hours following the flooding, but I lost about a thousand plants from the same conditions, and 'Karley Rose' survived.