I feel your pain; I posted something similar a few days ago. Most folks contributed that it's indeed lack of sunlight that causing problems. Our April was very sunny & warm, then the bottom fell out. Days upon end of unending grey. I have two new bareroots that are moping in near dormancy, still.

Cheer up, though....with just a day and a half of sunshine, I finally have buds opening. Came home last night to a big, shiny Garden Party bloom.

I imagine Zone 5 summers are shorter than many of us are used to. That does have to be frustrating.

I think you are right--your roses need lots of sun--you know, 6 hours a day type thing--to really get going, but you may also be a bit too eager for rose season to get to your colder regions. Anytime a rose gets cut back to 4 inches (I know--I have to do that sometimes too), it is going to be a bit slow in growing back. But I bet they will take off like crazy once that sun comes back full-time!

Kate

Check the warmth of the soil, which has more to do with plant growth than the air temperature which is much more variable. When the soil warms, the plants get going.

I'm curious if you prune them after they have gotten leaves or earlier? I wait and prune mine (mostly just the hybrid teas have cane issues from winter for me) after they get their leaves.

Sunshine and warmer temps definitely will help...

I too feel your pain! We have had rain all the month or May and no real sunshine! I am so sick of it already! (But the roses never looked so green )

We're supposed to be sunny all today and tomorrow, then back to rain.

My roses look great but are slower growing this year. However, I do have buds, although they will take a couple more weeks to bloom), so that's fine with me!

Agreed, lack of sun. My roses are way behind this year. I usually have had at least one bloom by now and nothing is open out there yet. I have two buds just starting to show some color.

Thanks for the encouragement....I will try to continue to be patient-doesn't seem fair that there are aphids on them even though they are so small! :0( Ok, I will stop complaining now. LOL

I'm sure the sun is the key. I recently pruned back some trees that had gotten large and were shading some roses near them. The roses have put on a lot of new growth since then. Not much you can do with cloudy weather though.

Well I am in a nice cold climate as well. I find that Bonemeal helps perk my babies right up. Dont get to upset yet, it is still early and we have it hard (super short growing seasons) but we can appreciate it more if we choose to look at it that way.

Best of luck
-Erika

Don't worry, a few days of sun and warmth to get the soil heated up and they'll take off like gangbusters.

Zap the aphids with insecticidal soap. You'll probably have to do that a few times several days apart to be really effective (but given the lousy weather having to do that may help alleviate your understandable frustration.... ;) ).

Thanks again everyone. I should KNOW this INSIDE. I have been growing roses for about 10 years now. I guess it's just my impatience. Seems our winters are longer and more drawn-out every year....like 7 months or more of dreary weather (cloudy/rainy or snowy) every year. My husband and I were out in Phoenix and Sedona, AZ last week to watch our daughter graduate from ASU and meet her in-laws. It was 100 and SUNNY and I didn't even break a sweat because of the low humidity. It is partly cloudy/cloudy here, 70 degrees and I am sweating profusely due to our always high-humidity. Part of me wanted to move there, but it was soooo brown. Here it is lush green at least!

I'm just doing the best of both worlds and moving to Italy...food is hard to beat as well LOL.

same here in the northwest; very little sun and cold spring leads to crappy rose growing conditions. they got to have sun and not just a day here and there either.

Some roses are more vigorous than others. Evelyn and Tradescant bounced back well, while St. Cecilia, touted as being cold hardy, is a wimp. Gentle Hermione is suprisingly hardy. I cut Martine Guillot way back and it is sprouting new canes like a hydra. Crown Princess Margareta looks good. Jude the Obscure and Charlotte are mediocre. Winchester Cathedral is about to die.

I grow all my roses in containers except for 'Mayor of Casterbridge' rose. That rose is in the ground and is already 3m tall.

My courtyard gets sunshine from about 1pm 'till 4pm-5pm.

My roses are certainly not puny. My 1st year laguna rose was a slow starter but by mid summer, it has reached to a height of 2.5m and is growing in a pot! What a headache. How am I suppose to transplant this rose with all those thorns?

However, I do noticed that lack of sunshine can result to:
1) smaller blooms.
2) mildew problems
3) some roses break dormancy late