Vigor is the secret, and it's not necessarily a zone-hardiness thing. A vigorous rose, even if it's not cane hardy, will grow back and bloom, assuming it blooms on new wood. Oh, it won't get as big as in warmer zones, and it will have fewer bloom cycles due to a shorter season, but it can perform well despite dying back to the mulch line. Westerland is NOT terribly vigorous, as I've seen from its reluctance to grow even under ideal conditions. It's not cane hardy for me either. I could forgive it for not being cane hardy if it was vigorous. Westerland's canes die back to the mulch line in all but the mildest of our winters. That would be ok *if* it grew back with a number of canes that made it to 3 or 4 feet tall and bloomed well. But it doesn't. I've tried Westerland grafted AND own root. No difference. There are other 1-2 cane wonders that are somewhat cane hardy but have no vigor, so they never really make anything of themselves. As we've seen, they're the ones that barely hang on for a few years. No vigor amongst those pups. Examples of what I consider vigorous are Ballerina and some of the Austins like Pat Austin and, to a lesser extent, Graham Thomas. None of these roses are normally cane hardy in zone 5. They die back to the protection line almost every winter (I never used winter protection for them). But.....they bounce back in the spring/summer, put out a good number of canes, get anywhere from 3.5 to 5 feet tall, and bloom reasonably well. Hardiness is zone survival. Ideally, you'd like the canes to be somewhat hardy, but that's not always possible. Vigor is the ability to bounce back, to put out significant new growth and bloom despite the setbacks of winter; it's a mission to grow and reproduce (bloom). From what I've observed so far, if a rose doesn't throw out canes readily, and it doesn't put out much growth under good conditions, then it really doesn't matter if it's cane hardy or not. It's going to be a wimp. Obviously, vigor is useless on non-cane hardy roses that require old wood for blooming. :-) So, good vigor can compensate for cane hardiness, all things considered. The trick is finding out which roses fall into that category.

Pictures number 2 and 5 look the worst - I'd be very surprised if those roses are anything but dead by now. The others have at least one green cane, and as Jeri said I'd cut the dead canes back to live cane or the ground, whichever comes first. Pictures number 3 and 4 look like some of that green cane is trying to sprout something, but you're definitely not being premature by contacting the company. For what it's worth, I have to trim back most of the canes on most of the bareroot grafted canes I buy no matter how good the condition they arrive in. I watch them carefully for the kind of browning or blackening at the ends like your photos, then trim it back to beyond the brown at least an inch or two, and sanitize the pruners with each cut. I've posted about this before, and it's probably a case of verticilium wilt in the canes. The bareroot roses that survive are the ones that put out their own new canes - rarely are these much more than stubs of the canes they started with. Almost all of my bareroots planted in April look just like my band plants planted in May because of this, and they take equally long to come back from the planting and take off. Just letting you know it's not you - it might have a contribution from something in your climate or soil, and possibly a damaged or weak plant to start with that had the pathogen already in the cane. Hope this helps. I agree that you should contact the company about these and give them the chance to respond. Cynthia

Harry, that's beautiful. I think ADOLPH isn't suited for very many places, unfortunately. I'm currently nursing my 5th plant. My original one died after I planted it in the ground about 12yrs ago. I replaced it a yr or so later... in the ground. Died. Actually, I seem to recall it never actually broke dormancy. I didn't replace it. Then a few yrs later I got another one from Edmund's when they first got bought out. The roses I ordered with it all arrived very early in the season, and it, along with ALL AMERICAN MAGIC, did not break dormancy. So I contacted them in April and they shipped out 2 each of those two roses to replace them with... in MAY. Bareroots don't do well here in May! But both of the AAM's are alive now, however one of the ADOLPHs grew a bit and died. The remaining one nearly died a yr or so ago, but has tried really hard to come back. I'm keeping it in a pot to see if it will eventually get healthy enought to "try" putting it in the ground. If it weren't such a beautiful rose, I would give up on it. But I can tell you, if this one doesn't make it, I will not replace it again!

As an alternative to Rio Samba, you could check out Chihuly. I bought one last year, potted it up, and put it in the garage over the winter. It's still alive! It was only put in the garage because I didn't have time to dig it out and throw it away. The fragrance is wonderful. You basically get four different colors as the flower matures. I love it. Northspruce may be able to tell you the difference between a floribunda and a hybrid tea. I think floribunda is hardier ??