Hi Mary Lu, glad you are enjoying your roses. For pruning, you can probably just wait until the rose branches start leafing out in the spring and just cut off any dead or almost dead tips. Ice can hurt roses if it weighs down the branches and cracks them, similar to what it does to trees. Another way ice can hurt roses is if you get a late ice storm and the ice coats the branches as the rose is breaking dormancy. Then you will get more than usual dead branch tips, but it won't kill the whole bush, just knock it back a bit.

I'll take a stab at it, but remember my zone is quite a bit different than yours.

As far as pruning, I prune here mostly because of winter die back. But this summer I learned that some of my roses get too big if left unpruned in spring. They have been in the ground 5 years and have probably reached maturity. Next spring they will be cut back in spring, whether they need it or not. This past winter was a cold one, but with all the snow cover most of my roses had little to no winter die back. Hence little pruning in spring. Lesson learned.

I would suggest a light pruning in spring if no winter die back, then see how big the bush gets. It will be trial and error for a few years until you get to know your bush, in your climate, in your yard.

As far as north side and ice during the winter...do you do any winter protecting? How cold do you get? One concern would be ice breaking down the canes. But as it is shaded in the winter, at least you would not have the freeze/thaw cycle nearly as much as if it got sun for part of the day.

What I suspect will happen is that the plants/roses planted in the winter shade area will just be later waking up than those planted in sun/shade areas. The ground will not warm up as quickly as that in a sun area. If the ice has not affected other roses in that area, and if this rose is rated for the same zone as the other roses, I suspect it will do just fine. Lots of variables. Sorry.

Keep in mind.....I'm no expert. :-) Just someone who has/is learning by trial and error! Also someone who likes to push the zone occasionally!

Anyone else want to chime in??

One more thing....as my DH told me the first year I started planting the garden room "If it doesn't work, just buy another and try again!" That first year I was paralyzed by indecision.....not wanting to make a mistake I was afraid to buy/plant anything!! I have replanted many of my roses through the years. Ones that I decided I didn't like, ones that didn't do well, or just ones that didn't do what I wanted them to! I have learned that it's ok to try and fail and try again!

Thanks! I can control the ice on the branches before it does any damage.

But we get a lot of sleet storms and the ground ends up having an inch of packed sleet. It's like an ice rink. So the packed ice will be on top of the ground.

I add more mulch to the roses each fall. My piddly Hydrangea made it through last winter so hopefully my Rose will too.