Yes, it works great if you have a coldroom that you can maintain above freezing. You'll need the biggest pots you can find (we use 18" diameter) for roses, with drainage holes added. A dolly is very handy for moving them in and out.

I'm going to be trying this for the first time this year. I have a Mr. Lincoln on order that I want to try in a large pot. I found a super nice plastic pot that looked like it was made of copper wire, at Walmart. Plastic is good if you can find a nice looking one, because it's light and easy to move. But of course I only bought one pot and they were sold out the next day. Don't forget to use a high quality moisture retaining soil.

I was actually reading up on this at the rose forum and I was shocked how many people grow roses for years in very small pots. Like only 3 gallon nursery pots and their roses do fine. I'm going to agree with Lori that you should select as big a pot as you can handle when full of soil and rose.

I have over wintered mini roses for many years in pots in my laundry room.

I made a couple of mistakes this year......I cut the roses back at the end of the season before I brought them in.....and then forgot about them till Dec. They didn't make it, this winter.

So yes it can be done successfully. Oh and I used Promix in the pots.

Sierra

I have a couple of container roses in the pumphouse right now, I'll be bringing those up tomorrow hopefully when DH has time to help me lift them.

Sharon

I grew roses in containers for several years back up in Wisconsin. It enabled me to grow tender roses like old teas and chinas. I used redwood pots but looking back I probably should've used light colored plastic (black plastic pots got kinda hot in the summer sun). After a dozen years the wooden pots rotted! My pots were around 18" across (I used slightly smaller ones for my minis). For my potting soil I used a mix that a local florist/nursery used on their plants in their greenhouses. This nursery sold their mix in hobby bags. Shop around for mixes. Some commercially available bagged potting soil won't drain as well as others. If you go to the GW Container Gardening forum some of those folks mix their own. Containered roses will need more frequent watering and fertilizing than those in the ground. I would water in the morning one day and fertilize either later that day or the following.

To overwinter the roses I used our unheated attached garage. In the fall - usually sometime in November - I would water the pots real well and then I'd remove the foliage from each bush and cut the bushes back to a couple of feet tall. Then I'd slip the pot inside an extra large 55 gallon black plastic garbage bag. I found these big bags at farm and fleet type stores. Then I'd fold the open end of the bag over (don't tie the bags shut, they need air!) and prop up the bagged rose up off the cold cement floor of the garage. Wooden boards or insulation sheets work well here. The black plastic helps keep the roses in the dark and the potting mix moist. As a matter of fact the last 2 winters my hubby and I were snow birds down here so I COULDN'T water them even if I wanted to and the roses came thru fine. When we returned to WI in April I found the roses had begun to sprout. The potting mix also stayed fairly moist. I left them alone however until the forstythia began to bloom. Then I'd take the roses out of the bags and remove the pale shoots that appeared over the winter. These will never be sturdy enough to support themselves and new normal growth will appear soon. The potted roses are then set out in the early spring sunshine and given a good drink of water. I wouldn't fertilize until I noticed normal looking shoots appear.

Thank you so much for the great advice - I didn't know you didn't have to water them weekly all winter.