I have found that when I mulch my roses for the winter, they die of rot. But, when I don't mulch my roses for the winter, they die of cold. Either way I lose about the same number of roses. One way is way less work though so guess which one I do now.

Soil may be too heavy for mulching your roses with, especially if you have clay soil. Also, if you mulch too early in the year they're more likely to rot.

This winter, I waited til we had truly dangerously cold temperatures to do anything (below 20 degrees with predictions for possibly low teens), and then I mulched lightly with fresh dry wood shavings. My roses look great now. Didn't necessarily have to do anything as the temps never dropped into the low teens after all, and I've found that there's not enough damage to be worthwhile until temps drop into single digits. So, my roses were not mulched until mid January, and I uncovered them at the end of February; they were covered with a light fluffy airy material for only 6 weeks. Not buried in soil for 4 months.

I've been told that winter protection is not to protect the roses from cold so much, as to protect them from freeze and thaw cycles. They need to experience the winter cold to let them know that yes it is winter now, but you don't want them to get cold then warm then cold then warm because they think the first warm spell is spring and start to grow. So I leave mine exposed to the cold until it gets really really cold.

Books are just guidance. The fun of gardening is figuring out what works in what conditions. Every winter is going to be different.

There is a very interesting article on the vagaries of winter protection by Fr. Gervase Degenhardt, at the ARS site. His general conclusion seems to be pretty much what Reg is saying: Not protecting at all is likely to be just as effective on average, and it's a lot less work.

You should note, of course, that Bonica is inherently much more cold-hardy than any of the Simplicity roses. In the twenty years I've had my plant of Bonica, she's never lost more than half her cane length over winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fr. Gervase Degenhardt on Winter Protection

floribarbara, i live in western mo. i planted about 40 bands last fall. i didn't protect any of my roses. i think i may have lost a couple. All the mulch i put on when i planted seemed to have been all blown into the iris bed. One i thought i had lost is peeking up at ground level. Of course winter isn't really over yet, i think the worst time here is the transition from winter to spring.warms up for a week and then gets real cold again. a couple of the more tender roses like silver moon and paul's lemon pillar are doing better than some of the more hardy ones.

A related question is when to uncover roses. Is this based on night time lows exceeding a particular temperature or some other principle? I covered some of my new roses this winter and they are still covered. Night time temps. are still going to 10F and daytime highs are around freezing (a bit below average for this time of year).

Ruth

Thank you, everyone, for your input. I thought I did the right thing - went by the book (Jackson & Perkins "Beautiful Roses Made Easy" Midwest edition). Mike Rivers, I read that article. Very interesting. I think I'll go without winter protection this winter. WAY too much work. I feel like I did more harm than good. I never really winterized before when I only had Gene Boerner and it has always done well. "Don't fix it if it's not broke."