I only have 8 roses, although 4 of them are climbers. I'm probably going all out on them this winter since I only have 8 and I bought them all potted this spring. Climbers: Red Eden White Eden New Dawn Zephirine Drouhin Shrubs: Graham Thomas Pat Austin William Shakespeare 2000 Belinda's Dream I have a relatively large oak tree in front of my house, so I am going to use oak leaves. I'm going to buy some chicken wire or the equivalent of it, then prep with winter fertilizer, dump a bag of top soil over the base of the rose, then place the chicken wire around the rose as a cylinder than fill it with the oak leaves. For the climbers, most people don't do anything. However, I am going to protect them as well as I am in a pretty stingy environement still and Red and White Eden havn't been widely tested in my area. This depends on how large the roses get this year, but I am going to dump a bag of top soil over the base, then chicken wire and put oak leaves around the base as well for the first couple feet...or however wide of a roll of chicen wire I buy. The remainder of the canes, I will wrap in burlap together. I don't expect my climbers to be any taller than 5ft this year though, so it's not very labor intensive. If they were mature huge climber like New Dawn, I would probably just dump a bag of soil over the base and leave it as it is as it would be a mature plant.

I don't know how cold you get there or how much snow cover either--- but where I live it can & does get down into the -20c to -30c and lots of snow most years. I do use straw (10-12 bales) I open them up and cover the plants with a foot at least of straw . We weedwack the plants down first except the grasses and shrubs to remove all debris. I let some plants lay their seeds down also I wait until the ground is frozen so the plant roots won't heave up and down with temp. in late fall early winter as this often is the cause of plants being lost eg. heurcheras.In the spring I slowly remove the straw to aclimatize the plants( the spring sun will kill the new light green growth & may cause you to loose the plant also). In the spring we remove the straw (when it's dried out )& put some into the compost, mulch some in around plants and use the rest to cover the walkways in the veggie garden. It makes working in the garden easier & cleaner. At the end of the growing season we rototil what's on the walkways into the veggie garden and start all over . This has worked for us for years- a bit of work but I've never lost a plant or shrub and I often grow z4-5 with success A bit long but hope this helps some- never have had rodent problems either. Lois

How do you get the wood chips, etc. off of the thorny roses in the spring? I did try mounding topsoil on my tenderer roses one December. It kept Comtesse de Province alive. The next winter I didn't protect and Comtesse died. Bill Radler said that roses like Knockouts and Bucks should not be winter protected because it is often more harmful than beneficial. Bill Radler: "The following list of roses are at least crown hardy and do not need, nor should they receive, winter protection (sometimes winter protection is more harmful than beneficial). It is essential, however, that the top of the graft union of the plant (the swollen part between the roots and the canes) be planted 1-1/2 to 2 inches below soil level especially with varieties that are crown hardy, i.e., they die back to the ground but regrow from the ground vigorously."

Good idea, Jim, that would be sturdy & easy to clean. What store did you get it from? I will have to look for that. One healthy rose worth buying: William Shakespeare 2000, I never find any Japanese Beetle on that for the past 4 years, since its petals are tightly-packed, and JB can't get inside. I have W.S. 2000 in a flooded area, with the overflow of rain barrel dumping water on that tiny rose, yet it's clean. I also put gypsum (for its zillion-petals), and cracked-corn in the planting hole (for anti-fungal agents in corn, such as zinc and copper). How one prepare the planting hole determines how disease-resistant it is. If the hole is well-drained, and has beneficial microbes, it will be healthy. When I piled up horse manure on Golden Celebration, I was surprised that the previously compacted soil underneath is made fluffy, thanks to the microbes from the well-rotted manure. The below link explains why: http://www.naturalenviro.com/Article.php?ArticleSKU=Soil-Building "The broad and diverse population of soil microorganisms will immediately begin to build an aerobic zone in the soil. The aerobic zone is the top portion of the soil that supports plant life. A healthy soil will normally have an aerobic zone 8-12 inches deep. Most soils today have an organic matter content of less than 1% and usually have very shallow aerobic zones (1-2 inches). One of the main causes of this is the lack of diverse population of beneficial soil microbes. Soils that have low organic matter and shallow aerobic zones also have a very low water holding capacity, are compacted, and have very low oxygen content. These conditions are very adverse to good root development by turf or plants and usually indicate very low microbial activity. When you apply microbes, you will see conditions in your soil begin to change quickly." An excerpt from another site on humus: http://www.naturalenviro.com/Article.php?ArticleSKU=humic-acid-role "Humic acid is also especially important because of its ability to chelate micronutrients increasing their bio-availability. Humic acid stimulates microbial activity by providing the indigenous microbes with a carbon source for food, thus encouraging their growth and activity. Soil microbes are responsible for solubilizing vital nutrients such as phosphorus that can then be absorbed by the humic acid and in turn made available to the plant. Additionally, microbes are responsible for the continued development of humus in the soil as it continues to break down not fully decomposed organic matter." William Shakespeare 2000 as own-root can take lots of rain. I look over the pictures over the last 4 years, including the 1st year when it was in a pot, with chemical fertilizer. My rating: it was really stingy in a pot, from high-nitrogen-soluble. It gave lots of bloom with sulfate of potash & gypsum, but the health can't be compared to horse manure. This year with too much rain: I used red-lava-rock & cocoa mulch, bloom-quality is good, but leaves got holes from excess water, but no black spots. Below is William Shakespeare when I used horse manure & alfalfa meal, 100% healthy, fantastic bloom-color and quality: Here's William Shakespeare 2000 bloom with horse manure: nice purple, thanks to the trace elements in horse manure. I like more than what I have now, deep crimson from red-lava-rock: