Did you bury the graft union (if they are grafted)? Have you checked below the soil line to see if there are any green canes?

I feel your pain. When I first started including roses in my gardens 5-6 years ago I bought many old fashion teas, chinas and noisettes for my USDA zone 7a garden. Only it turns out there is nothing zone 7ish about my garden and probably not 6b either which is what we were before the USDA adjusted the zones for global warming. It was a very, very expensive adjustment for me. Last year I pulled out most of the warm weather roses that were left but struggling and this year the last of the warm weather ones have given up the ghost too.

However, I've enjoyed changing focus and discovering Buck roses and now Kordes. Both bred in colder climates (Iowa and Germany) and seem to look a lot better come March and April than my teas ever did. Help Me Find and the search function here are a huge help!

I just pruned one Electron to the ground and it was brown all the way. It was protected with leaf bags. Maybe I'll wait a couple more weeks before I uncover the other 20.

I agree that there are many roses that do better in our cold climates that don't give you this kind of grief, and you've already gotten some good suggestions. In general, the roses called "shrub" tend to be hardier than HTs but that's obviously a generalization that has exceptions. One consideration is that in order to get roses suited for your zone, ironically you often have to buy them elsewhere. Most big box stores and general garden centers seem to stock Knockouts and "body bags" of HTs that aren't really suited for your zones and aren't all that healthy sometimes to start with. Mail order companies will be able to send you roses that you deliberately choose for their suitability for your yard, often more cheaply than the local sources. If you find a good local source by all means patronize them to encourage them to continue to sell good roses, but you may have to hunt.

One type of rose that might be sold locally that's a terrific option for cold zones would be the Easy Elegance roses. They're Ping Lim bred roses that are tough as nails and often bloom all season. I haven't yet heard reports from any region that they aren't good bloomers or aren't healthy for people around the country, so that's a good option.

BTW, if you want to still keep an eye on those rose you have they might not be dead even pruned all the way to the ground. I always prune off most or all of the cane of my HTs and floris (I have 100s of them) and at least half of them will come back fine from the base if the graft has survived, or from the ground if they're own root roses. In other words, don't give up on the roses and dig them out until maybe June. They might surprise you. Just make sure the growth is coming from above the graft (if there is one) since below the graft it's probably the rootstock Dr. Huey that's not a very interesting rose.

Cynthia

Don't feel bad. When I first started growing roses over 20 years ago, I killed my fair share of hybrid teas. I finally figured out that what I needed was to grow roses that are bred for hardiness. I started with the Canadian Explorer roses and they have done really well. My favorites includes John Davis and William Baffin.

Cynthia waits till June to declare roses dead, that's pretty far out but she is in a colder zone than you are Dave Moore as well as me. I wait till Crape Myrtles come back and use that as my yard stick as they are the very last plants to come back.

THE VAST MAJORITY of my roses are black from top to the ground. So yeah, I'll be pruning a lot of stuff to the ground, even stuff that is rated to Zone 4 is showing all black canes and just a little green close to the ground, I just wonder why, it makes me think that freeze thaw cycles during winter are even more dangerous to roses than just good old cold.

That said, I expect everything to be alive, temps didn't really get too low this season and my grafts are always planted deep (standard practice recommended for zones 6 and colder) and even my crowns on own root roses are covered in the ground by mulch.

I agree with the freeze/thaw theory. Many of my roses that were green a few weeks ago have slowly become black/brown. My biggest surprises are my two Dark Desires. They are green way down low, but everything above is dead, dead, dead. This is the result of our true Z6 lows this year of -7F for multiple nights and single digit daytime temps with added windchill. They were hardy to the tip last winter. Oh well! I wanted to give them a good pruning anyway! ; )

Don't give up yet, David. I've seen roses that were all brown and looked dead too. They sat doing nothing for a long time but once it got really warm and stayed warm they decided to sprout new growth. It's way early yet to count them out.

I thought some of my roses were dead too until I dug them up yesterday to dispose of them for new replacements. When I dug up my Chicago Peace, I saw little pink eyes on the underside of the bulge of the graft. I also dug my Over the Moon Rose and found just one little pink eye where the graft was still intact. Some of the graft had disintergrated. In instances like this, will the rose recover from such damage and grow well? Or should I just shovel prune them if they only show a few growth buds?

Can't wait too long, I'm 80 years old. Will wait until Mother's Day and the potted roses come out for the replacements.

Oh, David, congrats for reaching 80. I thought I was the oldest one on this forum at 72. You give me hope. But I totally agree with not waiting too long. I buy large roses only. I can't afford to wait two or three years for a rose to really kick in. Diane

I think he's pulling our leg. He certainly doesn't look 80 in his picture. : ) I think gardeners live long lives because there's always hope that next year the garden will be perfect! ; )

LOL at you guys. 80... wow, congrats. I hope there will even be an earth left by the time I hit that age... if I ever make it.

To answer Karen's question, well, if you want to save those plants you can pot them up and most likely they will recover and grow. That has been my experience several times I dug up roses too early.

This winter was unpleasantly different in my state. We had wonderful warm weather for almost two weeks in January. Of course, the roses started to grow. How could they know that winter was coming back with temps going down to 5F? and the new growth did get killed and that killed growth became the loci of stem girdling cankers.
On one rose last week I found cankers of three different sizes as if there were three separate new growths killed at three different times.

My 6b is 6b except when it isn't. And low 20s can do a lot of damage after growth starts (and the USDA zones don't address that at all, all they are are max and min and those are dependent on which years they choose to average.)

I try to resist pruning mine as spring weather is very unpredictable in my area. We are expecting rain snow starting tonight and will continue throughout the week. I made a mistake in the past by pruning too early during warm spring weather and regretted it when snow or freezing rain suddenly appears. However, one has to accept that life and death is part of life.

Nasty winter here. Yesterday the weather was nice, went out in the yard after 7pm for the first time in forever and saw EXTENSIVE winter damage. Boy! My Golden Gate climber which was actually 16 feet tall into the air (taller than my peach tree that's been in the ground for 3 years) is dead down to 5 feet! It had very thick canes that I could have sworn were hardened off for my pitiful zone 6a winter. I even went back and looked at the weather records and apparently our lowest temperature was -11F on New Year's day and then -6F the next day and after that no temps below 0F. New Dawn even has dead canes. Even the Buck rose Quietness has lots of damage. I have no idea of what happened.

Oh, no! I just got my GG climber from Palatine. Now you have me worried!

David, I've had roses that died to the ground come back with green shoots as late as August. But, I do understand not wanting to wait for a rose to completely start over - at any age! Didn't you know 80 is the new 60? I'd probably want to replace them, too, however, it is rewarding to see them come back from the roots. Own root roses have been more reliable for me in my cold zone. Many years, I've cut mine all to the ground and they came back just fine.

As others have said, Buck roses and especially the Canadian roses are indestructible. There are Austins and Kordes hardy to z4 - nice to have in the unexpectedly frigid winters. Believe me, many of us know exactly how you feel.

My Golden Gate is getting a southern site for certain now! Bella, I'm in North MO too and the winter roller coaster has been brutal this year - high forties to low teens in 24 hours several times. If your zone stays cold you'll probably have fewer problems.

A bit off-topic, but Braverichard are the canes on your Golden Gate flexible when they're young? I was planning on wrapping this one around an obelisk - 6 1/2 ft tall of welded rebar.

Yes they were flexible just a bit, not by much but your plan is feasible. Mine is in due south in the yard, all day sun, I expected it to be close in hardiness as Laguna which is also in the southern exposure just 20 feet away and has zero winter damage.

Thanks braverichard! Odd that GG is so hit-and-miss with winter hardiness. I wonder if there's some other factor (wind, sunburn) going on.

My vote goes to the freeze/thaw factor. I think I even started a thread asking if I should prune Soul Sister when she started growing in February. :-o It was back to arctic cold after that. I just moved back here recently, so I was all welp... I guess it's spring. lol

I'd say it was probably due to our non-stop ups and downs in temperature, I mean we have a high of 80F right as I type but temps will plunge to 24F tomorrow! What separates the roses that can put up with it from the ones that can't is something I don't know - certainly does not fall under the definition of hardiness.

Photos of 2 First Crush growing feet from each other, and treated the same. (That last cane is getting cut i know)

The roses that I covered with four or five shovels of soil and mulch around the base did better than the ones I covered with leaf bags. I finished pruning all of them yesterday and will wait until Mother's Day when the potted roses come out to replace what I need to replace.

I posted the same thing a few weeks ago. I'm in zone 6b and pruned almost all my roses to the ground. Some of which include: Francis Meilland, Memoire, Mr. Lincoln, Westerland, Macy's Pride, Cinco de Mayo, Strawberry Hill, Burgundy Iceberg, Sweet Beauty, Earth Angel, Sweetness, Harkness, Le Petit Prince, Tropicana, Summer Romance, Amber Queen, Heritage, Peace, Lavender Lassie, Tournament of Roses, Granada, and more! I'm trying the Alfalfa Tea this year that I just learned about thanks to this forum. Please check it out and give it the good ole college try like I am. Good luck! - Chey

Interesting Chey. Of yours I only have SR and LL, both of which remained hardy to the tips. SR was particularly impressive. We were -7 for multiple nights and single digits for quite a few days. Some were taken down to the roots almost by that, while others such as Penelope and Cl. Pinkie fell victim to the freeze-thaw. They're alive and putting on growth, but huge cane die-back. : ((

David, my young newly planted Cl. Clotilde Soupert did really well with her canes covered in leaves. Those exposed did experience some tip death. She's also next to the house so she receives some warmth from the brick.

Whatever you do, don't shovel them yet. I have had experiences where I thought the bush had died only to find out that it was actually alive underneath sprouting new canes. I usually don't shovel prune anything until summer to make sure it is dead.

From 84 today to 32 Monday night? Is this even normal? In the 5 or 6 years before I moved away from WV in 2010, I don't remember one year like this. I was told not to plant my RU order until lows were above the 40's. I'm afraid it's never going to happen.

I usually wait to prune my roses until May. The weather here, especially today has been unbelievable! Very windy, with a mixture of rain and sleet, high today of around 38 degrees and dipping into the 20's. I think more than anything it's the wind and the fluctuations in temps that can kill a rose. I won't be planting anything outside for awhile.

I've got big, empty pots upended over mine, and a box over Teasing Georgia (ran out of pots, and she was green and leafed out to the tips). We're due to go into the upper 20s for about 10 hours tonight and all mine are starting to leaf out! I can't wait for this particular winter to end already!

Terrible winter and spring. Yesterday was 82, today 42.

This near freezing with roses already started is nerve wracking.

Well my garden is buried on a hill of ice, key word ice not snow. I am bracing for the worst. The good thing is, I haven't pruned any canes yet as that will surely kills the plant.

Lost a bunch of roses this year myself. Warm Jan., Feb. woke everything up and the bush's leafed out. Then winter returned. Many, many mornings in the low 20's with 20 MPH winds. I knew what was going to happen. What I am looking for is what survived. Those are the roses I'm going to load up on. And of coarse I'm going to try some that I haven't tried yet but are suppose to be winter hardy to zone 6. I'll have a few empty spots in the garden but I'm not going to put my $$$ and time into something that is going to die. I'll just take my time this summer.

Ken, I deliberately zoned up when I started this obsession a couple of years ago with a few exceptions. I love climbers so focused mostly on their hardiness and am glad I did. It is heartbreaking to see such damage to the smaller bushes, but hopefully they will come back. There's a lot hardy to zone6, so you're in luck.

Same crap here...lol