You have answered your own question:

“After a really bad year, is there any chance for me to make these roses do well again?”

“They are definitely not dead and seem to be growing quite nice green leaves, considering the neglect they experienced last year. “

I can’t imagine anyone telling you that there’s no chance they can do well again (assuming they are the leaves of the 2 varieties named above).

Agree?

I agree , they can do well !! But your super nice buds that you remember were probably from them being Greenhouse grown and pumped full of goodies . So forget that and focus on top dressing your roses with compost now . Worm manure or cow is amazing and cheap . Perhaps it works or maybe not but I used to throw all my banana peels at the roses all winter . Gone by spring and helps the soil . In spring throw down rose tone or holly tone , or some fertilizer that catches your eye ( for roses / blooming ) Now I’m not sure if your choices are disease resistant. You can look on help me find and see what others say . Oh and add some fresh mulch too :) but welcome back ! We hope you fall in love again with your roses

Thank you, Lily!

I have the cow manure ready to go! When should I amend with it?

My plan for now is to remove all the mulch around to get rid of any remaining diseases from last year, add manure, and then start spraying early on.

Should I remove the leaves that are growing now before spring comes? They are nice and new.

I wish I knew what type of goodies those nurseries were using to pump the roses with. Then I could do the same. :)

I just wanted to add the pictures of the two roses coming back this year. I took them a few minutes ago.

As you may notice, both have some old stems that I pruned and are now hollow inside. What should I do with those holes in old wood to prevent disease? I read some fill it up with glue. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Trim the hollow ones back till you see green/ White wood. They will be fine,

Should I prune these new leaves before spring comes? It is relatively warm here in the South right now so the roses are putting out new growth. If there is a frost, they will be affected anyway.

I would say definitely no on pruning the leaves. I'm in zone 7b Virginia, and our roses are often leafed out like that in the winter. (Especially since our winters are getting warmer and warmer). It's a good sign. Looks to me like those bushes are well-rooted and ready to grow.

Thank you, suzanne! This is encouraging. They took quite the beating last year, no watering at all except whatever they got from the rain; black spot all over...urgh.

I guess I am now living proof it is hard to kill a rose. :)

If those leaves will stay as is, I wonder if I should go ahead and start removing the old mulch around them and spray with a fungicide for prevention. The new leaves look fine right now but come early summer, I think the black spot and yellowing will re-appear if I don't do something about it early on in the year.

Any thoughts on this?

Definitely go ahead and clean up the old mulch, get rid of any diseased material, any nasty old leaves. Put down fresh clean mulch. But personally I would not actually spray with anything yet. I would wait until it's closer to spring. The deal with winter in the South (even the upper south) is this: many roses really don't go fully dormant at all. They winter over like other bushes, and can even put on some new growth in nice temperatures. But it's still winter, and we could still get a killing frost at any point. My approach is to just sort of not stress them. Don't feed them, don't put oils or sprays on them, just let them do their thing, whatever they want to do. They will make it through the winter fine.

As you probably have realized, in the South the trick with roses is getting through the summer, not the winter. I've never lost a rose to winter. It's all about summer: disease pressure, water issues, etc.

My roses suffered two years of total neglect (not even watering) because I was ill. Last spring I was better and was able to do some work on them. After a good pruning and cleaning up they bounced right back! If they still have good healthy green cane they are alive and can definitely come back.

Seil, I am glad you are feeling better and able to enjoy your garden!