If you are in the Southeast the answer is yes. It just starting to reveal itself. If you're roses are own root or planted with bud unions below the surface cut back hard and hang on. You should know in a few months if they lived by the sign of new growth from the base or under the ground.

I was just noticing this today - last weekend we had temps down to 27. Previously, the weather had been up to 80 [this is Texas, after all....] and the roses were starting to put out. Now I am noticing some dieback [weather back up to 70-80]. Burnt leaves, even the oak trees' new growth was burnt. So I am wondering how much further dieback I might expect.
Judith

Definitely worse here. We had a very cold (for us) period rather early in the winter when there were still leaves and some last blooms on the roses.

It actually made it easier for me to clean deadwood out of the biggest rosebushes in my garden, and I think I've made them a better shape... uh, well, we'll see!

Greta (Portland, OR, a long way from the Southeast...)

Pretty much same story here.
I may have even lost a few teas but am cautiously hopeful they'll wake up.
Very cold winter for us too.

I had just written this on a post in the Antique Rose Forum. I noticed that roses that have never seemed to have had die back had it. However in my case, I moved some of my roses in the fall, and thought that was the problem. My large Marie Van Houtte has a split right near the base of the larges cane. I intend to give it a lot of attention, and hope that new canes emerge. In the meantime I want to take some cuttings to see if I can propogate it.

Arethusa and Spice also had some problems.

Sammy

Sammy that's what I'm noticing. Some of the roses that never had die-back are looking grim, while others, considered more tender, are looking surprisingly robust, although there's some die back on pretty much every plant. Completely different from last winter which was so mild that my snapdragons and parsley didn't even die.

This time it's still a bit early to tell exactly what's what here, because most of my roses are still dormant, but the early onset and the severe winds that we've had all winter seem to have taken their toll. I went out to do some pruning and for the first time, looked at the roses closely and they don't look like they've ever looked in the past. In a way, that might be OK because some of them were way too big anyhow.

Interesting that you guys out west had similar stories. Coming from the midwest, these winters out east never really seemed so bad but I think the whole country had it bad this time.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've already SP two roses that don't appear to be alive, or they are so bad they aren't worth keeping. I still think the Easter Freeze 2 years ago weakened some of my roses and they are stills showing signs of damage from that. Also I didn't fertilize a lot last summer because of the drought so I think they are weaker because of that.

Glad that I came across this post. I was wondering WHY
my Autumn Sunsets had so many dead canes to trim. Last
year I gave it a good pruning to encourage bushiness and
that is exactly what I got. Now I'll have to trim it way
back again. Oh well!!
Margaret

More snow and ice the last two nights. Man.

-Greta

I m seeing so many more black canes and although it is too early to prune, I have made a mental list of those roses that will come out. After looking and studying this list, I feel the Easter freeze of a few years past is still showing it`s ugly head.These roses hung on and tried their best, but this difficult winter just finished them off.Maybe I should consider digging up others that are so-so and save myself the work in a few years. Sometimes a hard winter is hard to ever come back from? What do youall think? Lesley

I'm no expert on this, but I found after that BIG EASTER FREEZE a couple years ago that I didn't always prune back as much as I should have. It's easy to pick out black/brown canes that need trimming, but some of the other canes were still greenish and didn't look too bad, so I left some of them. They did put out new leaves and then flowers, but they weren't really thriving. I thought they'd improve with time--but they didn't. A year later when I started pruning them, I realized the center of the cane was not very healthy--brown center, not glistening white like sound, healthy canes. So belatedly I ruthlessly trimmed back those so-so canes until I found clear white centers--nearly ground-level in several cases. Those canes have since put out good healthy growth or the severe pruning stimulated the growth of brand-new canes that are super healthy. Bigger healthier blooms as a result.

If you are thinking of getting rid of so-so performers that you suspect may have been damaged back in the BIG FREEZE, you might try first ruthlessly pruning all canes back to clear white centers, even if it means pruning down near ground level. Then see if new canes are produced (add appropriate food and water, of course). You may find you have a new healthy plant waiting down there ready to emerge and blossom with a little help from you.

Just a possibility--no promises.

Kate

Thank you, Kate. I appreciate your reply and I will try this out. Lesley

We had big freezes and late ones. For a couple of years I have been trying to be wise and not prune too much. I thought this would give my roses an opportunity to grow new canes. Now I think that pruning 1/3 off might be more helpful than to leave them alone.

What worries me is when I see dark red spots with black. I have simply been cutting below these marks. It looks like Souvenir de la Malmaison is suffering too.

Sammy

Well Last night was cold again. I have a few crocuses poking up, so I usually start pruning around this time, but we're getting cold weather again in the nights. The winter doesn't want to give up.

What I'm mostly curious about is what kind of damage the winter may have done to the grubs and JBs. I'll take additional die-back if it means we croaked a few more JBs this year.