Carole -- Here in coastal NC I'm experiencing the same thing and was wondering if the ravages are unique to my garden. As far as I can tell, all the OGRs (including the Noisettes) survived with minimal dieback, but it's a different story with several of my modern roses (both ownroot and grafted). Included in the ones that look to be beyond recovery are 'Valencia', 'Roberto Capucci', 'Pink French Lace', 'Oldtimer', 'Medallion' & 'Love & Peace'. The ones that are on their own roots I'll leave in place to see if I get any new growth; as for the grafted ones, I'm digging them out this afternoon.

Carole, if you wanw my II, you can have it. It's in a pot.

Carla

Carla! That is just so sweet of you! But why? Don't you like it?

I've gotten to wondering about some of my other plants. For the past several years I've had some lantana that has been acting like a perennial...I'll be surprised this year if it makes it back.

Carole

I meant to say in my previous post that I am glad to hear that my experience with things dying isn't isolated but sad that it is happening to some one else.

Carole

You are not isolated. I'm hearing the same from others in our area. I think the real cold weather in February coupled with two years of stress because of drought have simply done some in. Even with irrigation there is nothing like lots of rain to push those roots deep and strengthen the plants.

I just pruned all of mine here in Columbia, and nothing
was harmed at all, own root or grafted. Must be just the
upstate.

We have a fungus farm here, but the dieback is worse this year than ever. There are some crispy sizeable plants, as well as some that got hit by the rabbits one too many times. On the other hand, I see some strong growth on a few small ones that didn't appear to have good prospects.

It's all voodoo, anyway.

Lila

Carole, I really don't understand the dying canes. Mine are all okay. I'm only worried about a Comtesse du Cayla that was planted in fall and was small. I just don't want that many HT's and bought II on a whim.
And remember, when we had that horrible late freeze, my roses were fine.
Paul, I still have a Florence de Lattre that a friend gave me. She said it looked like wet toilet paper, ha.

Carla

Me-thinks that February hard cold for two weeks did more damage than we thought. Time will tell but if you have own root roses or grafted with the bud union buried be patient. I have seem it take till summer and all of a sudden new growth emerges from under the ground.

I live in zone 6, ten miles north of Boston on the ocean. Two winters ago we had very, very freaky weather. It was extraordinarily mild in December and January (we even had temps. in the high 50's in January!!), and then all of a sudden in February there was a cold snap where the temperatures were suddenly as cold as they usually get in the coldest time of the year (the third week of Jan.)

I had an established York Rose (R. x alba semi-plena), a rose that is hardy into zone 3, that died that winter.

I am certain that sudden unexpected cold snaps after mild weather are far more destructive than cold weather that arrives gradually, even if that gradually arriving cold is more severe in its temperatures.

I got discouraged as I saw many of my roses adversely affected by this late cold snap. Most of my roses in pots look like goners too!

Carla, it looks like I may have lost my Comtesse du Cayla. That was such a nice rose for me too.

Time will tell.

Robert

Carole, Paul and I were just talking about the same thing on Friday. I had more dieback than normal and lost a couple of established roses altogether. One of them was a large, several years old Valencia, like Windeaux. Mostly modern roses were heavily damaged though the Teas had a bit of dieback. My wimpy Rosette Delizy lost two "largish" canes.

Carol

Yesterday was the first day I have ventured out to get a good look at the condition of the roses. For the most part, the news is good. I have a few roses that I'm genuinely concerned about, but there are others that I expected to be damaged appear to be fine.

Comtesse du Cayla, Secret Garden Musk Climber, Vicomtesse Pierre du Fou, Puerto Rico, Cato's Cluster, Single Pink China, Mrs. Dudley Cross, and a couple of other teas (I don't remember which onces) look pretty bad. I'm fairly sure that CdC and SGMC are completely dead -- the others have some green in the lower canes, so they may be salvagable.

On the bright side, all the little Hybrid Chinas from Vintage that I put in last fall, most of the Hybrid Teas, and all of my Polyanthas look like they made it with very little damage. In the antique Hybrid Tea bed in the front yard, only one rose has any black on it at all. I have been watching them very carefully (since many of them are fairly rare) This is a more protected location than some of the other gardens around here, and I think that has helped. A few minutes spent nipping off crispy edges are probably all the trimming they will need.

It's frustrating this time of year, because I want so badly to get out there with the pruners and take care of the situation. I have to remind myself that I should wait another few weeks to see if there are any signs of life. A few of my roses are beginning to grow (American Pillar and Walsh's America look fabulous), and I expect the rest won't be too far behind.

Connie

There are a lot of black canes in my garden, and roses that lived in pots for years may not have made it. The Buck roses are about the only ones unscathed. Guess I'll have a lot of watching and waiting to do.

As I worked in the garden yesterday, I realized that there is more damage to some of the OGRs than I had previously thought. I don't think any are lost, though.

Here's an observation that may be significant, but is probably merely coincidental: The majority of my grafted roses are now on multiflora, but ALL of the ones that croaked are (were) on Dr Huey. Have to be quick to say, however, that most of my roses on Dr Huey appear to have survived.

Trying to remember past winter-related losses, it seems to me that apricot-colored modern roses have been especially vulnerable -- 'Brandy' and 'Just Joey', to name a couple. This year, 3 bit the dust: 'Oldtimer', 'Valencia' (2 of my all-time favorites) and 'Medallion'. Perhaps I've focused on the loss of apricots over the years simply because I'm partial to the color.

My Rosette deLizzy lost one big cane too. And I had to SP two of my HTs. And I don't have any hint of any new basals either :(((((

They say that misery love company....but not in this case. I'm sorry to hear that a good many of your are in the same boat as me.

I've decided to look at the bright side.....I guess this means I'll have to buy more roses. ;-)

Carole

That's exactly what it means, Carole. I fired-off ems to RU an Palatine this a.m.

"I've decided to look at the bright side.....I guess this means I'll have to buy more roses. ;-) "

That warms my heart

Departed roses in zone 6, 7 and 8 due to winter cold temperatures? ... having been in Georgia and South Carolina for brief visits in winter, it never ceases to amaze me when I read about ... sorry for your loss, I am use to of it up here when planting out of zone roses ... going to -18.4F tonight then +63F by Saturday ... a spread of 81.4 degrees F, loony tune temperature times up here as it getting close to spring.

I read this posting last night after I had gotten back from SC (Sumter). I have two undetermined existing climbers, a Lady Banks I just put in, and a Buff Beauty I transplanted. All have survived. However, Robert & Connie sent me outdoors at break of day to check on my roses here in Roanoke, especially the Comtesse du Cayla, which is planted for my cat, Rebecca, who is a torti of similar shades. Rebecca was very concerned. We are glad to report our Comtesse is just fine and I will bring cuttings to any who want them.

over the years I've noticed that the "winter" die back really is a post-dormancy freeze issue. Except for bands planted late in the fall, I've never lost a rose to winter-winter. The loss comes after the rose has broken dormancy and then gets hit with a major freeze. I think the reason I didn't lose any with this last cold snap was because mine hadn't yet started to leaf out. So it's the March-early April freezes that hurt (which is why, perhaps, "April is the cruelest month"). Later freezes like end of April/May don't do as much damage because the plant is, so to speak, up and running. It's the "just woken up" stage that is so vulnerable. I can relate to that!

We run into this all the time in CT--we get some unseasonably warm weather and the plants move out of dormancy. The canes are then killed by the next really hard freeze. Wrapping them with burlap seems to help delay the move out of dormacy. Our bushes actually look pretty good, with lots of green cane, but there is still time for another really deep freeze before Spring arrives.

What that sounds like to me is canker. The canes look good. They have enough stored energy to leaf out, but eventually the fact that they are really separated from the parent roots catch up to them.

I think I am lucky to not have any sun at all in my backyard due to the sun being low in the sky until spring is here. My roses are still well-buried under snow with no chance of trying to come out of dormancy. The freeze-thaw is a real killer. It was warm here on the weekend, but it doesn't seem to matter - it's the sun that does the melting and there isn't a lot of that in my backyard yet.
Judith

Connie,

I would like to say that I, too, have considerable dieback on the following roses:

Comtes du Cayla
Secret Garden Musk Climber (may be a goner)
Puerto Rico (may be a goner)
Mme. Joseph Schwarz (and other teas)

I was going to hope for cuttings from your SGMC...oh well.

The hybrid chinas look wonderful. I think they are made for our climate.

Robert

Robert, I have two good-sized SGMCs in the greenhouse -- I will bring you one this weekend.

While the teas on the fence have varying amounts of dead stuff on them, the ones in the rose field look really nice. Safrano, looks especially good. I think the rambler fence may be too exposed a location for teas.

It's really discouraging to have roses croak over the winter. However, most of these are small, and they may or may not be appropriate for this area. I would rather find out NOW while they are smaller and can be replaced with another rose fairly easily, instead of nursing them along each winter.

Connie

Robert, my SGMC died to the ground and it was a huge plant. I was going to dig it up anyway because it had such horrible blackspot that it couldn't keep a leaf, but the winter killed it to the ground and I'm warmer than you are!

Carol

Robert, on a side note, Hermosa is a hybrid china right? No dieback and it's leafing out already! Seems to be happy here.

Eric

riku, you were probably here on warm days. It can get very cold here. Part of the problem (for me anyway) is that even when it's cold, we get lots of sun. My front yard (where most of my roses are) has southern exposure and gets full sun all day. Even through the winter, I can see the eye buds popping out after a few warm sunny days. I swear the sun is stronger this time of year than summer (something about March the earth being the closest to the sun, etc.

So it can be very mild, the roses start growing and WHAM we get a cold front with temps int he teens or lower. That's what does in the roses. If it got cold and stayed cold, that would be better.

My teas are almost leafless. I'm actually happy about it because last year they kept a lot of leaves and I had to pull them off. I thought it was because of the dormant spray I used, but maybe not :(

Buford--same here--the best winters for roses don't have warm spells that allow the buds to swell--they are goners when those Artic freezes come. Or if there is enough snow on the ground to keep everything cold during the warm spells and warm enough during those extra cold freezes. The old timers in our club used to keep roses warm with ugly styrofoam protection methods--the new thinking is to keep the roses cold and in dormacy through winter--at least in the colder parts of Connecticut.

Every day when I do my garden walkthrough I see more roses with canes which are shrivelling rather than putting out new growth. Some were mature, others fairly young. As all are own root, I am hoping they may grow back from the roots. I am actually looking forward to being away from my garden next week so that I do not have the agony of these inspections. I hope that some will emerge from slumber while I am gone. The severity of this past winter can be verified not only by the loss of the plants in my gardens, but my heating bill as well. The latter will impact my ability to replace the former.

Kathy

Kathy,
On the shriveled canes...please go out and see if they are random on a rose or all on one side.
I've caught vole damage early when they've only eaten half the rose...I'm sorry this sounds like a sick joke.... by noting that half the rose has wilted....I dig the rose up, cut the canes back (the ones without roots below them....and soak them in a bucket of water for several weeks while I stomp the heck out of where the voles banqueted.
I've saved a noisette that way and a HT.

When we see wilted canes, sometimes it's just an individual wilted cane. But sometimes it's going to get worse.

Ann (who's also had the worse a whole bunch of time, especially inthe spring.)

For those of you who need cuttings of SGMC I have one that I could take cuttings from.

Elaine

I spent another day cutting dead canes out of the roses. Canes that looked pretty good this weekend are now shriveled looking, like Kathys. They were putting new growth out, The canes were still green but shriveled and the new growth is dead. I also found two huge canes of Noella Nabannond that were broken by the weight of the snow. About half of the bush disappeared when those two canes were removed. I fear this isn't the last of the damage that will appear. It's a little depressing.

Carol

The shrivelled canes that were green just last week...the cooked leaves...the black canes...describes what we have to a T. What mystifies me is how some plants looked great so recently and then bam, shrivel city. Big plants, little plants - size doesn't seem to matter. Ann, I suspected voles, too, but it isn't those little monsters. I hate to hear that so many of you are seeing the same as we are, but at least I know it's not just us!

Lila

Here are my thoughts (Ann what do you think?)

I would suspect they looked good because they weren't pushing yet. They last week we suddenly hit 80 degrees, they start to push new growth, cell walls that were damaged by the cold temps in Feb explode and the canes die.

Personally I'd cut the plants back hard to focus energy and spur new growth. I realize that's painful but for us it works.

Roses have a limited amount of carbs they live off of during the winter. If we got warm, cold, warm, cold they use them up quicker because during those warm spurts they start to leaf out and burn carbs to do it. So if we go through too many cycles they simply run out of "gas" before the big spring push.

This is pure speculation but I wonder if not watering and forcing the root system to go deep and wide helps because that is more carbs stored under the ground away from the cold.

On my roses at home I've had zero die back and they never get watered outside of rain. At the nursery the older plants have had very little but the younger plants are being affected.