When I see flower buds on the others and one plant remains without growth, it’s tme to get out the shovel.

Beverly wasn’t so hardy for me either, she had severe damage but survived. We had the equivalent of a 6b winter.

Thanks Ben, I was going to do it today, but I have time to wait until the buds are on the other roses. It's too bad, I was really looking forward to what she was going to do this year.

I had one come back in late June a couple of years ago, it looked like dead twigs til then but it was own root and sent a shoot up from the base...funnily enough it has been tip hardy for me ever since.

Nobody's going to like what I'm going to say, but I've been waiting for years to write it. Just have to. I've never dug out a dead rose (a gopher killed rose years ago doesn't count because I lifted the dead top out--there were no roots). I've never had a rose die from winter kill or disease. Come, join me in Idaho to raise your roses. Just joking, of course. We have our drawbacks. Diane

Whether or not it is too early depends on your feelings about the rose. If you didn't like it, and have been thinking of getting rid of it anyway, and daydreaming about what you want to put in its place, get it dug up before it comes back to life. If you want the rose, it is much too early to even think of getting rid of it. It takes a while for new growth to come from underground, and be tall enough to be seen.

I'm terribly lazy and have left dead stumps in the ground for a year, lol! I've also had some surprise and me come back WAY later than I would ever have suspected! I had a potted Snowfire that looked dead as a door nail. I didn't need the pot for anything so I never bothered to dig it out. Come July I had something I wanted to plant so I went to dig out the poor dead plant. Ha, ha, it was growing! I hadn't watered it or fertilized it or done any fussing with it all spring and the dumb thing grew anyway. I've since learned that some roses just don't care for my early spring cool weather and wait until it really starts to heat up before they start to grow. You just never know. Now I watch newer roses to see how soon they start leafing out. They really are all different.

My Beverly was in a pot outside and got covered in ice for a week. It came back but had some damage. I’m 8a so not the same winter as yours. But still it impressed me so much that I decided to buy a pretty pot for it and baby it with good soil. Good luck with your Beverly. She’s one tough rose

Well, that is encouraging. I did enjoy Beverly and I haven't had it long enough to really get the full effect either. So, I will definitely leave it and see if I get lucky. I assume it has a better chance if I baby it? Keep it well watered. Should I add compost and alfalfa meal around it? I enjoyed reading all your stories of past luck with dead looking roses. lol

Prairiemoon, yes, I would keep her moist and give her a good layer of wood chips, chopped leaves, or pine straw, whatever you have, and that will keep the ground moist and an even temperature. I stopped losing roses to winter when I started mulching consistently.

I would only feed the soil for now and let the roots draw nourishment from the soil. Composted manure, plain compost or a fish emulsion would be my choice. Alfalfa is for blooms, I believe, so let that wait a bit.

They don't always survive, but when you see new growth at the base, you will be so glad you gave her some time.

Thanks, flowersaremusic, Most of my roses are in a mixed bed with other perennials and shrubs and I always have a mulch over it. We chop leaves in the fall and everything gets covered well. This past winter it's been so windy, that some of my mulch may have blown out of the yard in places, but really I had to pull a lot of leaves away from the roses when I was ready to prune. I have Coast of Maine Compost and Neptune's Harvest Fish Emulsion and I'll give the whole bed NH in a sprayer and include that and just put a layer of compost and leave off the alfalfa meal. Thanks!

Prairiemoon, I had a feeling I was telling you things you already know. Sounds like your Beverly will be on the road to recovery very soon. I hope she makes it.

One feels so bad when one forks out a plant only to discover it had shoots coming from underground that weren't visible yet. You feel like a murderer.

"You feel like a murderer" 🤣

Sheila, you are a true rose lover. Well, I sure don't want to feel like I murdered Beverly, so I am planning to leave it in place for this year. [g] I don't need that space for something special and it really would be great if Beverly came back.

But just to note that 'Savannah', 'Pope John Paul' in the same bed were live to just about the top of their canes in the same bed. And 'Julia Child' that I treated horribly last year and pruned half of it off at the end of the summer, came back from the base vigorously. 'Prairie Sunrise' in another bed is full of leaves at the moment and I barely did more than pruned the tips off the canes. 'Aloha' and 'New Dawn' on the fence both came back fine too.

I edited the title of this thread to help with a search for 'Beverly' so the tendency to have difficulty over the winter would be understood. By the way, IF 'Beverly comes back, is there something I should be doing to protect it more over the winter?

Make an educated guess on whether the problem was cold or canker. We had a *very* mild winter, so I'd guess you did also. That combined with having a lot of leaves blow in makes me suspect canker. If that's the problem, then you have to keep the canes clear during the winter.

Yes, that is correct. It got colder in Dallas this winter than in Upstate New York.

Swapping out the apostrophes around Beverly for quotation marks around “dead” would have accurately reflected the OP’s dilemma. The question, as it appears in the title of this discussion, does not. No one would advocate waiting if the rose was dead.

Sheila’s idea of forking out a rose in question, rather than using a shovel, is a good one ( if one chose to remove such a rose) as severe root damage to an ultimately viable rose might be avoided.

I'm not sure our winter was all that mild here, but not the worst we ever had. One thing I noticed was it's been very windy. More so than usual for a lot longer than usual. But, again, with other roses in the same bed, that were not that affected, maybe it was.

I just looked up Canker and what the symptoms are and I don't recall seeing any of that on the canes. I can't look at it now because it's cut down to the ground, but what is there, is brown and solid with no black and no green in the middle of the cane stump when it was cut down. No sprouts on the base or coming up from the ground.

So yes, the question is more is the rose dead and from what? But I guess I'm going to wait and see if it could possibly come back.

Prairiemoon, I apologize for not asking if Beverly is grafted or own root. I'm just starting to dip my toes into the world of grafted roses since our winters have been milder. Own root roses are more likely to survive winter, and come back true from their roots than grafted ones. Either way, we are waiting to see if she survives.

Every rose reacts differently to winter. So one rose can die to the ground and the one next to it looks great to the tips. And they react different every year depending on how they were going in and what kind of winter it was. You just take your chances and work with whatever Mother Nature leaves you with in the spring. Maybe Beverly had a late growth spurt and didn't have quite as much energy stored for spring. Perhaps Julia was in a better place for protection from this winter's winds. Who knows? But I really do think it's too early to give up all hope.

Woo Hoo - Shee's ba-ack! lol I pulled away all the leaves that were covering the stump and I see new growth coming up! Two coming straight up from the ground and two that are coming out of the base of the cut back stumps. I just watered it well but wondering if I should add compost and alfalfa meal, same as I did to the rest?

Congrats on it coming back ☺

What great news!

That's great!! I don't think a good feeding would hurt it in the slightest at this point.

I just found this thread. It was an intersting read...and it ended so happily!! YAY!

So glad I knew enough to head to this forum and ask before I dug it up! Thank you all for the great advice! I'll take a photo later when it starts to look like something and post it here later in the season.

Yes add the alfalfa and compost too. I'm so glad you waited.

So happy to hear that! They usually come back faster than if you had just planted one that size. It still has a good root system - it was just the top that was lost.

I finally took a photo of what is growing right now. Beverly has already had a topping of alfalfa meal and compost. Hoping for a good season for her. Not a great photo but the dark canes against the brown soil, don't show up too well.

When you cut a rose back to the ground, do you leave that much of a stump or do you cut closer to the ground?

Looks great! Cutting as low as you can would be good, but I would not try now to cut any lower because you would likely injure the new growth.

Yes, it looks really good!! I second what Sheila said. :)

No, I wouldn't dare try to cut back the stump now, I'm just happy it's alive. I just was asking about the stump while I thought of it, for the next time.. Thanks.

Just took a photo of Beverly today. It was a gray morning, so the photos are dark, but, I am just amazed at how well it has come back! And it is in better shape this year than it was last year. Last year I had one large stem that towered over the rest of the shrub to about 8ft. This year it is very symetrical and balanced.

And the foliage! It is SO clean! Not even a beetle bite out of a leaf, no sign of foliar problems despite a ton of rain we've had this year.

Isn't it a great feeling to see her rebound so well. You did a great job. What a perfect bloom.

Thank you, it is a great feeling and I might have dug her up without everyone here encouraging me to be patient! [g] And since I am specializing in no spray roses, I would have missed a really healthy plant if I had dug it up.

Shelia, if you are following, you suggested I cut it lower. I wonder if I should do that next spring or should I try to allow it to put on more growth on what is there now?

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA she looks beautiful!! I'm so glad she came back for you!!

I would not try for lower cutting now, Prairie. If you do cut a dead cane, cutting it as close as you can to the crown is ideal, but you did the best you could reach and did great. I have left stumps on occasion because I could not reach the base without injuring another cane. I have a pruning saw for fine tuning but you can't reach the base every time. You did great!

Thank you Sheila, I was hoping you were going to say don't cut it next spring. [g] I'm just so happy with all that new growth. But if I have a problem at some point and have to cut it down, I will try to do it as close to the crown as I can. We have a pruning saw as well, which we love.

BTW, last year it had larger flowers. So as pretty as this flower is, I'm just happy to get one this year but I think normally the flowers are bigger than that.

As the rose establishes it will have bigger roses again. Sometimes when it has been cold pruned you have more number but smaller roses.

Prairiemoon - OH YAY!!!! She looks FABULOUS!!! I'm so happy that your Beverly looks so amazing!!! Great job!!

Sheila, so when you say cold pruned, you mean pruning it back after it's died back after winter? That doesn't change the size of the rose permanently right?

Thanks rosecanadian. Really, I feel like the only thing I did was to add compost/mulch after it started growing again and I tried to make sure it had enough air circulation around it. Other than that I ignored her all season. Hardly watered it because we had so much rain. I used rain water when I did. So she did that all on her own! lol Seems like a great rose.

Prairie, you are right that the cold damage does not change the size of the flowers permanently.

I just thought the smaller, shorter plant put out more smaller flowers because of the cold cutting it back.

I have read that some rose plants stop trying to grow climbing canes if they get pruned shorter. Some antique Tea roses I grow here can sulk if one tries to prune them and they will refuse to grow for some time. Having heard this, I don't prune those of course. None of this applies to your rose's situation.

Hmmm.....I think I have a lot to learn. [g] I did not know that about climbers that stop trying after being pruned shorter, but I'm glad to know that so I will ask when I am trying to grow a climber if it is one of those that don't like being pruned shorter. Not that I was looking for a climber, I planted 'Beverly' thinking it was a 5ft shrub and was very surprised to get an 8ft cane last year. I'm surprised about the tea roses that don't want to be pruned and you are in zone 8a, so I guess it's not a case of hardiness issues.

So, I think I am all set. Even my Julia Child which was also pruned low in the spring is a smaller shrub with smaller flowers and all the roses in the garden, have larger blooms with their first flush and smaller with their second. Add to that the fact I didn't apply a 2nd dose of compost/alfalfa meal as I usually do after the first flush, and the smaller size roses make sense.

Thank you!

Yes, Prairie, the Antique Tea roses are another pruning story. In case you ever move to heat it is good to know that pruning stalls them out, often. They are entirely different from Hybrid Teas.

It's always an education in this forum! Thanks for all the help!

Last post on this thread. First flush of bloom end of July after thinking it was dead in April. It would win a competition in my garden today. Clean clean foliage, nice clear pink color and a good amount of blooms. I'm very happy wtih this rose. Here is a photo, but I've not been taking very good photos lately and it's been windy so nothing is sharp. In person it is a very attractive rose.

Yay!! It lives. Beverly is such a cool rose. Im glad that she made it.

Well done!!! :) :)

I know I said one last photo, [g], but there was no wind and better light this morning....

Ooooh!!! I'm glad you posted this!!