I use wood chips, but thinking of changing to compost or manure soon.... because the birds keep searching for worms/ insects in my rose containers, and all the wood chips keep falling out onto the concrete ground.

Surprisingly, I don't find it annoying to sweep the ground again. Gives me a good reason to see my roses again outside.

I do not mulch my container roses. The mulch just floats out
of the pot anyway. However, I do add a thin layer of compost
periodically (2-3x per year) to the soil in the pots. Mulch
seems like a good idea, because it will keep the soil more
moist (it dries out quickly in the pots) but I can't ever
keep it from washing away so I don't bother any more.

I use redwood bark. I used the bigger chips last year. Initially I thought it was too big, but it worked really well. Smaller chips fosr smaller pots. In my very hot, dry climate, I find it essential.
Kathy

I used compost last year and suspect that the supplier did a lousy job composting it because those pots had the worst weeds of all -- I mean a career case of all the worst weeds. So I'm at a loss. The two pots with wood chips had almost no weeds, and I'm tempted to go that way this year. For now, I'm barerooting a lot of my potted roses to remove really invasive weeds. If that doesn't work....they are compost.

Yes, I do. Hot, dry climate for one reason and two massive Aleppo pines for another. Even if I didn't actually use bark, the trees rain down pine needles anyway.