Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been tempted to make this video for a while but as you all point out the situation is so different for everyone. But if I do go ahead can I start with a few general rules of thumb like. 1) It begins, as mad gallica points out, with selecting a hardy rose for your area. While the guidelines from nurseries and sites like HMF are a good place to begin there is nothing like local knowledge via forums, rose societies, garden clubs etc. 2) If you buy a grafted rose bury the bud union deep like 4"-6". 3) Use a hardwood mulch for insulation and anyway this should always be part of your regular gardening routine. 4) Piling up leaves and/or mulch depends on the kind of winters you get. Wet winters with periods of warm temps can lead to problems like canker etc when you pile up mulch so it's best not to. If you live in an area with dry winters it's okay to do so. 5) Keep your roses healthy throughout the year. A healthier rose can better survive a winter. Now to me a healthy rose to survive winter means a rose that is NOT pampered all year but instead is left to, as I talk about in my other videos, fend for itself so it pushes out deep roots and builds up immunity to the local pathogens. 6) Here is my question to all of you. I realize where you live it's best to purchase an older plant and that usually means grafted. However when you purchase an own root band and it's delivery to you in say spring or summer what do you do? Plant right away, grow it on in a larger pot and plant in fall, keep it in the pot for a year overwintering it in the garage. I'll need to address this. Keep in mind nothing complicated - this is meant to be simple. Anything else I need to cover?

Yes you should stop pruning by mid-August, only deadhead if the rose is still blooming. No you shouldn't cut it down before winter. The idea is for the rose to NOT put on any new growth between now and winter, because the new growth is tender and may get killed by the cold. Pruning/cutting back stimulates new growth. Before you think about winter protection, you need to determine whether you need it or not. Specifically what kind of roses are you growing? Many roses don't need winter protection in zone 5. But if you are growing hybrid teas, you will need to protect. Leaves are not the best, remember that whatever you put down, you want to keep the rose surrounded by dry and airy stuff. Moist/clumpy stuff like wet leaves can cause disease problems that can do more harm to your rose than the cold. I use pine needles on certain roses that need protection. Protection doesn't go on until the ground starts to freeze, almost always after Thanksgiving and lately not until 1st/2nd week of Dec.

It is optional for minis for winterizing I'm zone 5/b 6 Mass. Yes they are winter hardy when they come from a store I just winterize mine anyways if you opt. to do so this is how. The weekend befor Thanksgiving you can if you want Trim it down to 1 foot high into a dome shape then cover it up with eiter hay or dry leaves in a manner so that 2-3 inches of cane and leaves are still exposed and top it off with some medium sized sticks to hold the hay or leaves at very least let one inch of cane or leaves exposed. Pine tree brances work best to hold down leaves so they dont blow away When and if it warms up in late Feb/safe is early March you can remove the sticks and some of the hay this will help em breath a bit better continue removing the rest of the hay late March. There will be some odd looking small canes coming out of the ground in spring. Minis are own root growers there not suckers they will catch up and flower but do trim off dead looking leaves and cut back blacked parts of canes if any.

My suggestion would be to mulch all around the plants 6" deep to keep them from freezing/drying out. I'd just leave the canes as-is until spring pruning, unless, like my roses, they're right at the line where snow hits when it slides off the roof. Then I'd prune them back to thick, sturdy 1' ft high canes.