David,

Please describe the bags and how they are placed over your roses. Are they mulch filled? What kind of mulch if any? What material are the bags made of? Are they open or closed at their tops? What named varieties of HTs do you have? and finally.....At what state of dormancy are the cane tips right now, extending shoots (how long are the shoots), leaves forming already?

Armed with answers, more accurate advice can be given.

Moses

Following :)

Moses,

You were in on the discussion last fall. They are large leaf bags with the bottoms cut out of them. They are placed over the roses after the ground freezes, around Thanksgiving. and attached to the ground with metal spikes. No mulch, just wind breakers! I have 20 hybrid teas and I covered most of them. The cane tips are all dead as I live in NW New Jersey 6A. I prune around April 1st but was wondering if I should keep the bags on until then and take them off now as it should not go below 20 degrees the rest of the winter

Gosh seil , I remember your story but hearing it again is chilling! I'm sure you were so heartbroken. I've been very impatient and need to dial it back too

Seil that’s horrible to hear! I would be heart broken. I myself have 5 hybrid teas that I fear have died over the winter, I can’t imagine losing 60! You’re definitely right about patience! Lily finch - I’m also struggling being patient this year! But after reading the above comments I’ll be sure to play by the rules

Dave,

There is no advantage to taking them off until the very day you do your spring pruning. No harm to the bushes will be attributable to the bags being left where they are until then. If there are any pale shoots remaining on the canes when the bags are removed, after the canes are pruned to your desired height, they should green up nicely in just a matter of days thereafter.

Most patient folks in our climate prune no earlier than when both the forsythia and large flowered daffodils begin blooming. Mini daffodils usually begin blooming a week or two earlier than the big ones, and before the forsythia is blooming, so I would avoid using them as a guide.

Moses

Moses - you always have such great input and so much knowledge about HT’s! Might it be okay for me to send you a direct message to ask you a question regarding HTs?

I will wait until April. I suspect that I have lost several of my roses to the several days of -10 degrees we had this winter.

Kali,

Please feel free to ask away. Don't be disappointed if I can't answer a question though!

You know, there was a time I disliked Hybrid Teas...buggy, disease magnets, winter tender, and hohum, all the same, exhibition form flowers except in a different color...

I was heavy into OGRs and Hybrid Rugosas. Now I have mostly modern roses: HT's, grandifloras, floribundas, etc...and one remaining Austin, Scepter'd Isle. Time brings changes, especially changes of mind and perspective!

Large flowers, lots of blooms with quick repeats, heavy fragrance....these traits I now covet, so I spray and winter protect....a small price to pay for what they give.

Moses

Dave,

My prized Irish Hope, which was coming into it's own, is completely black above ground...almost 1" diameter basal canes, coal black. That's with a heavy roofing paper collar (similar to your leaf bag), generously filled with pine bark mulch as winter protection. It is history, gone!

This has been a killer winter for many of us. Take heart!

Moses

I may have lost every rose. At age 79 my rose growing days may be over.. Guess I'll know when I pull back the mulch in early April, but everything looks black here too!

Dave, (sorry for the delay, my tablet was going to shut down...low battery)

You're just coming into your stride at 79! If you have a lot of devastation...just replant! Jersey Men are tough, they have no give in them.

At least you know how the roses died. They did not succumb to crown or root gall, or Rose Rosette Virus...you can replant in the same spot without fear of harming the new rose.

Replant with hardy big bloomers. I highly recommend Quietness (grandiflora, forget the shrub designation it has, it's a big flowering, fragrant, disease free workhorse grandiflora rose) and Pink Enchantment (beautiful, moderate fragrance HT from Kordes, an ADR winner). They are tip hardy with no protection for me.

Even my Julia Child's are tip hardy. I heavily protect them, but their canes stick out one foot+ above their collars, getting the full force of the winter.

These two, Quietness and Pink Enchantment will give you a good start. There are many others....do your homework, it's fun researching roses. I can give you more names.

Don't give up! A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits!

Moses

Moses,

just what?

Dave,

(See my earlier response above. I finished it.)

Moses

Moses - thanks! Ah it appears I can’t send you a message for some reason. Though you and David already addressed this yourself! (Yay), so if the canes are black down to the ground should We assume the plant is completely dead? What about if they are brown all the way to the bud union?

Kali,

An own root rose can have all cankered/black canes to the ground, but below ground life can, and often does persist. As the weather warms, shoots begin to emerge at ground level. Good, you think, the bush made it, so you think.

A couple disheartening things often occur, though.

The bush, depending on its age and how healthy it was when it went into the killer winter, is often so weakened by that winter, that the new growth it makes from below ground is very weak. The bush usually just limps along all season to die completely after the following winter.

Alternately, in many cases I have had, "dead to the ground roses," regrow from the ground only to wither and shrivel up dead in a couple week's time that same growing season.

A grafted rose is a wait and see situation if it appears all the canes above the graft are destroyed. There could still be live scion tissue inside that bud union that will spring forth fresh shoots shortly. You just have to wait and see. If fresh shoots come from below the bud union, emerging from the rootstock, then the new growth is the rootstock's, not the scion's. That bush gets dug out and pitched.

If the rose sends out new shoots from the bud union, it should do so by the 4th. of July. I know it's a long wait, but I think it's worth the wait, especially for a beloved, mature bush.

Sometimes a rough winter will kill all the canes, but new shoots will come from the bud union. This is good. However, the shock of the severe winter may also send a message to the rootstock to send out rootstock shoots too! You have to watch for suspicious looking growth that comes from below ground on a grafted rose whose canes all die back, but sends out good new shoots from the graft, and shoots from below the graft, from the rootstock.

Any rootstock shoots need to be pushed down, not cut out, yes pushed down! If you cut them out, you often leave a piece of stump which will regrow quickly.

Dig down with a trowel until you see where the shoot emerges from the rootstock. To detach the shoot, push the shoot down hard exactly where it attaches to the rootstock. It will break away clean, leaving no stump, often tearing a piece of rootstock along with it, that's good. Do not pull the shoot. It will snap and leave a stump which will regrow a new shoot.

Hope I hit the target with these explanations.

Moses

very informative! Thanks