I am feeling the same way. Today I was wandering around looking at the blossoms that will fry and wondering which will be spared. Some little buds will escape but many of the thin petaled roses will be utterly ruined. I hate the yo-yo spring weather in So. CA this year. I was even thinking a few days ago that some of the roses are enjoying a longer than usual season. For instance my blush Boursault which is still going and the extended bloom my Peach Silk has had. I believe that my lovely Jasmina show which is now at its peak will be blown to bits so I was sitting on a reclining patio chair today just enjoying looking up at it. Tomorrow morning I am going on a rose gathering walk and will move the little bands to shelter under the big tree. You have the right idea to enjoy these beautiful flowers indoors rather than watch them get destroyed outside.

Your "experiment" is ridiculous in its extremes. Almost every plant should get at least a brief soak, as most plants received are quite dried out. Also, plants need to be well watered when planted and daily for about two weeks to get established. If plants are initially potted in semi-shade, I find they are easier to care for in the heat of late summer. When Dan Hansen said, "Skip the soak," he was using hyperbole to emphasize the dangers of crown rot, especially a problem in the South.

James Galway gets over 20 feet tall in late fall as 7th-year-own-root in my zone 5a. James' Blooms has amazing carnation scent when aged in the vase. It lasts 5+ days in the vase. Below bouquet was taken mid-July, showing pink Comte de Chambord, and bright-red L.D. Braithwaite at center (lasts long in the vase, but not much scent). Left yellow is Golden Celebration (form is bad in hot & dry). Dark reds are W.S. 2000, it's a continuous bloomer as 12th-year-own-root. Lavender Crush is good for the vase, it used to be deep ugly purple, I don't like the color so I dug out the top 1 foot of clay and mixed pelletized lime to soften the color, and it has been 100% healthy with zero blackspots, plus the color is lighter & prettier: Below pic. showing Lavender Crush with zero blackspots as 7th-year grafted-on-Dr.Huey. Pic. taken this August 11, 2022. It's over 5 feet tall and blooms at the top:

Thank you, Jim and Cottagegarden for reviving this thread. I really appreciate the company of kind, and positive visitors to this forum. Like Cottagegarden, I bought 2 soil-test kits from local stores: Lowe and HomeDepot. They are totally useless and gave false result. Then I paid $20 for EarthCo. (professional soil-testing company) and my soil test came back high pH at 7.7, and deficient in everything, plus barely adequate in calcium ... I was so sure that my soil has plenty of calcium !! I'm next to a limestone quarry. For years I disagree with my neighbor on calcium. He insisted that his tomato in pots are lacking in calcium (blossom end-rot) ... He's right, after seeing how mixing gypsum (calcium sulfate) into the soil made 1st-year band-size La Reine went beserk with buds: due to winter-kill, it's only 8 inch. tall, but with 10 buds !! But the plant is stunt & brown leaves, and the blooms are small. I forgot to give it sulfate of potash (it should be twice more potassium than calcium). Yes to mixing gypsum into planting hole, but no more than 10% (I spent hours researching on the right % to mix in). I broke that rule many times, and end up with stunt plants & leaves showing potassium deficiency. Too much calcium drives down potassium. If you have a large garden, soil can vary: some part can be alkaline if watered frequently with high pH tap water. Most tap water are alkaline, I already tested a few with fish-tank litmus paper, even mineral bottled water has pH over 8. Some part of a garden can be acidic (if get rain water only, pH at 5.6). My soil test recommend mixing sulfur into clay. BAD ADVICE !! That was expensive and killed tons of earthworms. I like gypsum better, less caustic & cheaper ($4 for 25 lb. at Menards). Gypsum is great in breaking up compacted clay, provides calcium, plus de-salt soil. I moved 4 roses this spring: The ones that didn't get gypsum in the planting hole were slower to recuperate. The one that got gypsum in the planting hole, was VERY FAST in pumping out buds. See Duchess de Rohan below, 2 weeks after moving, with lots of buds. I moved that one since it was in too much shade, zero blooms. After moving to more sun, it exploded in buds. A note on moving roses. Roses which are grafted on Dr. Huey is less forgiving in moving. Dr. Huey is a long stick, and it's easy to break the tiny roots at the end. I moved knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey twice before. Both time they lost all their leaves, and took at least 3 months to get back to normal. With own-root, it's so much easier to move: The roots are cluster: wide & shallow, rather than a long & deep stick like Dr. Huey. I moved at least 10 own-roots for the past 4 years: They recuperate quickly, lose zero leaves, IF THE ORIGINAL SOIL IS LOOSE & FLUFFY, then moving is zero stress. If the original soil is compact, digging them up caused many roots to be broken.