Just my opinion but as far as frost and nights in the twenties we'll still have more of these nights. I've already pulled the debris out from under my roses. As temps at this won't hurt those that I have. Glad I did a lot of slugs were living in the mush. My old leaves never fall off in winter. They come off when I pruned in spring. However all my roses are disease resistant so black spot is not really a problem for me. They get some but never bad.

We did a more dew last year than I had seen in a long time. My guess for the weather is that this pattern of weather is going too continue but we'll see. It certainly shows no sign of breaking down. I didn't think this winter was as bad as last years but bad enough for me.

I'm stocking up this year on some good quality bagged soil. Then I'm trying what many up north do and dump some over the crown. These winters are getting ridiculous and I'd like to see some live cane again.

For what it's worth I had a lot of problems with mulch covering plants and won't do it again unless its cedar mulch.

Might not hurt for me to start looking at some roses hardy to zone3. I found one too try that I really like Princess Alexander of Kent. Have seen this one rated hardy in zone2.

I'm in zone 6 and I'm not taking mine off yet. I wouldn't have ever done it this early anyway. My usual date for removing the winter protection has always been April 1st. Even at that I've had springs where my roses took a terrible hit from a late spring freeze. I think it was April of 2007 when we had that bad freeze on Easter weekend. I lost about 30 roses to that freeze. No, I think it's better to err on the side of caution and wait a while longer to peel off the covers.

About the pruning, I'd wait on that too. You are going to have to prune them down pretty low anyway, from winter die back, when the time comes. That will take off most of those left over leaves. Why prune twice? Besides, pruning may stimulate them to start growing sooner and if we do have a late freeze all that energy will be lost and they'll have to start over. This time of year is notorious for that freeze thaw cycle and that is harder on the roses than just sustained cold. You don't want to stress them further by pruning them and asking them to grow when all that new growth is so tender and susceptible to freezing. They only have so much stored energy to start growing with and you don't want to use it up on false starts.

I know this time of year is very frustrating for all of us. It's starting to warm up a little bit, the snow is melting away and the sun is out for longer and longer in the daytime. We all want desperately to get out there. I know I do! But patience is a virtue for a good reason. Play the waiting game now and it will pay off for you later.

I'm glad all of my roses are zone 5 hardy. So I've never really winter protected them except for the leaves that always gather around them in the late fall winds.

Seil, what do you use for winter protection? I'm considering putting something over them this winter. I've always had some cane left but not these last 2 winters. They'er all crown hardy but cane depends on the winter.

I think Patty your winters in Illinois may even beat our winters in Wisconsin with the cold. I've always used collars around my bushes and filled with initially soil, then the last number of years--leftover cedar mulch that was laying around my 12 bushes. I have one David Austin all by itself further back in the yard protected by a garage. That I just dumped mulch around it and patted it down. That one (Pat Austin) never enthralled me anyway--long spindly blooms that bowed over and didn't last & not many of them either. Sad to say, it wouldn't break my heart if it died. The other bushes are a mixed bunch. When we bought our home over 22 years ago, it came with about 13 bushes lining the South side of our brick home. I knew nothing about roses, but thought they were lovely and tried to glean as much as I could about roses over the years. Many of the original 13 died over the years, but I have some bushes still doing well from before we bought our home--maybe about 4 bushes. Some are probably about 10-15 years old, and others are newer. I planted a Dick Clark last beginning of June that bloomed and bloomed and bloomed--gorgeous tons of blooms. Also a Love Song that took its time blooming, but had a lot of gorgeous purply lavender blooms. The people who planted the original bushes I don't think knew all that much about roses because they planted them almost against the house. Being a novice, I did know they loved water, but did my watering in early-mid afternoon so I wouldn't encourage mold & blackspot. I used soaker hoses. I then learned by our contractor--have beautiful roses and ruin our basement or compromise. Again they never should have been planted almost touching the house. I now water when it is hot out, and when we don't get much rain. They do fine with that schedule. I also stopped putting topsoil (which someone told me to do) in the rose collars in the winters for protection. What started happening is the soil started to form a slight hill and was sloping downwards. I now use strictly the old cedar mulch to fill the collars with some healthy dried leaves.

I just use leaves, bags and bags and more bags of them. I think I used 24 bags last fall. I have an abundant supply for free so that's what I use. Each plant is mounded a good foot deep and then the rest are spread across the entire bed. I know there are some places that are at least 2 feet deep. I used to try and pin them down with something but I found the cover just blew off and the leaves stayed anyway so now I don't bother with a cover. We usually have a lot of rain in late November, early December, when I do it so once they're wet they don't seem to blow around much at all.

Thanks for letting me know how you guys do your winter protection. I seriously considering it for next winter.

Nick you wouldn't believe how many flimsy Austins I went thru before knowing they would never build a structure without cane surviving the winter. I did pick up the very winter hardy Lady of Shallot last year. This year I saw Princess Lady of Kent as hardy to zone2. So I'm trying it.

I'm not sure what mine will finally look like when it warms up. Some have black canes I know are dead, some are reddish that may be ok, and a few green ones. Last fall I put down a ton of mulch around them and right up to the crown but not over it - I chickened out lol - seemed like it was inviting rot or something. Most are own root, a couple of grafted ones ( Double Delight and Pope JP 2). Have to just wait and see I guess.

Way too early to take off the collars, simply cut back the bushes to the top of the collars and wail till late April, I'm in Kenosha, we get frosts into May, so no need to hurry. I usually prune the last week of April. When you clear away the collars and prune, then spray the bare canes with Mancozeb, when your foliage comes out, start a weekly spray program, and you won't have black spot....

I use flakes of old straw mainly, I mound up as much soil as I can over the base then lean the straw against the rose in somewhat of a circle. It allows drainage but protects from cold and drying winds. I haven't lost a rose in the 10yrs I've been doing this. It also makes it easy in the spring if I want to pull it back for a bit or need to put it back up.