Please post pics when you get some.

Carla

Will do :) Here are a few from past years: Color Magic

Didn't realize I didn't upload any last year. I'll have to remedy that. Glad I checked the album.

It's amazing what will survive if you take a chance. My Marilyn Monroe survived the winter without any protection other than the record amount of snow. I hope it grows well again this year.

Color Magic is one of the most beautiful roses to me.

I'm surprised your pulling your mulch away already! I've been trying to take a peak at some of mine, but after last year when I pulled the mulch away then left for 10 days on vacation, I'm not moving any of mine for at least another 3 weeks. I have 2 CM, and will probably get rid of one since I just do not have the room for doubles.

CM is really beautiful. Is it own root or grafted? Donna

Digger, are there times of the year that Brigadoon and Color Magic resemble each other, closer in shades, other times totally different? Sometimes I have a problem telling the difference between the two unless CM has a lot of pink in it. Next question, do they brown fast during the summer like Gemini?? I would still never go without that rose but I wasn't quite prepared even though you told me:) I have a several really hot months.

I'd really like one or the other of these but can never quite make up my mind.

All your photos of the two are always excellent and the roses are gorgeous:)

Showoff!!

Maybe if I keep it under glass somewhere until May it will survive the spring temperature extremes. I won't tell you how many I've killed. Love the rose though, still think its the most beautiful bloom I know.

Athenainwi, it never gets old :) I am amazed every spring when I see how the roses came through winter. I make sure the ultra tender ones get lots of snow piled on them. Thank goodness for the white stuff. Good luck with MM. She almost came home with us a few years ago.

Peachiekean, Deb is absolutely crazy about CM. I'm beginning to like it too. The foliage impresses me as much as the blooms.

Mike, I take the mounding off every year in mid March if the snow has melted. The winter of 98/99 was the first I protected roses. I waited until April to remove it. Mold had formed on many of the roses by then. The next winter was a record setter here. Zero was the lowest temperature that winter. The roses only had tip damage the next spring. That convinced me the roses only needed protection from subzero weather. We don't have much chance of getting subzero stuff after mid March. I know the mulch has been helping keep the ground cool and, hopefully, the roses dormant. New growth is starting to show anyway so the mulch comes off. New growth will have to deal with teens and 20s.... occasionally single digits. Our roses always manage to get through low temperatures better than having mulch piled on them and getting moldy. Our normal mid May freeze is the key to how the roses do each year. If it gets to the low teens (like in 2005) the roses will be all season recovering. It is kind of funny... I just shake my head when I read of people protecting roses from temperatures in the 20s. It is hard for me to imagine them doing more good than harm :)
I try to wait until mid December to mound the roses. Deciding when to cover them is much iffyer than when to take the mulch off (for me). I want as much frost in the ground as possible but don't to lose cane to subzero stuff. The bottom can drop out here without much warning in November and December.
By the way, the roses are looking incredible. The spring of 2000 was the only one when we had more live cane on them. Looks like I am going to have to relearn how to prune roses.

Thanks Donna :) Our CM is grafted. I prefer starting with grafted rather than own root. I always hope they will eventually develop their own roots.

Hey Leslie :) LOL, though Gemini will always have a home here.... it gives me the creeps just thinking about how old blooms on it look. What a bloom factory! Brigadoon and Color Magic are similar and very different at the same time. I know that doesn't make sense. I like Brigadoon much more. Brigadoon is a better bloomer and a more vigorous bush for us. I like the darker color and shape of the older, open blooms on it. Blooms last a little longer too. Brigadoon is not a stinker but is more fragrant than CM. Neither one browns like Gemini does :)

Hey Jody :) Deb just told me I am vewy, vewy bad. You know it is actually her fault CM not only survives but thrives here in Montana. I tried very hard to talk her out of bringing it home. Of course... I should have known after I tried to talk her out of bringing Brandy home all those years ago. Brandy doesn't even act tender now *sigh* I gave up trying to figure out how she does it.

Me? A showoff?? Maybe a little bit :)

Hello Dave & Mike - when you mound your HTs, how deeply do you cover them? Do you try to cover the whole plant?
-terry

I have gotten much more lackadaisical about mounding the last few years. I used to mound soil about a foot high around the base of each rose I would top that off with 6 inches of mulch. The whole thing would usually settle to around a foot high. I'm delighted if a rose starts the year with 12 inches of live cane. I've experimented and varied that over the last few years (since 2001).
New roses get coarse sand poured on them to about 6 inches high the first winter. I tried it one winter to try and reduce the amount of mold in spring and it worked pretty well. I add the same type sand to the soil and compost I bring in to topdress the beds so it is going to get there anyway :) I pile lawn clippings and leaves run through the mower on top of that. I only try to protect that magic foot. I'm going to have to cut green cane this year. Most of our roses are planted only 30 inches apart. They get too large if I leave more cane on them when pruning. I refuse to fold my rearview mirrors on my truck in every time I back out the driveway again too.
I quit protecting some of the roses. Some, like Kordes' Perfecta, seemed to resent mounding and perform better if I leave them be. Some, like Heirloom, get too large if I protect them. Heirloom is green to the tips out there right now. Deb was laughing at me yesterday cursing at the monster, LOL.
I did use the sandy mounding on CM the second winter because of its reputation. CM got the normal mulch mounding last winter and seems to have done just fine.

Watching the snow falling right now.... wish it would stop so I can get out in the yard.

Do you think I would have the same success if I just protected with wood mulch? I don't have access to sand, but I get about 40 cu. yards of mulch delivered every fall.
Sorry about the snow; Chicago is getting blasted with about 9" but luckily it is missing us...we're about 3 hrs. south.

I have never used wood mulch so can't help. So others may answer... what type wood?

I bring home sand from the company gravel pit. We don't get many new roses so it doesn't take much. I figure a 5 gallon bucket per rose.

It is just a light, fine snow. It isn't sticking and is just delaying me getting out there. Guys are already calling me to go to work. I want to get as much done in the yard as I can before I go back to digging :)