I have no clue, which of the roses that you have listed will break dormancy for you first and therefore I don't want to dare to guess, but what I can tell you is that in my yard (San Diego, inland) the Old Garden Roses were the quickest to leave out. As a matter of fact, Baronne Prevost is in full bloom already and Mme. Ernest Calvat is briefly following after her. My Floribundas and Hybrid Tea roses are far behind these two. One more reason to grow more Old Garden Roses :-)!

Would you like to share what is the name of the OGR that is fully awake in your garden already? I am curious now...

Christina

PS I omitted the Tea roses, because they grow and flower here year round!

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

My one and only OGR is Madame Hardy. She's beautiful when in bloom, but I started growing roses because I wanted perennials that would bloom more than once each year.

Also, I just don't have the space for OGRs. The one I have is massive & already 10 feet high before growing an inch this year. Mind you it's still freezing here at night, so I was really surprised to see anything with bud eyes this early.....but they're all over the place.

I know my OGR will always be first. She's the first to bloom, and the first to be done for the year. Just wondering about some of my others that aren't looking very rosy (haha) right now.

In my yard, the polyanthas have started leafing out a little, followed by the minis. A couple of the HT/GR have about 1/2" - 3/4" of new growth. Everything else is slacking, but I haven't been out to the backyard to check on Cardinal de Richelieu and White Pet.

OMG! I was sitting here feeling so jealous of posters with sprouting roses. I got up to check on my roses in the backyard and my Peace, Pink Promise and Signature are awake!

What a nice surprise! They made it thru their first winter. I still have to check on my container roses in the garage. When I last looked they seemed fine, so I'm hoping they all made it. What a winter we had here in NY, and I'm afraid that it's not completely over yet.

Any idea when I should take my container roses out of the garage? The weather prediction for Sun. night is 30 degrees, so I guess I should wait a bit.

Where are you at in zone 5b that your roses are already leafing out? Mine are still quite soundly asleep, and thank heavens, because it's still freaking cold here!

Central Illinois....it got up near the 70's for a couple of days with some beautiful sunshine, and we've had lots of rain.

I live at the top of a cul-de-sac and I have really good protection from winter winds where all the roses are. I didn't do much except pile leaves around the bases of all the roses. I wanted to see what survived with minimum protection, and I'm pretty pleased.

uhhh -- the ones that will break dormancy first are the ones in the warmest soil? There may be some varietal differences, but mainly it should be more dependent on the various micro-climates in your own yard. Put differently, the roses in the black plastic nursery cans in the sun for the longest part of the day will likely break dormancy first.

Are we referring to buds swelling as opposed to actual leaves. I have lots of buds swelling but no actual leaves appearing.

kstrong
I've had buds swelling on bushes still locked in frozen soil. A couple of warm sunny days followed by a period of daytime temps around the freezing mark can cause the buds to swell while the soil is frozen. First leafout is not related to warm soil. The leaves I use for winter protection keep my soil frozen even when the air is way above freezing. When removing leaves, I've uncovered a layer of ice and patches of snow under the leaves in mid April after the bushes have leafed out.
The first leaves come from food and moisture stored overwinter in the canes and not from any root activitity. Actually the first leaves signal the feeder roots to begin developing as the soil warms. My soil freezes down to six inches in moderate winters, killing the feeder roots. It freezes deeper in cold winters or those with little insulating snow cover.
When leaves appear, the feeder roots regrow. Transpiration of moisture from these first leaves pulls water up causing new feeder roots to develop.
At least that's how it works in cold growing zones, definitely not in zone 10 where your roses don't really go dormant.

Are we referring to buds swelling as opposed to actual leaves. I have lots of buds swelling but no actual leaves appearing.

kstrong
I've had buds swelling on bushes still locked in frozen soil. A couple of warm sunny days followed by a period of daytime temps around the freezing mark can cause the buds to swell while the soil is frozen. First leafout is not related to warm soil. The leaves I use for winter protection keep my soil frozen even when the air is way above freezing. When removing leaves, I've uncovered a layer of ice and patches of snow under the leaves in mid April after the bushes have leafed out.
The first leaves come from food and moisture stored overwinter in the canes and not from any root activitity. Actually the first leaves signal the feeder roots to begin developing as the soil warms. My soil freezes down to six inches in moderate winters, killing the feeder roots. It freezes deeper in cold winters or those with little insulating snow cover.
When leaves appear, the feeder roots regrow. Transpiration of moisture from these first leaves pulls water up causing new feeder roots to develop.
At least that's how it works in cold growing zones, definitely not in zone 10 where your roses don't really go dormant.

Nothing happening here. Not a leaf in sight. If it weren't for the crocus and violas blooming, you'd think it was mid winter.

I can usually count on my Rugosa Rotesmere to bloom first with Rose de Rescht right behind. Both are on the south side of the house and are protected from wind.

flaurabunda, thanks for letting me know about your OGR. Mme. Hardy is such a wonderful rose, I just love her.

I totally understand that you want repeat from your roses, especially when you don't have much garden space, I feel the same and therefore I don't grow any once-bloomers. But there are many OGRs out there that do repeat decently and don't grow that large. 'Rose de Rescht' comes to my mind right away, but there are many others, too. Maybe you want to do some research or ask on the forum what would work best in your zone?

Anyway, enjoy your roses old and modern :-)!

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

Lots of variables, not only soil warmth, but moisture, moisture over the winter, age of plant, etc. Here it is a different one every year, though there are some that are always late: 'Sombreuil', 'Evelyn', and 'Laguna' are utterly reliable laggards.

Mine are still covered entirely with snow.

Morden Blush usually is very early to break dormancy, and early to bloom. It is a Candian Rose. I have a few others that break early, but they will come to mind in about 4 weeks.

In many parts of southern California, we don't really get true dormancy. We get . . . .a "pause" -- naptime for roses, as it were, in late December and January.
During that month or so, many of us run around like lunatics doing all the relocating, de-leafing, dormant spraying, pruning, new rose planting, etc. that we intend doing before naptime is over in February. Now in mid-March, the new canes are well advanced. I love the new reddish leaves, all soft and perfect (I try not to think about all the bugs and fungal bad guys who attack them later in the season.) Better yet, I've got buds -- lots of them, even on new plantings that just went in the ground six weeks ago. (Can't wait to see and smell Sugar Moon)!!
Just as I was "encouraging" my roses and complimenting them on the progress they'd made so far (don't laugh -- I think they appreciate it. . . The converse also works -- several of them have been scared straight, as it were, by the threat of Mr. Shovel!) I saw something I almost missed. There on a back branch, peeking out from behind a very large (too large) jade plant in a neighboring pot, was my first rose of the season.
Ta-Da!!
Francis Dubreuil, headily fragrant and dark red marvelous as ever. It begins.

The roses I initially listed are all together in the same micro-climate on the south side of the house, where they get maximum sun exposure even before the official start of spring. Other roses in different areas with less sunlight aren't nearly as perky right now.

Everybody had bud eyes and shoots starting except Gemini and Renegade. Leafing out hasn't occured on anything except my OGR at this point, and it's on the side of the house that's not getting as much sunlight.