I don't know what happened but you are right the roses should survive. Mine see worse than that every year. Your Forever and Ever roses should be own root and are hardy to my zone. They should be fine. You may have to re-prune to healthy pith. The only plants that I have lost that were hardy like yours were not planted deep enough and the crown froze.

You're not new to roses so I'm sure you know all of that above. Any chance a new vole moved into your yard.

I hadn't thought of a vole. Actually, I don't know much about voles..... are they a rose predator? We live with a lot of nature and wildlife around.... on 2 acres, surrounded by wood and preservation areas.

Late frosts are indeed killers.

Roses that looked the picture of survivability, with plenty of healthy green canes that survived the winter can be cut back to the ground by a spring frost, after breaking dormancy with good new growth emerging forth. The length of the frost and the low temps reached are critical factors.

Also, come early spring apparently nice green canes sprouting new growth can suddenly begin to decline and die back, turning black, without any contributory frosts after dormancy break to cause the calamity. What has occurred is these canes were actually severely damaged at some point during the winter and just have not shown it until now.

I breath a sigh of disbelief when after spring pruning to nice live looking, rich green, white pithed canes, some of these visually very much alive looking canes soon turn black and die back, often to the ground. No late frosts were involved at all. These canes were doomed to die, but didn't show it at first.

You may get new good growth from below ground. Give them some more time. If by June, there's no evidence of life, then dig them out.

Moses

Thanks for Patty's response. I never thought of voles being the guilty party. They eat rose roots over winter, and can completely kill bushes.

I know of a case where you could lift a vole eaten rose right out of the ground with one hand and with very little effort....all the roots were gone....just a stub was left with canes coming from it, no roots at all.

Moses

voles or gophers were my first thought, too. You can try to "shake" your bushes back and forth, if they don't seem firmly set in the ground, you probably have some type of critter eating the roots. Moses is right, too, about the black creeping crud in spring that kills many a rose cane. I'm still getting new dieback here after several rounds of pruning. I'm never sure if it's from winter damage or a type of canker, but very prevalent in my garden every spring...stops once temps get consistently hot. I really would be surprised if it killed off all canes on so many of your roses at once, though. I think root damage would be more likely.

I would say gophers would be the ones who could take out a rose, but there would be some evidence, most likely, in the form of holes in your garden, not necessarily next to the dead rose. There might be frass (chewed dirt) next to a gopher hole. I've never had a vole kill a rose. They mainly damage our grass around here. One thing I would not do is prune a rose in February in your zone. I think that's too early, frankly. I'm sorry about your loss, and I would be devastated. I hope you find some answers. Diane