Sounds unnecessary and overkill to me, honestly. We get those temps here every winter, if you have hardy varieties they will grow back just fine.

After a typical zone 6 winter, if youve still got a foot of viable canes above ground, you’re doing well! Ignore advice like ”give it miracle gro to jump start it” - that’s just a salesman pushing product.

I suspect you’re overthinking this. Give the roses another 6 weeks and see how things evolve.

Always, always, always start with where in the world you are. It usually matters. I spent last week listening to zone 6 people talk about how bad their roses looked. I told them to be patient. It was still much too early to be talking about death and destruction. It was still too early to be talking about pruning out potential death and destruction. Is that true for you? Beats me, since I have no idea where in the world you are.

I have had these roses for 5 years and this is the first year I have lost any bushses or had to prune so heavily leaving the plant with just two or three short canes. It's not too early to see what is dead and what is almost dead. The weather we had this winter was unusual. My neighbors are calling me and telling me their bushes are dead or in some cases die back is unprecedented.

What I am doing now is deciding which roses to swap out for hardier varieties. Some faired much better than others. Of my DA roses, Alnwick was barely affected. Desdemona faired pretty well.

Be more patient. I had zero death and destruction, but I prune most of my roses waaay back, and they grow into their original sizes rapidly. Yours will surprise you. Weather is different every year. My garden is so far behind everyone's else's. Only Carol is Canada is farther behind. And I'm in zone 7. All the zone 5 people have stuff blooming--at least bulbs-- by now. Patience is hard, but necessary. Diane

Sorry Carla, so very frustrating. Best wishes picking out plants to replace the ones that died.

I wouldn't give more fertilizer than your usual.

I just pruned in NE Kansas, also zone 6a. There was a little more die back than last year on the hybrid teas, but the floribunda looks good. The weather you're describing wouldn't be unusual for us though.

Sounds normal to me too.. tho I get the feelings you have! Some of mine I had to cut to the ground. I lost Princess Charlene. I think wind and dry winter are more of an enemy than lowlow temperatures. We get -15 every year but it makes a huge difference if we have snow cover.

What State are you in, Carla? Location info in your name really helps.

I bury my graft 4-5" below the surface. I try to keep my bushes healthy during the growing season. At fifteen below F (-15 ͦ F) if the graft is properly buried, is a mild winter and is no issue here. We could experience greater die-back at -20 ͦ F, and would likely start to lose 1-2 of my 38 plants at about -28 ͦ F and lower.

If I have some plants weakened by disease the prior season, or declining health, we might see a few losses at around -20 ͦ F for a few days.

Carla English "Someone at a garden center yesterday told me to give them miracle grow in addition to the typical rose tone and compost I place around the base at this time of year. He said it would jump start the long recovery ahead."

I am not sure where you are located, but "jumpstarting" roses is not a good practice in the early spring. If you get some early growth, followed by a hard freeze, it could easily kill off the rose bush. Several years ago we had a hard freeze on May 22, and 23, and I lost about three or so roses that had already leafed out. I was in the habit of "jumpstarting" roses back then.

This time of year I will scratch in organic fertilizers, but I don't use Miracle Grow this early.

I am still waiting for some sign of growth from the base of my Julia Child which I've had for 8+ years and has been completely reliable! All dead canes to the ground. Beverly on the other hand came through with flying colors with new leaf buds as high as my shoulders on mostly thick beautiful purple/red canes. New Dawn - another with very good basal growth. I'm still waiting on some sign from Prairie Sunrise too. Savannah is slow with a couple of visible buds. Still time to see if I get something from these.

I am living in northeastern Massachusetts, zone 6A. I have not seen 50 mph winds with -11 temps and no snow cover to insulate the roses previous to this past winter. I think that is what made this winter more challenging for my roses.

That really helps to see your location, Carla.

So sorry to hear of the tough Winter there.

Here, it was 28 F this am, so I have daffodils and Forsythia but it is really a slow Spring.

This is a reason why, if given the opportunity, I get own root. Don't have to worry what rose is coming out of the ground after a harsh winter.

I've given miracle-gro to pokey roses and it seemed to help them pick up speed. YMMV.

Carla, I am 6A NY, but I didnt have -10F, but came close to it. It was a cold winter, but it gets that cold in zone 6A. I had a lot of roses loose about 2/3 of canes pruned back, almost all were 5 ft. I do look for hardy varieties. I orune them all to almost 3 ft in fall & then prune them in spring to 1-2 feet. Tall 5 ft canes do get hit hsrd by freezing winds so they are pruned fown in fall.

Location is everything, though though, not just plant zone. Where are you located? You sound like the tupical zone 6A NY winter, same as me? Oh, Mass-I realize the smow kept melting here in NY, too too-so no snow cover for roses.But no snow usually when it was warmer. Anyway Anyway, Mass is little colder than my NY Fingerlakes area. Some years just colder than others. I lost a couple roses & one is an inch tall. It happens.

Use really good organic soil, cow manure and fish fertilizer and Rose tone for best jump start. I found weekly fish fertilizer really regenerates them. I do monthly fish fertilizer if they are doing fine.

Our roses in NE states don’’t grow as fast as Diane’s in Idaho with her hot summer sun, but you will have 5 ft roses again if you use the fertilizers I suggested. Mine all are 5 ft or taller eventually!

Covering with burlap the weaker ones or new ones for winter helos. I had much healthier roses this spring than ever, even though the coldest winter, I covered many w/ burlap and super energized them with fish fertilizer much of the season & Rose Tone & “lush new organic soils just before winter.“ And they are all leafed out-looking great & growing faster than usual; although we also had sone warm 80F weather recently, too too, Lol! I had a couple low prunes to 6 inches, 1 all the way down to two inches, and the rest I pruned to 2-3 ft & Pimponella is 4ft.

We are having rain, 74F today! Great for roses growth & my new grass seed!

I went back and looked at the roses this week and wow, lots of new growth from the base on all of them. So I pruned off the canes to just above the new growth on some of them. Beverly had new growth on 3 canes chest high and basal growth too. Julia Child has shot out an amazing amount of new growth at the base. I'm apparently all set for the season. I just added compost and alfalfa meal then mulch around them. We're forecast for a lot of rain tomorrow. That should be a good start for them.

Prairemoon, Wonderful Wonderful! Looks like you have a hood start for your roses! compist & alfalfa soubds wonderful! Happy roses! Rain is perfect!

Yes, Carla. I am in VT 5b right near MA border and as noted I think the big damage wasn't the low temps, it was that we had a big melt right before one of those super cold stretches (went down to -21 one night after being practically balmy days before) and so we had little to no snow cover and any melted snow frozen solid. Everyone saying, oh we always have those temps--and a couple days of that isn't abnormal--but it was a lot of up and down for us (as are our winters now it seems) and a lot of melting and hard freezing and low temps with no insulating snow. And that wind!!!! It was scary. It was positively howling.

I was just thinking I will be more vigilant with burlap next winter if we get one of those cold spells without snow cover. Last year I was of a mind that I could probably plant out some zone 6 roses, given milder winters. But what we have seen this winter is we are going to get these wild swings and we might want extra zone hardiness, or extra protection of more tender varieties. Of course now, after days of 80 degree weather, I'm worrying about protecting new growth from the colder seasonable near freezing nights we are getting this week.

I will say that I had a couple i thought were goners and are mostly now showing signs of life. Hope you have a similar experience.

Meghan, yes, it was NOT our typical winter! If it had been, I would have walked into the garden in March and all my rose bushes would have looked great with just a few canes with minimal die back. Interestingly, we also do not have peach buds because of what you described. It was warm and then bitter cold with 50mph wind. We've never not had peach buds! So yea, people mean well but they are not here in this place to understand how our winter was different to years past.

I just cut down a 6 foot rose to the ground today. (Grandma's Blessing). I also took a shovel to another that is definitely dead. Wishing you lots of growth and a beautiful garden this summer!

KittyNYz6, thanks for the suggestions. Can you recommend a fish fertilizer? I have never used one. I gave the roses Rosetone and cow manure last week. When would I start with fish fertilizer? What does it have in it that the Roses wouldn't get from Rosetone?

Something confusing is happening in the garden.... I have two "Outta the Blue" roses which have been very vigorous over the past 5 years. It appeared that they had much less damage than other roses. I cut them back the normal spring amount (by 1/3). Most of the canes are green BUT, no leaf buds yet. All of the other roses that are not dead have leaf buds. I thought that because the canes are green, the rose is alive but why then is there absolutely no sign of swelling buds or emerging leaves?

I only go by new growth, either leaf buds on the cane or new basal growth. I thought a dead cane can be green.

Carla, welcome to the Patience and Hopeful club. This was my worst winter in 20 years, and we've had some doozies, but no consistent snow cover this time. Nothing, so far, is more than a few inches tall. Most are level with the ground. I haven't finished assessing the damage and pruning. It was winter, then it was 80˚, just like that. Moses' advice is sound, as always, unless you just want to experiment. I plan to fill the empty spaces with what i know will survive. Until I'm tempted with a new, outrageously gorgeous rose. Good luck to you.