I say do what you did in zone 5a. As long as you're growing roses that are the same regarding hardiness, it should work even better in zone 6b, don't you think so?

Moses

I don't do any protecting because it is typically too wet. The best is to bury the top of the graft union (on grafted roses) deeply, at least 3" - 4" deep. Putting any material on the canes can foster a fungal disease, canker, which damages the canes.

Even here, we usually have warm, wet spells during the winter when winter protection is a very, very bad idea.

I find it helps to wrap my roses with burlap to help them stay dormant during the warm spells we always have during the middle of winter. This year I was done wrapping on January 2nd. I also keep the canes long, though I don't see any problem with shortening really tall HT canes to just 4 or 5 feet long. What happens is that any canes that do wake up are killed by winter--the top part anyway. If the canes are long enough there may be a bottom part that survives. If I don't wrap the canes on some HTs, they will die back all the way to the ground. Which might be OK if the bud unions are buried deep, but I prefer to have a little more cane than that to grow exhibition length stems for the Spring Rose Show. A tight wrap of burlap provides structural support so that the canes don't snap off at the ground. I don't fill the burlap with anything.

Yes, doing what I did in z5 should work fine in 6 as you have pointed out, Moses. Just really surveying folks to see what they do if anything. Seems wide ranging responses. The winter warm ups can be problematic and the burlap suggestion seems like a good solution..as long as fungus is not fostered - seems like taking that off before any chance of that happening would be necessary - just takes observation. Thanks to all.

Here is a rooted cutting of Veterans' Honor, which was never patented. A small single cane HT rose like this really needs as much cane as you can save over the winter if you hope to grow it into a big plant. The bloom is on the small side, as the picture was taken on the 4th day of a heat wave (yesterday).

I'm too lazy to do any real protection of my roses (I'm in zone 6), but my neighbors have several oak trees each, so oak leaves tend to blow into my garden--rather haphazardly, but I guess that provides some mimimal protection for some of them.

The biggest problem I've run into in zone 6 is late winter/early spring freeze-thaw cycles--happening several times. That freeze-thaw business is harder on them than snow is. Typically, my hybrid teas suffer winter damage and I have to trim them down to 6 or 10 inches from the soil line--but sometimes (like this year) practically right down to the soil line. This years hybrid teas, as a result, are shorter than usual.

Most of my shrubs don't suffer as much winter damage.

Kate

It all comes down to what you want to grow. I prefer to grow my hybrid teas as big bushy shrubs, as this gives me a much longer time in which I can cut blooms with exhibition form. I can't do this if the canes die back to the soil line.