Given my rose habits, it's not a question of if I'll have losses but whether the losses will be worse than usual. This was such an unusually cold winter for us with no snow that I'm not using this year to plan for a normal winter, since there's always some attrition in my yard, sometimes as much from heat as cold. I'm willing to baby roses a fair bit, so as long as they can survive most of our winters I'm not going to penalize a rose category because it didn't survive this one. Besides, predicting what will survive isn't an exact science - I've had some HTs clearly breeze through this winter, and some hardy shrubs trimmed to the ground with relatively shaky standing at this point.

Neither however will I plan my roses for the unseasonably warm winters that preceded this one. I tend to buy what I like and let the rose decide if it wants to survive in my yard, and I give any variety at least 2 or 3 chances if I really like it. At least this way I haven't yet run out of room for new roses (I put "never run out" and realized that's not necessarily true forever).

Besides, I already have way too many roses coming for this spring based on my old habits and it's too late to change that relative to the cold winter habit. These will be another test case for whatever next winter brings.

Cynthia

I'm still new to roses but weather is not part of the equation for me (other than with the few I grow which are zone-pushers). Who knows what kind of winter we'll have. I choose roses hardy to 7a. That includes just about everything I want to grow. If I choose something more tender I know I need to coddle it!
I spent lots of time moving small teas/noisettes/chinas in and out of my garage this year. Don't want to do that again. I think if they'd been in the ground and a bit larger they would've been fine.
Chop those roses back and they will grow. I saw a bud shooting out of Cramoisi Superieur today when I thought for sure I'd lost all. Own root, all black cane, didn't see any healthy pith...but here comes growth!
Just have faith.
Susan

My Cramoisi Sup has no growth at all. But you are Nashville about 3 hours South so I will keep my fingers crossed. The few teas and chinas I have are the ones that worry me most.

If I have significant losses I might buy a few new ones but I have a lot of potted ones that I can put in the ground to fill spots. So I don't really have to buy more. If I do decide to buy some it might not be until next season since there isn't a big choice locally. I can pick and choose online for next year.

I think that I will be more conscientious of finding out how well a rose handles temperature extremes. That has always been important but now it will be a top consideration. I don't think that this was the coldest winter on record for my area but it was cold enough and I expect that sooner or later we'll see another winter this cold again. I know that summer heat and humidity can be brutal, also and have lost more roses from that than I have from the cold. I have no problem choosing the tried and true Southern antiques. Most of them will came back eventually and will still be able to handle the heat. Some of the Buck roses do well for me, too. Most of the roses that I think I may have lost are relatively modern. I will have a "check twice and plant once" policy with them.