"no advantages of traveling?"

You've gotta be kidding...

Let me qualify: "No advantages of business travel." Especially if it's frequent.

My recent trip to Israel was an exception, where I actually had a few hours of down time. Usually, it's drive, airport, taxi, hotel, company location, late dinner, hotel, company location, late dinner, repeat, taxi, airport, drive, home, recover.

narcnh

Most hybrid teas don't do well in the north. I am in Maine, and grow mostly David Austin roses and old garden roses that are hardy. Yes you will likely have a lot of dieback after winter, if not the bush being outright killed. Do like your mom does for protection, but don't prune your roses down until after they're dormant--usually shortly after Thanksgiving around here. The mulching is important--this is what will (hopefully) insulate your rose bush from the harsh winter so it has a chance of coming back next spring.

The tree roses will have to come inside for the winter--in a cool dark area where the temps don't go below freezing, such as a garage.

HTs are pretty disease-prone, but so are a lot of other roses. See what happens this year, and if they are prone to blackspot, start a spraying program. I use Bayer Rose & Flower fungicide every 3 weeks or so as a preventative, it works really well.

Aphids don't bother me too much, I just squish them or squirt off with a jet of water. If there are JBs in your area, they will sooner or later find your roses.

What's the names of your roses?

It is actually suggested around here that you plant roses with the graft union several inches below ground so that if the plant does die back to the ground that what comes back from the root has a chance to be your preferred plant, which may have grown some of its own roots. Then mulch. Don't cut back until spring when you see what has died. Climbers you can detach from the trellis and lie close to the ground and mulch. I tend to grow roses from cuttings from friends that I know will be hardy locally, and even as a relatively inexperienced rose grower I've been reasonably successful. Unfortunately, many of the roses I've seen at big box stores aren't hardy for this area, so enjoy their blooms this year and hope for another mild winter, preferably with good snow cover.

I'm biased in favor of roses that I don't have to fuss over too much, so I don't grow hybrid teas and research whether the rose is prone to blackspot or other deseases before I buy them. Anecdotally, sprinkling alfalfa meal or corn meal under the plant is supposed to reduce blackspot, but I've never had enough of a problem to try it. Many of my roses are early once bloomers because they are done blooming before the J beetles arrive. The ones that aren't I've planted in an area that isn't good J beetle territory - a clearing surrounded by much woodland. I'll be spreading Milky Spore desease on the small amount of lawn there as I've had success with that reducing the J beetle population at a previous house/garden. I don't have any neighbors with lawns within J beetle flying distance, and I've heard that this is only successful if all the nearby area is milky spored.

Another problem is rose chafers, which are insects about the size of J beetles, but longer, slimmer, and tanner. They emerge a bit earlier than J beetles and chew on the blooms. I don't know of any organic way to prevent them other than hand picking. They are common if you are near fallow agricultural land, which surrounds my current house. I don't have problems with them in the wooded location.

I hope this is helpful, and if you want cuttings or have other specific questions, I'll check back here (though maybe not right away as work is busy right now.)

Definitely plant the bud union below ground, but be careful of the mulch. Unless you have extremely well draining, sandy soil, everytime the temperature goes above freezing, you'll end up with a pile of sodden gunk next to the canes. Here, the mulching usually does more damage than winter, since cold winters with a lot of snow provide their own mulch.

Most modern hybrid roses require a lot of heat to grow well. In New England, they rarely get it, so expect them to get smaller each year. When they are too small to produce, get rid of them.

Thanks for all the great info. Sounds like I might be pushing the envelope here with all the hybrid teas. Ah well, one can always hope. Most are on the south side of the house in full sun, so they will get a lot of heat. IÂll watch for black spot and start a spraying program as soon as I see it. Bummer about the bud union; all of mine are planted with it just above the ground. I havenÂt mulched the gardens, yet, so they will all end up under the mulch, which should help. IÂll also pile it on in the fall, too.

veilchen, I havenÂt gotten around to all of them, yet, but the ones IÂve done are named Antares, Beelzebub, Obfuscation, Quaternary, Sequatchie and Bob.

Again, thanks, yaÂll.

narcnh

The problem I have with my roses (mostly old roses with a few D. Austins) is rose slug, the larvae of the saw fly beetle. They can skelatonize the leaves in a matter of a week or two and are very hard to spot initially being almost transparent and staying under leaf for the most part. Last year I resorted to a Bayer systemic product, and plan on treating them again this year. Otherwise I garden organically, so I agonized over the decision to do this. But otherwise I really would have thrown them all out, they were that ugly.
I don't mulch for the winter. I go out in spring when I can start to see the die back line, and prune down to there. Most of the old roses have only one flush, but the Austins are more floriforous.