I went to pull some dead roses out today- and they wouldnt budge! They are alive- but they are sulking! They must want more warmth and sunshine before they bother to rise and shine. I think they were fooled a couple of times this year- and are going to wait till they know the coast is clear and the frost is well behind us. I would say wait a while if you like them and want them- or pull them if you want the space for something new!
Julie

I second everything Julie said. As long as there is some green and they are still firmly rooted into the ground there is still hope. I had Blue Girl a few years ago and it died on me last spring. What a pretty rose, I hope your's survives. My new Angel Face is just starting to open. It looks a little pink and smells soooo good! A few of my Buck roses just started leafing out a week ago. I was a little worried about them since everything else is growing well.

My Red Pinocchio JUST TODAY burst it's buds FINALLY! and it comes back from the roots each year (it's actually a zone 6 rose, so I really have to cosset it)

There's still hope! :)

-Marie

Thanks everyone, I'll wait a little while longer and try to be patient. I went and yanked on some of the ones I think are dead and they wouldn't budge so maybe...?

What cover do you ladies and gents use tp cover your roses.

I have some in both Sauk Rapids and Hutchinson.

I had used mostly Oak leaves, but for several years did not have enough and used what I had, the number of dead roses was, from speaking with other raisers, normal, for nasty cold-hot-cold-hot winters, but this year, did use mostly straight oak and had far more dead ones than expected.

How far down do you put the union on your tea roses, which is what I prefer?

I lost supposedly hardy roses also, so, from now on I am burying the bud at least one inch, always, and two to four in winter.

I had one "blue" rose whose union was buried all summer, for other reasons, and never unburied, and this spring it was the ONLY rose that looked good.

It is now weeks ahead of the others and it was not really under the best leaf cover as I thought it would probably go belly up.

Bob

I used oak leaves for the first time this year. I'm pretty sure two floribundas, one own-root and the other grafted, aren't going to make it. The other 5 bushes, own-root Austins & 2 shrubs, I planted last year are coming back. I plant the grafted about 1 inch below the soil. We used to cover them with peat moss. I'm going to use peat again this fall.

Althea, which Austins do you have? I would love to add a few more that will be hardy. Last year I got Gertrude Jeckyll, Jude the Obscure, Abraham Darby, Scepter'D Isle, Graham Thomas, and Noble Antony. All of them made it through with next to no protection. Gert was the only one that wasn't own root.

On my tender Red Pinocchio I put a cage of chicken wire around it, staked in, and dump in about 6-12 inches of compost, then fill it tightly with the abuntant silver maple leaves we have. This seems to work just dandy :)

-Marie

That is nice collection TwoHuskies.

The Austin I planted last year I like the best is Crown Princess Margareta. The other two are Guinevere & Chelsea Morning. Guinevere was a slow grower last year and is repeating that growth pattern this year. Pretty blossom though. I don't like Chelsea's color much.

We had some Austins in our old garden I highly recommend. Heritage grew like an old garden rose. She was extrememly hardy and instead of the 4x4 bush we expected, in her tallest year, she was over 12x6 and always loaded with blossoms. Othello is another favorite, but is the thorniest rose I've ever seen. Fair Bianca, although small, has enough scent for a rose twice her size and like the others did well over wintering. The Graham Thomas we used to have did very well until the winter of 2002. We had a couple of others that were short lived whose names I've forgotten. The David Austin catalog is an excellent guide to help determine hardiness.

Uh oh... I just planted Heritage next to Konigin von Danemark in the front yard. I bought Wildeve this spring and so far the blooms are very pretty. I also ordered Charlotte, Redoute, and The Prince a few weeks ago.

Does the color on Crown Princess hold well? Is she more peachy orange or yellow?

Two Huskies: Sounds like you got in on the KrazyKeith's sale, did you? Mine are due to arrive today and I got Heritage, Charlotte, Redoute, and The Prince as well.
I have had good luck with Ambridge Rose and nothing seems to kill Golden Celebration for me- both own root. I have to comment though that it seems like a lot of the Austins in my garden grow much more with the habit of climbers than bushes and they need support or they crawl on the ground. I wondered if that was because they have to come back from the root every year and are never given the chance to develop thick, mature canes.....or is it just me? AR is the exception to this comment- very short. Evelyn was hardy but I kicked her out because she was...er, well, spindly.

Yes they are coming from KrazyKeith. I also ordered Reine des Violettes from them. I was trying to resist, but everyone on the rose forum kept saying how nice their plants are. For the price I figured why not. I have no idea about the growth habit. All my Austins were new last year. I will keep your comments in mind as I monitor their growth habit this year.

Did you get package tracking info from KK? I ordered on the 11th and they just charged my account on the 20th. I hope they come soon. I'm really wanting to go up north this weekend. I don't want to come home and find out they sat in a box waiting for me all weekend..

Yes I got the tracking info after e-mailing them and asking this morning. They had shipped last Thursday so I hope they didn't sit in a hot spot over the weekend. They charged my account the day that they shipped so hopefully that will be the same for you. I'm just hoping that with ordering so late we don't get the bottom of the barrel scrapings but still for 5.95 per bush who can complain.

Crown Princess is more toward orange than yellow, a very saturated apricot. Ours gets shade in the afternoon so the color holds really well, better than it likely would under intense p.m. sunlight.

Nettie - I got my KK order last night!!!! My only complaint was that The Prince had one whole cane broken down at the base. It makes the plant lopsided, but there are two basal breaks near where the cane was so it should fill back in very quickly. Everything looked good. Nice sized plants, good roots, and nothing was rotten/moldy. I also got a verigated sedum that was in great shape. As I was potting it up I noticed it was two separate plants stuck together. Kinda felt like a bonus. Either way I'm happy with my order.. I hope your order is just as good.

Kool! Mine came too and I was happy with the plants- a couple were on the smallish size..the Prince and Redoute, but Heritage, Charlotte, Yves Piaget all had 4 to 5 healthy thick canes and lots of breaks. Now with the cooler rainy weather we are having they should get a good start.