I assume those climbers are all pretty winter hardy to begin with, not necessarily cane hardy but at least crown hardy. If that's the case then I would just deep mulch the crowns for winter. Cane hardy is another story. If you want some chance of keeping the canes over winter then you'd need to wrap them. You can use burlap and any kind of structure you can come up with to cover them. Maybe some chicken wire or a tomato cage that you can tie the burlap to around the canes. It's not a guarantee but it will help protect the canes from dessication in the cold, dry winter wind. Drying out and wind burn is usually what kills the canes.

I have several climbers in my zone 5B chicagoland garden and have tried wrapping them with burlap. It was a lot of work, and it didn't save the canes. I would recommend trying the Minnesota Tip if you want truly to protect the canes. That'll be a lot of work too, but its effective. Google "Minnesota tip" and you'll see how they do it. My grandmother used to tip her fig tree every year. It worked like a charm for her, I've never tried it myself.

If you decide to deep mulch the crowns, (which I wouldn't recommend) make sure you protect them against mice. I have lost several plants to mice girdling. What I used to do was bury the crowns in about 6 inches of mulch. I lost of bunch of roses to mice. The next year, I put a dixie cup full of mouse poison at the base of each rose and bury the whole thing with mulch. A lot of work.

What I do now is nothing. I learned this from an oldtimer who has been doing nothing for a bunch of years and claiming little to no losses. He was right.

Some years it gets to -10 here. I'm hoping for snow cover to protect the canes, but even that comes at a price. Those damn mice are still girdling my canes under the snow. I don't want to put out the mouse poison because I have dogs, and I can't be sure the snow cover will remain all winter. So I deal with the mice. I thought I lost a couple this year, but they came back nicely.

Last years winter was pretty cold ( I think we got to -12) and we got a sudden nasty cold spell down to single digits in early November when the roses were still active without snow cover. That did some damage, I'm pretty sure. Even my most hardy climbers (New Dawn, Illusion) had to be pruned to about a foot tall in the spring. Some of my roses (Westerland, Autumn Sunset) had to be pruned nearly all the way to the ground. All 300 or so survived. In the 5 years that I've been doing nothing for winter protection, I've lost a couple of roses, but those were just limping along anyway and I figured they wouldn't make it.

I agree that wrapping climbers is more work than it's worth and can backfire by not helping much. In my zone 5 Nebraska windy windy climate with little snow cover, I do provide wind breaks at the edge of all my rose beds and around any roses that I've discovered are finicky.

My method is a lazy one - I pinch the filled leaf bags from the curbs of folks in my neighborhood and stand them up around the more tender roses on the windy side or all around if feasible (not as likely for climbers). This creates effective "down coats" for the more tender roses and can buy me a zone's worth of protection without any moisture remaining next to the canes for risk of canker. In spring, I dump the leaves in the beds to replace the mulch that disintegrated over the winter, or pull the bags to a side spot for use later in the summer. Lazy mulching and weed protection too...

Ameri2nal is right that you need to wait for this till the ground is frozen solid so that you don't get critters taking over your protection. For me, this is usually around Christmas. Don't worry about the cold leading up to that - you want them to go as dormant as they'll get, and you're mostly creating a windbreak.

For your climbers, I've grown them all and by far the hardiest is Westerland. That one doesn't really need much protection, but as Seil says if you can keep surviving cane on a climber that's just more growth for the spring. Mel's Heritage is touchy at surviving even in zone 7, and it's a long shot even in a virtual zone 6 where I had mine (it died without even pretending to survive an average winter). If you protect only one, I'd try that one. Bleu Magenta has never gotten big enough to climb for me, and it also has died on me twice over the winter. Aschermittwoch has also died once, but I've got it in a different spot and we'll see. The goofy colored lavender and grey roses tend to be less hardy than other colors on average, so again you may be looking at some protection or replacing them with more reliable climbers for our zone.

Hope this helps - it's worth a try regardless of whether you protect or not.

Cynthia

Thank you all, this is very helpful!

I've never had trouble with mice or other critters (except squirrels, but they're unstoppable around here). What I generally do is mound up most of my roses and then wait for that to freeze, then set up burlap 'pens' and fill them with mulch. It does sound like wrapping the climbing canes would be more work than value so I'll skip that. Crown-hardy is really all I can ask in this climate anyways!

I've read about the Minnesota Tip method before. I think that's more than I'll ever be willing to do! Last year I buried a bunch of roses that were still in pots, but that won't be happening anymore either - I don't have any clear bed space left to bury them in!

This year I've been saving leaf-filled yard waste bags and then creating leaf mulch with my mower. I also like the idea of using full bags as "down coats" for some roses. Particularly for Aschermittwoch, as it's in a location that will be a bit more exposed to wind than the others. I know the greys and coffees tend to be less hardy and vigorous, but oh, I love them! Got to try!

Mel's Heritage got through last winter ok (crown, not canes) and grew reasonably well this past season, so fingers crossed. It's own-root from RVR but it's in a nice protected spot against a north fence with cedars on the other side in my neighbour's yard.

Nippstress, I thought Blue Magenta would be the hardiest of all of them, but I'm glad to hear that Westerland is pretty hardy. This was its second season in my yard and it grew quite a bit but didn't bloom all that much. I certainly want it to live long enough to show me what it can do as a mature plant!

We don't usually get snow cover on the ground until after Christmas, but I can pretty much count on it January through March. It's April that freeze/thaw cycles can be a problem.

So again, thank you all for your advice - it's highly appreciated! I haven't been on the forums much as of late and it's so nice to get such quick, detailed, and friendly help!

Karen

The Minnesota tip does work best but it is also labor intensive. Otherwise, like I said, you can wrap but there are no guarantees. The wrapping only provides some wind break for them.

I have deep mulched my beds before and if you do it too soon there is a chance that critters will nest in it. I had a family of rabbits that played havoc with the roses one winter because I mulched in early November and it really didn't get that cold until well into December that year. Now I do not do any winter protection until December when I'm sure the roses are dormant and the ground is freezing. By then most critters have already picked their winter nesting sites.

No winter protection mounding should be done before the ground freezes well as others have stated here.

The mere thought of protecting climbers gives me a headache... just grow only cane hardy climbers.

Elizabeth park does two things to protect their 100 year old ramblers. They wrap the canes in burlap. They install a fence to act as a wind break around the garden.