Winter must make a difference! Zone 6 is pretty cold for modern roses, no? Here it is 99% survival, 2 or 3 roses lost out of 350+ in 10 years.

The 2 or 3 that did not make it...one is a mystery, it may have been contaminated soil, while the others were poor specimens to begin with. I am no wizard gardener: the mild climate here must be the reason.

I've lost none of 32 in the last three years so far. At my previous house, I lost two out of about a dozen: Kazanlik after it was transplanted, and a little yellow Tea thrip magnet which was SP'ed. I thought Eugene de Beauharnais croaked this summer, but it has come back a little; it still may not make it through next year. We'll see.

I usually turn over about 10% of my roses each year combined deaths and shovel pruning. Since I have scaled back a little I am not replacing all of these each year, but generally most of my new ones make it. I would say more than 90% survival for newly planted roses.

50% seems like an awefully low survival rate! I definitely would stay away from teas, chinas, and noisettes and plant big grafted roses instead of own-root when possible. If you have to buy a band, only plant it in spring after potting it up for a couple of months, don't plant directly in the ground and don't buy own root plants in the fall.

You did not say if you purchased virused "tested" roses.

Another consideration, did you buy roses on a recommended rootstock for your area?

Do you prune heavily between bloom cycles? A new rose needs to put several years of energy into developing a good root system in some areas/soil conditions. Thus, very little (if any) pruning may be prudent.

I get my roses grafted and bareroot or as semi-bareroot bands, and always plant them directly into the ground, which is clay and usually only roughly amended, if at all. I grow almost all old or older roses, ramblers, species and their hybrids or shrubs--all tough and thrifty kinds. They get watered the first year, by a hose. They're planted in the fall, to give them time to root before the summer drought comes along. Our winters are chilly but mild, with lots of temperatures in the thirties and forties, but rarely falling below 20F. Sharp freezes following warm weather are also uncommon: roses are unlikely to be tempted into growth and then get frozen back. Last year we put boughs over the Teas and Chinas we planted in December, in case it should get dangerously cold. We keep a permanent mulch on everything. I prune minimally, and leave small roses alone.
With these conditions, I expect that the great majority of my roses will grow. I've been working on my garden for about seven years now, and have a pretty fair idea of what will grow where: I lost more roses a few years ago when I didn't know that the Gallicas would hate compact gray clay and a western exposure, for example. A year ago I would guess I planted around eighty roses or so, many of them purchased and new to me; and as far as I can remember almost all of them are alive. This year I did lose a freshly planted 'Le Vésuve' to crown gall; a grafted rose in very heavy clay looks as though it may not make it; and two roses in very hot stony soil died.
Problems vary according to where you live. I would say my conditions are overall very easy ones, and I mainly need to stick with thrify roses, which are my favorites anyway; and to consider whether the rose in question is adapted to the place where I'm thinking of planting it.
Melissa

Survival rate: this forum is invaluable to helping rosarians choose roses suitable to their climate and troubleshooting what is wrong when they don't thrive.
It's the 911 of antique roses.

I am an experienced gardener like you but newbie to antique roses and I grow them in southwest Florida, talk about a minority group, lol.

Recently my rose survival rate was only 60%, worse than anything in my whole gardening life. Depressing. But a water test, made because of our dying lawn, was an Aha! that explained why the roses died. Our irrigation was way too salty and irony (ironic?).

Again only a small number of people will ever have this particular problem.

I now see nearly 100% survival.

You need to be your own detective. Or bring your problems here, post photos (i.e. sherryocala's R.DeLizy) ask for suggestions. Listen to people in your zone the most.

Good luck. I was close to giving up on roses when the answer appeared. Everything in the garden looks much happier now including me.

Denise

I started my garden here in 2005 and have about a 95% survival rate. The two greatest loss factors have been winter kills of 1) bands planted in Sept, especially Teas or Noisettes, and 2) blackspot weakened plants, esp Bourbons. The rest of my losses have been human error (forgot it was there and didn't water) or just mysteries. Most of mine go in as own root bands. I have also lost a few HTs I rescued in end-of-season sales from the local nurseries,but I knew they were compromised to begin with. Now I stay away from bourbons and I don't plant the more tender classes after June.

If I had to guess, most of my problems have been associated with zone pushing, I've given up on teas, chinas and noisettes. I still have one Mme. Lombard that is OK after two seasons, I love her so hopefully she'll be alright. I know we had poor soil, especially near the house foundation (a brick house with a concrete block foundation) and we dug up chunks of mortar and broken brick when we planted. And we have moles and voles that manage to chew up lots of roots. Some of my other problems have been death due to plants weakened by blackspot, I don't spray. Also trying to grow Austin bands on their own roots, I've switched to grafted with much better results.

I'm with Melissa on thrifty roses, they've got to be tough to live in my garden. I don't irrigate but will water by hand for the first year to get them established. I don't prune much except to remove dead and crossing canes with some tip pruning for height in spring.

I've looked back and listed deaths by problems, so far most have been winter-kill, either because they weren't suited to this climate or that Easter freeze we had a couple of years back weakened them to the point of demise. Some have been lost to RRD, and some, maybe most, have been lost to blackspot either weakening the plant enough so it didn't winter over or death by shovel. I don't mind this trial and error method, I like to learn from my mistakes. There are so few modern roses that do well without spraying but I thought I'd try some. Now I'm returning to my rose roots, so to speak, and have started planting Albas and other once bloomers.

As to what has done well for me in my area, hybrid musks and surprisingly, some Bourbons like Maggie and Great Western have fared quite well. I'm expanding on rugosa hybrids and some ramblers and climbers like Veilchenblau and Awakening do exceedingly well here. I did start a new Austin bed this year with grafted plants, they took off well and I hope to see them thrive. I tried to choose the more reputedly blackspot resistant varieties like Lady Emma Hamilton and Teasing Georgia and Jude the Obscure. I mixed some modern floribunda and shrubs with them like Julia Child, Ebb Tide and Wild Blue Yonder. I also tried some Bucks for the first time, Earthsong and Quietness replaced Knockout and Hermosa.

This process of experimentation is ongoing. As long as I can garden I'll keep trying new things, maybe safer things but still new to me.

I'm not sure of my survival rate, but I'm sure it's nothing to write home about, definitely much less that 90%. Some things can't be helped, like losses to RRD (didn't appear until the next spring), or rodents. Also, this is an iffy zone for winter hardiness (cold, no snow, and widely fluctuating temps).
Within the classes some hybrids are more tender than others and you won't know until you try.
I won't winter protect, too much trouble putting stuff on then off again.

Is it worth pushing the zone, I'd say yes. I've found I can grow HP's and some chinas, this year I'm expanding to some of the hardier Teas and bourbons.
Other experiments that failed: Ordering in late summer, I lost some, I think, to heat stress in shipping. They arrived alive but declined too quickly IMO to otherwise account for. Also, fall planting for young plants doesn't work well due to winter kill for me so now I'm experimenting with overwintering in an unheated garage their first year.
That was probably my worst year, I'd say not much more than 50%.
While research can work, I've found some of my favorite roses were either impulse buys or, had I known more about them, wouldn't have purchased them but now really like.

One thing that does work well for me is own-root. Personally, I can't tell the difference between them and graphed. So with the price of roses going up and my income down (and 1 daughter starting college) I electing to start rooting my own "back ups".

Although I've always grown some roses, I didn't get into it seriously until 5-6 years ago. During that time period, I lost a couple roses from two different orders about two years apart. In all those cases, the newly planted rose did not thrive from the beginning and slowly died back for several months, despite my best care.

The only thing I remember they had in common is that they were part of much larger orders, which means they didn't get planted as promptly as most of the others. In other words, they soaked longer in a water bucket--perhaps several weeks. I'm guessing that they passed the point of no-return before I got them planted--though they still looked "normal" when I planted them. Other than that, I can't explain the failure.

In Zone 6, a hard late-freeze in April can be dangerous to your roses, although I've never had one completely kill a rose. I had to prune a lot of my roses nearly to the ground after that terrible Easter freeze someone above referred to, but they grew back. Thankfully, late-freezes that bad are not that common around here.

Mainly, I'm usually impressed with how tough roses can be. I've got several that were moved 2-3 times in one season and still managed to grow and (eventually) thrive.

Kate

I have never had a rose actually die. I have pulled out a few because I got sick of their blackspot and lack of performance.

I think it has a lot to do with your location. Here in Florida roses are very frustrating with all the blackspot,chilli thrips, and sandy soil, but they always seem to retain the ability to rebound to health. The Californians live in rose paradise and we should not really even compare our results to theirs. You should ask someone in your area to see if you have a good survival rate.

Most survive unless I step on them as bands or just decide enough is enough and removed them.

Ha,

I think alot of us zone 5 and colder know this pain more than zone 6 and warmer...

We are a perpetual testing ground for roses here. Ive lost around 35-45 percent of all of my roses I have ever tried. Over a dozen buck roses GONE, half a dozen austins, a dozen hybrid teas, a poly or two, a couple of romanticas, a couple floris.. I LAUGH at the supposed modern HARDY rose label, its a joke to a truly harsh climate, plus the fact that most of these hybridezers really dont try them out in my conditions. Ive probable lost 70 roses all told you do the math 70 dollars x 12.00 or so = 840.00 bucks or so.. No wonder my wife cringes every year when I expand my gardens LOL.

I NOW order 5-1 from truly hardy antiques vs modern roses. This coming year, 4 gallicas and a couple of canadians are going in. Quite frankly Ive lost even hardy roses to savage deer attacks or them being shipped SOOO puny there was no hope of survival. Pickering sent me the SMALLEST little gallica of Belle Doria last year, Im not impressed and I would be suprised to see it this coming spring. Its the constant freeze / thaw cylce plus the -15 degree lows. I have it hard enough here, I cant imagince those with -30 degree weather on a consistent basis. Last year was a very cold year here and we hit between -17 and -19. Even our major city who hasnt seen - in the teens saw a -15. I used to live in a zone 4b zone with temps getting as low as -25 or so. Ive really cut back as well. I wont have more than 60 or so roses in my new gardens in the coming years. With my schedule and my kids, I dont have time to deal with these fussy wussies!

This is the constant frustration to us more northern gardeners. I love the antiques, but gosh , I like to see some roses in august and sept as well! We have such a short season here! (Yet after seeing other threads, I do like that I dont have to water much =).

Silverkelt

In the past few years ours has been zero or one HT a year, out of a few dozen HTs. We haven't lost anything else--which is why our collection is well over 150 bushes.

Interesting question. I have been keeping an Excel spread sheet for over 10 years now. I have 196 on the list of current roses in the gardens; there are 98 on the list of past roses. That 98 are all the roses removed from the gardens over those 10 years. Out of those 98, 25 were removed by choice - either SP'd and thrown on the compost pile for bad habits, or potted up and given away. That's 73 roses that I have in general lost to winter: some from my pushing the zone, some from buying small bands that just never thrived, some from going into winter weakened by disease, some that just couldn't take the annual pruning to the ground and which gradually over several years decreased until one spring they were just gone. But on the good side, almost every one of those 73 were modern roses - very few OGR's on the list. My son, the arborist tells me that in a woodland setting, 20% mortality is the norm. I figure I'm at about 25% and considering the harsh climate, I think I am not doing too badly. Someone from a warmer climate would probably be appalled, LOL!

I would say in St. Pete Fl it IS 95% plus because of the rootstock. I have done cuttings own root, grafted at the same time etc. Fortuniana ALMOST always wins. Some house eaters do fine own root here. Also Chinas do pretty well. I have a few noisettes that are own root going on almost 10 years now. I hear that is pretty uncommon. Usually here, whatever it is, will last a few years and decline and die unless it is budded. Oddly, a few A Clark roses I have are alive own root after 7 years, but grafted looks a lot better and is healthier. I zone push all the time ...sure I'll try that Alba or whatever ...sometimes, you can be proven wrong. I like showing people moss roses and ramblers doing fine in Tampa Bay.

Looking over my lists, 48 are gone, and 95 are still here. That sounds pretty bad - 34%. But only

12 were really killed by me.
-- 8 in my potting soil fiasco as babies
-- 2 didn't survive transplant (don't know why)
-- 2 I sp'd for poor performance which I think was due to insufficient water.

21 because they didn't make me happy.
-- 5 I gave away
-- 16 I sp'd

5 because they were Hybrid Musks
8 for BS
1 had RM Virus I think.

So apparently, rate of survival in my garden has more to do with the inexperienced choices of the gardener than with death by natural causes and more lately with the mood of the gardener. I was feeling pretty ruthless a month or two ago. The learning curve is pretty expensive though.

Now if you want to talk really bad rate of survival, we can change the subject to azaleas. #%$#!!!

Sherry

I have abt. 20 bushes that are over 25-30 years old, all on Fort., I had more but a huge pecan tree dropped some limbs on the rose-bed and smashed them... I lost maybe 20 roses after they were a year or 2 old because they were grafted on Dr. Huey, and it doesn't last here in St Pete, this was during the time after old Mr. Nelson died and his sons didn't work the Nursery, they turned out inferior stock and Nurseries here in St Pete switched to Dr. Huey, and some cases Weeks Roses, which are just not suited for this climate or soil.... now Nelson's has got their act together and our local Nurseries are carrying their plants, and I have bought maybe 15 since and rejuvenated my older beds, they are doing very well..... when I have gotten own-root plants, they have not lasted, maybe 2-3 years, I lost abt. 5-6 that way...I lost maybe 3-4 due to my own carelessness in planting, and several because I neglected to spray or feed them.... it is always an on-going project, isn't it ? sally

Last time I was at Nelson's, the roses were not in great shape nor were they in any way cheap. I check the stores just about every time I go by them just to see, but I find ordering online is best most of the time for me. Even if it is not on Fortuniana , I will graft myself. A lot of my losses are minis this year, but it is to be expected.

Hi - I have never tried grafting, but am willing to try--- if you do graft, do you do your Mini's? wwouldn't they last longer if they were ? I have re-planted some of my beds with the newer Nelson's and am satisfied, so far... and am ordering from Cool Roses in W. Palm, they graft onto Fort., and will see how they turn out.. also the do some OGR and Austin roses, also Nelson now does some Austin also some OGR, I have 2 of their Louis Philippe and they seem great, also a Abe. Darby-Austin, and am impressed... so far..... sally

Thank to to those bravest out there who will admit to defeat, whether by a mistake of their own, or by weather, disease, animals, or whatever. I was beginning to think I was the only rose murderer out there!

Sherry, thank you for your admission, I salute you. And I agree with you on azaleas, I have the perfect environment and climate for them, but the azalea bugs also love them and so I tend to think of them as annuals now.

annececilia, I used to live in a cold climate too and had a way better survival rate than I do now. But then I only had OGRs. Maybe now I've been experimenting a bit too long and my learning curve is a bit longer now that I'm older I don't know.

Most of my plant deaths have been by shovel. I don't mind the expense if the payoff is the perfect plant in the perfect place. This goes not just for roses but all of my gardens. One bed that started out as all perennials is now mostly roses. And another that was roses is now prairie garden plants.

Just about the time I get it all right it'll be time to move again. C'est la vie!