I have not done this. I know something about growing DA roses in zone 5 IL in the ground (buy own root -- they die back a lot) but in that area I'd never considered trying them in containers. But hey, if you store them in the garage in the winter you could probably grow any of them! If I were you I'd look more at the size of the plant (and its suitability for containers) than which zones it is suited for. Munstead Wood has been pretty good in a container for me, and I think Sharifa Asma is also a good option. Lady Emma Hamilton is another that does fine in a container. I believe David Austin has some recommendations about which varieties do well in containers. Very few roses reach their full potential in a container, but you can still grow them and enjoy them that way, even if they aren't as big as they might be if planted in the garden. You might want to start another thread asking about suggestions for DAs in containers in general, since your zone won't matter if you shelter the roses in winter.

I would suggest that your garage be insulated and attached to ensure the temp doesn't get too low. Blocking out light by covering the plants can help also. It's necessary to water them about once a month.

Amy I would love to compare notes in spring to see how yours are doing, I have one in a large pot in the garage which is my first time overwintering in a pot. The whole thing is wrapped in an old quilt, and I have it quite close to (not up against though) a chest freezer so I was hoping that whatever warmth that gives off might keep it more even in temperature. How well it does will determine whether I do more zone pushing in pots.

Thank you for the info!

Amy, I winter all sorts of tender roses in my unheated (though, well insulated) attached garage. During our very coldest of winter weather, it can get to about 15 F in there and the roses have managed very well even with thier pots freezing solid. Of course, it's not always that cold in the garage, often it remains above freezing and plants will want to push some top growth, I just snip off any elongated growth come spring. Oh, one thing is, I never prune them prior to winter. A critical matter is soil moisture, a few years ago, I had watered them a bit too much and several of them had croaked, the same has occurred with drying out ... see, it's all too easy to tuck them away out of sight, out of mind and then experience loses. Though, generally, I've had rather good success.

I had DAs in pots for many year but I am in a warmer zone. What happened to Rose Canadian? She is in a cold zone and have a lot of potted DAs if I remember it right.

Do you have unheated basement? That might work too. I had some of my potted rose trees in a unheated basement last year. This winter every pots went in garages.

I was thinking of her summers, but she no longer posts here. She deleafed them and covered with old blankets watering about once a month keeping them in her unheated, but attached garage. Another important thing is to keep them raised up off the concrete floor. Frozebud, I've also had them freeze rock solid outside when it got cold early and quickly. I was able to bring them in to thaw and they survived. I was shocked!

I missed her postings. I think she went to the other forum.

My biggest mistake with potted roses was I stored near 50 potted rose trees in two sheds and I lost them all to one of the coldest winters we had years ago. I look back still regret, that fall I was being lazy to move the motorcycle and scooters to the 2 sheds, and did’t move the potted rose trees to the garage. .......some of the trees were hard to find.

It's hard to like that one Summers

I know. I hope everyone learn from my mistake, so less potted roses will be gone with winter, which it’s a good thing out of a bad experience.

Vaporvac, my in garage potted roses had remained frozen solid for several months on end last winter and had come through better than ever. Being in a fully dormant frozen supended state, they barely transpire or anything and won't dry out due to the soil being frozen solid. A temperature of 15 to 30 F is ideal for holding roses and other hardy nursery stock and in fact superior to warmer conditions that might cause some plants to prematurely wake up, roses being especially prone to such.

Summer, it was sad to read of your large volume rose loses, I wish I could have back all the roses (and other plants as well!) that I've inadvertently have snuffed out.

I know I’m in a warmer zone than you but I overwinter many roses in my unheated, insulated, attached garage with great success. When it is around 0F outside or just below, the garage will usually be around 25F. Here in the Midwest, we can have some wild variations in our temps and the warmer days can really confuse the garaged roses. Last winter it stayed fairly consistently cold and they did the best ever and so I think you may even have greater success in a colder zone overwintering them in your garage. Just don’t let anyone leave the garage door open - that happened one day this winter and I don’t know if I’ve lost anything yet but everything looks fine at least.

Summer - I’m sorry you lost all of those roses. I would have thought maybe they would have been okay in an unattached shed. I believe Carol stored hers in a detached, unheated shed. I miss her posting here too. She is the one who inspired me to go from growing just a couple roses in pots to many more to create a separate rose garden on my deck.

Carol covered her roses with blankets, I should have done that too. I couldn’t find fairy rose trees again, this year I am going to try grafting Fairy and China Doll onto a couple rose trees.

Oh summers, that sounds like fun. I'm going to try to make my own also this year, but I don't know what I'll use on top. Good to know The Fairy is a good one. I may have to get a cutting of China Doll. Do you have the Cl/Weeping one?

Oh, that’s right. You’ll have to share pics of your Fairy and China Doll trees in the future. I have China Doll as a standard but only grow a couple of The Fairy as shrubs. The Fairy would make an excellent standard - I’d love to find one. I have decided to move my China Doll to a pot in order to preserve some more of the top growth through the winter so it will have even more of a weeping appearance. I was tempted to purchase Pillow Fight and Gourmet Popcorn this year as standards as well.

I will. Where did you find the China Doll tree? I have been looking for it for a while. I don’t know how to draft , m I will watch grafting YouTube again before the operation. :-)

I had 2 fairy trees, one had never bloomed, it had tiny bloom buds then fell out, the other one was beautiful always in bloom. I will see if I could find an old photo for you. Sorry for the poor quality pic.

Dave, so yes, you've experienced the same as myself that roses do very well when being stored at temperatures moderately below freezing, frozen pots and all! When pulling away from the house on a bitterly cold day, being 100% sure to close the garage door is definitely foremost on my mind!

I'm north up the road less than 200 miles from Carol. Roses stored within a detached unheated shed would have to be extremely well insulated to survive here, I believe Carol's are kept within an insulated attached garage, as mine are. I wish Carol would make her way back to the forum!

'The Fairy' and 'China Doll' are great roses and 'TF' being crown hardy here without protection. I do rose budding and should also attempt making a standard, of course to be kept container grown.

Summers - I love The Fairy standard you had! I wish you success in grafting a new one. I have never attempted grafting but it is on my short list of things I hope to learn in the near future. I purchased a 48” China Doll standard from Witherspoon a few years ago. It looks like they haven’t offered it since - I’m sure it’s expensive to produce. I wonder if the’ll ever bring it back.

Frozebudd - I think that’s so great you can overwinter pots in your garage as well. I don’t know if it’s the same for you but my potted roses bloom about 2-4 weeks earlier than my roses in the ground. Always enjoyable to get those earlier blooms.

Frozebudd, you do rose budding! So happy to hear that. Is there an easy way, I meant a shortcut I could do? :-)

Dave, please remember to take pics of your China doll tree this year, really want to see it. Thanks for the info! I will keep checking on

Witherspoon. We should both try grafting fairy this year, it would be more fun if more people are doing this project. Vap, what about you? Froze buddy is a budding pro, he could help us. :-)

Dave, yes, having potted roses provides a nice little jump on the rose season, especially as I first get them going in the greenhouse. Though, also nice being able to move them around as desired and at times out of inclement weather.

Summer, T budding is reserved for later summer when the bark easily slips / lifts to allow one to insert the desired budwood. Chip budding does not require the bark being able to slip, thus can be done over a much longer season. There's plenty of youtube videos on these methods, watch lots of them and practice your skills on some spare tree or shrub branches you can snip off. They're both rather simple procedures, though a bit exacting, think of it as surgery, very sharp cutting tools are necessary and the cleaner and neater the job done, the better!

Summers there is a lot of information on the propagation website. I think I recently wrote there on this very subject and if you like I can put burling's excellent instructions for chip budding.

Thanks frozbudd and vap! I haven’t been to propagation forum for a long while, will look for your posts there. I went to garage found budding tape tonight. I have some potted roses in the basement , could practice chip budding this winter.

I also have a few potted roses (two year old seedlings) I'll soon attempt to chip bud, this being my preferred method, so fast and simple!

i think my garage is too warm at around 45F, my rode tree has 3-4 inches of new growth, what should I do?

There isn't a lot you can do about the new growth. It happens. By the time the buds have grown out that far inside, the growth won't harden off.

45F is too warm, as you have found out. Unlike hardy roses, most roses you are going to want to keep garaged aren't very smart when it comes to temperatures. They respond much better to a lack of water, but that has its own issues in a container. In the northeast, where I live, we tend to have wet falls, and getting zone 6 roses to go dormant can be a challenge if you can't turn off the water. However, that is a story for another time.

The roses have to be essentially hit over the head with cold enough temperatures that they have no choice but to understand winter is real, winter is coming. Almost by definition, these are sub-freezing temperatures. Then to keep them dormant, temperatures should be close to freezing. I assume you have some temperature control over this garage. For the roses, 35F is probably cold enough. I have an attached, unheated, uninsulated garage, and things definitely freeze out there. 28F is not an issue. The bigger issue is when things start warming up in the spring, and the roses have to be brought out on sunny days, and back in for cold snaps.

That’s ok. No worries. The same thing happens to my potted roses in an unheated walkout basement in zone 5a. The new growth is tender, some of them will dry out outdoors under the sun in the spring.

I forgot to mention, I water the pots about once a month. Once I move them out in Apr, they are out until Nov, that’s the time for me to move them back in again. There are too many pots, moving them twice a year is not an easy task. Here is an old photo of some rose trees before I moved them in.

I love the visuals, summers!!! : ))

Thanks Vap. Still remember my sore back from moving them. Lol

Could you do it in a green house zone 6?