That's a good question. Are they tea roses or old fashioned roses? I'm not the best person to answer your question, but it might help if you said what zone you're in. I'm guessing zone 5, if you're in Spokane.

How great that you have inherited roses with such a history. In what part of southeast Washington State did your grandparents originally homestead?

Lavendar Lass, Tea Roses will not grow in zone 4 or 5 Washington.
I suspect you meant to say hybrid tea roses? The two are not the same.

boomologist,
Can you build a small coldframe. A light bulb on a thermostat would supply enough heat and all you'd have to do is water them once in a while. Perhaps you could rent a little greenhouse space from a florist? These are probably hardy stock but newly rooted roses must be cared for special to survive their first winter.
I have a couple hundred rooted cuttings to over winter. I built a cold frame in my unheated greenhouse in which to keep them. If I didn't do that, I'd lose most of them.

I know this goes against the common wisdom, but I have wintered over newly-rooted rose cuttings indoors. I have a 3-shelf plant light cart, and I keep the babies there. I do keep the humidity around them high, and we do keep our house quite cool during the winter (thermostat set at 62-65 during the day, down to 55 at night). The babies don't go truly dormant, but they do slow down quite a bit.

I've always kept them inside, in the basement under lights. The odds of getting them through the winter outside are so low, it's barely worth trying.

Thanks for the reply's. I haven't been ignoring everyone. We were camping and I refuse to take the laptop on a camping trip.
>>>Are they tea roses or old fashioned roses?Don't know the difference but I would suspect they are old fashioned. They came west in the mid 1800Âs to the homestead at Garfield, Washington. Nothing had been done with them except to push them in the ground, give a little fertilizer and water them, until the last few years. Since the mid 1990Âs they have had nothing done to them. No water, fertilizer, pruning, nothing.
I agree that these starts are quite fragile even though the parent plants survive very well. We do have a root cellar that maintains about 55 during the winter where they could stay. We could also close off one room in the basement so it didnÂt get any heat. It would stay about 55-60. If they will require light and water I would think they should probably go in the basement where we can keep an eye on them.
Most likely they will be divided into two or three groups and placed in a couple locations so if one method doesnÂt work we wonÂt loose all of them.
Thanks again for all the help.

In the basement, as cool as possible, underneath regular fluorescent shop lights should work fine. Keep the bulbs as close to the roses as you can.

That far above freezing is too warm to keep the roses dormant. They'll need light and water. Once-bloomers usually do badly want a winter rest, but it's hard to do because of their size.

Karl, How lucky we are that we can all benefit from your knowledge and wisdom :)

Boomologist, good luck with your roses. Garfield is not far from our farm and I wish you luck on your roses making it through the winter!