Nastarana, if I told you what to do, I'd just be guessing. I'll tell you what I'm doing in my garden in Lansing, but things might be very different in your section of zone 5. Over the past 40 years or so, it's been my experience that winter damage here is caused by the lowest Winter temperature, period, and that usually happens sometime in late January or February. I've never seen the damage caused by temperature fluctuations in Spring that some people see. So...what the heck, it's 78 degrees out, my roses are starting to leaf out, and I'm out pruning and weeding, and I'll be adding Osmocote and alfalfa and a commercial manure/compost mix as mulch, just as soon as the weeding's done - assuming I don't freeze to death next week. Anyhow, I'm having fun.

I plan on pruning in a few weeks. For now, I've started scraping back mulch from mounds.

I'm tidying up the rose beds, raking etc.

I took the top layer of leaves off the winter pot ghetto yesterday. I stuck a thermometer in there and it was over 90 degrees inside. It was very wet too. I got to thinking about all those hot, wet, moldy leaves and got worried about cankers so I pulled them off. Every thing is green and growing like mad! The leaves are still packed around the pots for insulation and the burlap is still in place so I can cover them if we do get a late frost or freeze. But for now at least they can breath a little.

Mike Rivers, our temps have not yet gone into the 70s.

Krista, I think I will do as you are doing, beginning with the hardiest varieties, and ending with the most tender.

seil, You are a zone warmer than me. We had a zone 6 winter here, so yours must have been a 7? In a few years, if this keeps up, you might be adding noisettes and I will be planting Pernetianas!

While I would LOVE to be able to grow chinas and noisettes I don't think I want it to get that warm. Too many freaky storms and things are happening already!

I have no experience with tipping, but surely burial will keep temperatures stable and cooler so the plants don't leaf out so fast, and that's a good thing. Even though the 10-day forecast for the Midwest is for continued warmth, you still have the possibility of a new-growth-injuring freeze for at least another month. So I wouldn't uncover, but would investigate occasionally to see what is going on down there.

I have been pruning, but I didn't cover anything so there is no uncovering. I think that's the case for mike_rivers as well.

I have been out to look at my roses but haven't touched anything. The temps range in the middle 70s here but I know we could get hit a freeze in April. So better safe then sorry.

Besides I've been informed by the city that they might have to dig up my yard to fix some pipe.

I have decided to uncover this weekend. For the past 2 weeks we have been above normal temps and today we were at 81. Long range 8-day forecast is continued warm, mid-upper 70's. Way too early, but almost as afraid to leave the cover as I am to take it off. So off it goes. Not going to prune just yet though.

Uh oh. In my haste (they were already leafing out) I already pruned. What temp. constitutes a killing frost for roses? Will an overturned pot or 1 mil. plastic suffice for a night of killing temps?

Thanks

Temperatures around 27 or 28F can damage new growth. The concept of "a killing frost" doesn't really apply to perennial and woody plants. The underground parts of hardy varieties can survive air temperatures of -40 F. Canes of tender roses can take 5 or 10 degrees unless it is a sudden shock to growing plants.

Roses that are in growth can be temporarily protected from cold snaps, but if you leave the cover on for days, slugs may attack the new shoots.

You're more likely to break off all that new growth with covering. If you pruned already, Veryzer, then you've pruned - don't worry about it. Even if there is a freeze and the new growth gets crisped, there are more leaf buds that will follow.

I don't cover up any of my roses anymore so I have nothing to uncover. However, I have been digging up and transplanting those that need to be moved and it's a great time to get out there and do that. I am finding that there is no frost down in the ground - not even in the shady areas. (I wonder if the ground ever really froze this past winter??) Bud break is happening all over the yard from quince to lilacs to my hardy roses. Since they're all telling me it's spring, I'm just going to go about my spring chores, leaving the pruning for last, and when I get to it I will just do it. There doesn't seem to be any real benefit to waiting for the calendar, or the forsythia even (which I don't have) if the roses are awake and growing.

I wouldn't worry. They're already budded out and growing like crazy. Tons of leaf mulch and not pruning them hasn't slowed them down one bit in this warm weather. And whether you prune or not, if there is a freeze/frost any new growth could die and they will have to bud out again either way.

I've covered mine several times in the past with old sheets and have never had a problem with breaking off new growth. (No, I usually do that dumb thing myself while pruning!) And if you get row cloth meant for frost covering it's even lighter weight and shouldn't be any problem at all. You just have to be gentle removing it and don't yank on it if it gets caught on a thorn.

Forsythias are blooming here and the latest email from the local nursery says to uncover roses.

I broke down and started pruning yesterday. I have a few thorn scrapes and one heck of a sunburn....so far, that's the only real damage I see. I didn't cover anything or do any winter protection because I was.......lazy.

It's been in the 80's nearly every day for over a week and night time temps were making me nervous about needing to spray ALREADY....everything was fully leafed out and growing like mad. I thought it would totally ridiculous to delay pruning yet start spraying so that blackspot didn't get a foothold before haircut time.

I am very, very grateful at this point that I limited my spring order for new roses. I filled 2 lawn bags with prunings and I only made it through half of the bushes yesterday.

My forsythias popped today too!

I'm pruning the roses in my unheated greenhouse. They're in full leaf so I had no choice. When through in there I'll begin outside. That won't be until next week though.

I have also started scraping back straw and compost and trimming as I go. I am piling straw to the west of each plant to protect from the West wind'

I also moved some potted Portland roses outside, to the east side of the house where they will get morning sun. Portlands are hardy to zone 5 and perhaps colder, but they don't seem to want to grow very fast.

YUM!

I uncovered the new bed yesterday. The leaves were soaking wet and I'm glad I got them off. I think I had a few rabbit casualties in the minis. They seem to have completely disappeared, chewed to the ground and leaving only their tags behind. I'll wait and see if they send up some new shoots though (they're all own root) before I count them out. Otherwise everything is growing.

There were a ton of weeds growing under the wet, matted leaves. They were all green! How do they get light down there to turn green? The new growth on the roses below the leaf level was all white in comparison!

I finished uncovering today, in the nick of time. There was a small patch of mold on White Cockade. With the high temps, I suppose I need not worry too much about canker taking hold.