Happens to me frequently. Don't need to do anything. Doesn't seem to hurt the plants. Might have reduced/delayed blooming. Might not have. Have no way of knowing.

In the future when cold temps are expected, a simple thing that helps is to put pots over the rose. Assuming it will fit. You can use a bucket instead. It can add a few degrees to the inside and help prevent condensation.

Thank you, kidhorn!

In the past I have used some anti-freeze cloth but it is usually not needed in my area, so I thought they would be fine without. Unfortunately, this time it got colder than normal (20+ degrees) .

They seem fine but it's a lot of wilted/droopy/dried-by-frost leaves to remove as they were small when frost got them...and new growth now seems to be waiting, not coming back as fast as I had hoped.

Urgh. I was looking forward to a glorious new season as last year was my first actual success.

I had the same thing happen. My biggest concern are the bud eyes themself. Everything was actively growing and boom, 20 degrees for two hours. I ended up repruning all of my roses as all the bud eyes at the top of my bush's were froze and destroyed.

Severe, you can still have a plenty glorious season. Us cold zoners go through this every year, sometimes multiple times, and the roses still have lovely spring flushes.

Strange as it may sound, the trick to prevent late spring frosts from damaging new growth, growth that may recover nicely, or be severely damaged, depending on the length and temperature below freezing that was reached, is to prune about 2 weeks BEFORE the average last frost date for your area. This breaks with the traditional general rule of thumb that instructs us to prune our roses when the forsythia and daffodils are blooming.

Also, at this delayed pruning time make sure you prune down far enough, but no further, to wood that has barely any evidence of new, spring growth breaking.

When you prune later and down lower on the wood to where hardly any new growth has begun, you ensure the survivability and continued rapid, unstunted growth of these later breaking buds.

So, your first blooms may be delayed a couple weeks, but some late spring frosts are extremely severe, and often followed by still another frost(s), In that the bush is weakened, and greatly delayed in recovering.

Moses

Well, now I'm expecting temps in the mid 20's on Sunday and Monday night. I have 7 new small roses planted. What I'm going to do is pile oak leaves over the new roses and put a pot over them. The big mature ones are on their own.

Thank you, all! It sounds like I may have to prune these roses some more because it's almost as if they stopped growing. They are not dead, but they kind of just sit there. Should I prune them hard after this and risk delayed growth and blooming?

I would wait. When it suddenly gets cold, roses temporarily stop growing. Probably has something to do with chemical reactions slowing at lower temperatures. When it gets warmer, they'll start growing again.

It is so annoying when that happens. Everything is growing nicely and boom, a few freezing nights and hello crispy leaves. It is so frustrating but, in the end I still get a lovely spring flush.

I would do anything quite yet. Wait a week and see if you need to do any trimming.

Best wishes

Thank you, all! This is really helpful. It's annoying to see so many of those small leaf tips hanging wilted and dry...so I trim off as many as I can as I pass by, but it;s a lot so I am waiting for them to fall off o their own. But yes , the bushes seem to have taken a break from growing, maybe they are till in shock or something. It will be interesting to see what happens this year.

Should I continue to fertilize as normal? I have already added the cow manure and some extra soil amendments but now it's time to start with the water solubles. Should I wait for the bushes to pick up the growth pr should I go ahead and add liquid fertilizer?

I have a four in pots in pots and nine in the ground if I include the cover ones (Coral Drifit)

I would wait to fertilize until you have a full set of leaves.

There are still lots of leaves on most of them, it's just that many have droopy, dried up tips. Some are green and fine, others are not. I removed as many of the wilted/dried as possible, but there are too many and they are small.

Those leaves aren't going to harm the plant. Just leave them be, and be patient. Your roses are going to be fine.

We are having 3 days of 20/23 temps :( there goes all the beautiful new growth...

It's terrible. Most are are leafing back but it seems slow and some of the old leaves fried by frost are still hanging there. I try to clear away as many as I can but there were quite a few.

The rose bushes seem to grow slowly now. They certainly didn't like that frost and I am not expecting miracle blooms this season. :(

Putting oak leaves in pots and covering my new roses worked great. We had 3 nights in the 20s. Sunday night broke an all time low for the date at 20F. Just uncovered them and see no damage. A little squishing, but they should pop back up in a few days. My bigger roses seem to be OK too. They only had little tiny red leaves. Some look a little scorched around the edges, but in general they look fine.