What zone are you in? One of my mentors used rose cones in our nasty cold dry Iowa winters, but cut off the solid tops of the cones and filled them up with dirt. It sounded like a lot of work to me, and I tend to use pine bark nuggets, mulch or whatever I have available. Instead of the cones, I also use small boxes with the ends folded to keep the mulch from blowing away in our gale force artic winds.

With this warm weather, it should be interesting to guage when to remove our poor efforts of winterization.

Good luck!

Stuff some leaves around the base and put a 5 gallon bucket over it.

Whether you use the cones or a bucket make sure there are holes in them for air circulation. To me those cones are nothing but a petri dish. They keep in all the dampness and get too warm creating perfect conditions for any kind of disease growth. On top of that to put them on any healthy size rose you have to whack them way down in the fall. I NEVER recommend pruning in the fall! You want to leave as much cane length as possible to winter over. All of that cane length is stored energy for spring growth. If you cut it all off in the fall and you have any kind of freeze and thaw cycle in the spring your roses won't have enough energy to keep coming back.

Try using 36/48" chicken wire and build a box around your bush and fill with oak leafs or straw.

Sorry, I should have said a bottomless five gallon bucket.

Ken, I like that chicken wire idea. I may use that on some of mine in the big bed next fall. I use leaves for mulch but some years (like this one) a lot of it blows away before I get any snow cover. The wire would hold it in place for me.

Karl, I was sure you did mean to cut the bottom off but I just wanted to be sure that dreamer knew it too.