every single tip that I pegged is brown and dead. Is this normal?

*** Yes. Growth hormones to to the uppermost part of the cane. So, when you pull them down, they die back.
Eventually, they died right back to the highest point, and had to be pruned to there.
That's why, having pegged and self-pegged many roses, years ago, I will NEVER do it again.

I think it's a great technique for those who have an army of paid gardeners.

Jeri in Coastal SoCal.

A stem that is wounded and put in contact with the soil could easily get a botrytis or other canker infection. Did the dieback stop when it reached a healthy leaf-node? If so, it may be OK, but you might want to prune a few inches below the dieback.

Thank you Jeri and Michael. I did prune them back to healthy stem, and "unpeg" them.
Another question..would the tips still die back if I didn't peg them right to the ground? I am thinking maybe pull them down and tie them off to a peg without them touching the ground? Thanks for the help...Donna

Donna, I didn't peg mine to the ground.
I "Self-pegged" them, pulling each cane end around to another cane.
Even so, everything that was pulled down, died back to the highest point.

It was a hallacious lot of work, and I did it all myself, because DH swore it would not work out well.
Come spring, when we got a mass of bloom, I thought I had the last laugh, but in the end, he did.

I'm not sorry I did it, for I did learn a lot from it.

Jeri

I'm also new to pegging. I hope Donna doesn't mind because I like to extend on her question

1) I still don't really understand what you guys mean by "dying back to the highest point" . .
The 'dying back' part - will that gradually get worst i.e spread right down to the main cane?

2) This is tea-clipper that I used for pegging. As you can see in the second photo, there are too many "loops" . . . will those "loops" be covered quickly?

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3) If I do happen to have laterals popping out with blooms, what do I do with them? Do I peg them again, wait for them to grow longer or prune them?

It is probably better to keep them off the ground unless you want to encourage rooting (tip-layering).

When I experimented with the looping-under type of self-pegging, I did not get dieback. It probably depends on the variety. I consider looping-under a step on the way to a dense pruned shrub. (Who wants what Pat43 called the "origami" look?) Dieback would not be catastrophic since the alternative was to cut the whippy shoots back sooner.

JumboJimmy, you just have to observe and experiment. You will probably get strong laterals from the top of the arch. These can create a "bad-hair" look, so you may want to cut them back after blooming. If you want to, eventually you can cut the looped canes off at the arch and reserve the self-pegging treatment for strong new basals or semi-basals.

Self-pegging as opposed to pruning-up may conserve plant energy and hasten development of a mature shrub. With either approach, you are trying to limit the plant's spread and make it more dense. This is opposed to Jeri's approach of letting plants develop naturally in a generous space.

Michael knows, I really do prefer roses grown that way.

I tried Self-pegging with the Austins, 'Othello' and 'The Pilgrim' (both sparse bloomers here),
and with the Bourbon, 'Mme. Isaac Pereire.'
I was not tying laterals.
I was tying basal canes.

In all cases, I had a good show of blooms on cutting-length laterals.
It made a spectacular show in the garden.

Once that spring flush was over, however, the tied canes did, yes, begin to die back.
In all three cases, they did die back to the highest point on the cane.
They all had to be cut back to healthy wood, leaving radically-shortened basal canes.
These did not fare well in my cool, coastal climate, and (to my eye, at least) were unattractive.

So, the technique may work well for some people, but it did not work well for me.

By contrast, tying long canes to a tripod, winding them around, with an upward path,
has worked very well here.

It produced the augmented bloom quantity, but did not result in cane die back.

Jeri

Aren't there certain types of roses that do best with pegging? Even specific roses? (Not that there wouldn't be cane die back or the possiblilty of lovely fungus no matter what!)

At the David Austin Garden in Barona I noticed they grew 2 of the same rose about 4 feet apart and made a bridge of the canes. The canes were loosely tied together. Another creative way to create a unique look and more blooms. I say unique because it looked odd not necessarily beautiful. Actually, it would be an interesting way to make a rose "handrail".

As an aside idea, my Dad hangs bells from the canes of his climber to make laterals.

Allison

Allison, I LOVE your dad's idea!

Jeri