Mine are done. It was warmer but the roses were still going dormant anyway so I just did them. Glad I did because we got snow later that week. I HATE trying to do it in the snow!

I don't do collars, but I did dump some mulch over the top of most of my roses. It's been dry so I guess I just won't worry about it being warm.

Should all roses be 'winterized'? I'm new to roses.

Our temps here in Missouri have been freezing on most nights, but between 40-55F during the day. It's definitely been a warmer December!

I've been wondering too what I should be doing. I'm new to Roses and my Roses are young and small. They're mostly planted in protected areas tho. I do still worry because we have lots of temp fluctuations and cold blustery winter winds. My smallest rose is Bolero and just a baby a only 6 inches tall.

Nickjoseph: I'm 1.5 hour away from you, zone 5. Winters have been dry lately with little snow (gave away my snow blower a long time ago). For the past decade, out of my 130+ varieties of own-root roses, at least a dozen died due to DRYNESS through winter, rather than cold. The roses in full sun are most affected by dry winter, and when I dug dead roses in spring, the soil WAS VERY DRY. But the roses in partial shade survive dry winter better.

I actually lost more roses to dry winter rather than cold winter. I had a few roses that died due to poor drainage (large stones or dense clay below that block the freezing rain in Dec/Jan.). But countless roses, esp. young own-root with short roots that died through dry winter.

Last fall my Mom died so I forgot to winter-protect a few roses with leaves, and 9th-year-own-root Stephen Big Purple died .. the soil below was bone-dry when I dug the root up.

This Oct. was drier than normal, and Poseidon lost 1/4 of its leaves due to dryness: leaves got yellow, then dropped. Zero rain nor snow for over a week right now.

The best tip I got from winterizing roses was from Niels Poughman, he lives in Denmark, zone 5b with clay soil. He lost 1/4 of his 400+ roses over a warm, but dry winter. He told me to bury own-root roses DEEP like grafted-roses. So I planted my own-root roses at least 4 inch. below ground. My heavy clay expands during freeze/thaw and that pushes up the roots in spring. Leaves keep soil below moister than woodchips.

Hmmm. Now not sure what to do. My soil has never been dry except during droughts, and that is just a couple of beds that have too much sand in them. Most of my soil is clay based with compost, sand, and more compost added under the mulch. Everything is mulched with pine bark pretty well.

I have Margaret Merril there that I planted this spring. It looks great now. Still putting out new leaves, to some degree. I wonder if I could mound the soil around the base some? I only have two miniatures and two others. I have Coral Drift, Red Drift, Margaret Merril and Perfume Delight. I killed my other two new ones; Falling in Love and Happy Go Lucky :(

I was so mad at myself! I thought I should remove potting soil and spread the roots when I planted them. Lesson learned! (Sigh)

In early spring I half buried Perfume Delight in the compost that's finished. I forgot about it then decided I didn't really care if it died because it seemed so prone to black spot. Flowers are beautiful and smell delish, but I get so frustrated with the horrible black spot it gets.

Well; it didn't, and it won't die! I think I'll just plant it somewhere else and see if it does any better. Obviously, it wants to live!

Drought is predicted for 2021 across USA:"As of September 8th 2020, 57% of the U.S. is in some level of abnormally dry or drought conditions. This is up from 31% a year ago in September 2019. Weathertrends360 expects expanding drought in the 2021 season with at least 62% of the nation in drought. Looking back through the past 20 years of dry-drought conditions, it’s clear that abnormally dry years typically arrive in sets of 2, so confidence in expanding drought in 2021 is rather high."

https://www.agriculture.com/expanding-drought-conditions-into-2021

From Straw: every day this month I hear sad news about CA continuing fire. It's dry here too in zone 5 in 2020 late fall & winter. "The latest outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests that California's persistent drought-like conditions could last through the winter and into spring, possibly fueling another grueling fire season in 2021. Currently, three-quarters of California is experiencing at least moderate drought conditions."

https://www.kqed.org/science/1971472/drought-conditions-could-stretch-to-spring-set-stage-for-another-rough-fire-season

"NOAA: Dry, warm winter could bring drought to California, Southwest in 2021 - NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center Deputy Director Mike Halpert said 2021 is shaping up as “the most widespread drought than we’ve seen since 2013” for both ends of the state to just south of the Oregon border.

At that latitude, two-thirds of the United States will be facing a winter that will fall short of adequate rainfall."

https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/dry-warm-winter-drought-on-tap-for-2021/

I never do any such thing to my roses here.
It rains too much, we never have dependable snow cover, and even NOT covering things up still results in cankers that kill canes.
It's much effort for little return IMO.

Nature will always win no matter what, and oftentimes, these Herculean efforts we put faith in is as effective as sighing at a tornado to change its path.

As a fellow cold zoner, I say either plant varieties truly appropriate and cold hardy for the area or accept the die-back and start over every spring.

Or plant in a container and keep it in an unheated but not frigid cold spot to maintain dormancy.

I experimented with several warm climate roses, and with things like Mutabilis, it didn't matter how deep it was planted, how protected and southerly its location was, or if any radiated heat from the foundation helped. It dwindled down smaller and smaller from a max of 3' to death spring 2020 after four growing seasons.

Good luck!

Steven

strawchicago, so from your writings and charts--i understand us to have a drier upcoming Winter season, but that does not take away from the cold temps. which roses still need to be winterized. Thus, I will probably just wait til the first deep freeze temp. whatever that is (thought it was under 30°) before I collar and put mulch in collars here in Milwaukee, WI. 2020 was not a good year for my roses, they actually all started to perk up and do really nice--but not until about September.....The animals were also worse than normal--eating buds off of at least 5 of my 10 bushes. Invested in cages around the bushes these critters wouldn't leave alone. That helped on all of them but one they just couldn't leave alone. If that happens again this coming Spring/Summer--it's getting dug out. We got plenty of snow here in Milwaukee last Winter. Sorry about your mom, your loss. So hard, lost my mom in October of 2018.

nickjoseph: If you click on the first map of USA drought .. pic. will enlarge to show details. Your Wisconsin location is in NO-DROUGHT zone.

I'm 1.5 hour south of you, so I'm in the DROUGHT-ZONE for fall 2020, and our winters have been very dry for the past few years.

The bunnies go nuts here too starting September. For the first time in over a decade, bunnies eat my roses in the fall !! Normally they eat young shoots in spring time. Bunnies know that drought are coming so they fatten themselves up for next year. I had to put plastic collar EARLY in Oct. to stop bunnies from eating my band-size-own-roots down to bare sticks.

The previous links I posted predicting a dry & warm 2020 winter and drought in 2021, similar to warm 2012 winter, then drought in 2013. That's the year that Niels in Denmark, zone 5b lost 1/4 of his 400 roses through dry winter in clay soil. Normally I put away my 6 rain-barrels inside my garage for the winter, but I'm leaving them out this year, plus piling up top soil and leaves on my perennial plants.

I was wondering about how dry it's been. If it looks like the weather is predicted to stay well above freezing for that and the next day, do you think it's worth watering them?

My Poseidon is 6th-year own root. Leaves are healthy & green for the past 6 years, unless the soil is frozen, or freezing temp. in single-digit. For the first time ever, leaves turned yellow in this dry Oct. and it lost 1/4 of leaves in Oct. So I water it once a week ever since ... If the soil is frozen, then I don't water.

Same thing happened with own-root Bronze Star during warm & dry fall 2012, leaves turned yellow and dropped due to dryness. I should had dug it up to re-set the roots deeper .. it died in spring and when I dug it up, the soil was very dry.

I can predict which rose survive winter best by the amount of healthy leaves they keep going into winter. The roses with the worst winter-survival are those going into the winter with least leaves. Roses grafted on Dr.Huey are less likely than own-roots to die of dryness through winter. Dr.Huey-rootstock is a long stick, versus short-own-roots.

My best winter survival was back in 2011 when I had less own-roots and watered them during the winter when the soil wasn't frozen. I lost only 1 rose back then, it was tiny band-size Eglantyne that lost most of its leaves with spider-mites infestation.

Aaron I was thinking about watering too - we haven't had rain in a while. If we don't get it this weekend I might haul the hoses around one last time!

I don't know about you guys but we have rain here!! I really hope it helps the plants.

Today 12/11/20, it rained very light here at 12:30 noon.. I was outside working in the garden while it's raining. I checked the moisture-level with a 6 feet long bamboo stick. On the tomato raised bed, it's bone dry. Since I watered my roses 5 days ago, the stick is wet when I plunged down to 2 feet around roses. $3 buy six of 6 feet long bamboo stick at HomeDepot, and it's essential for the health of roses.

I have heavy & rock hard clay so with the roses that retain the most healthy leaves, the bamboo stick go down past 2.5 feet or even 3 feet deep. But with the roses that have blackspot or lost leaves, the stick go down to less than 2 feet deep, then it got stuck with hard-layer of poor-drainage clay below. These are the roses that I need to dig deeper to make it more fluffy below so roots can go deeper for winter-survival and for health. If a stick is only wet up to half a foot, then it needs more water. If a stick is wet down to 2 feet, then I don't need to water until 1 more week. Below $3 bamboo sticks are the best measure to see if a rose needs more water, or if drainage needs to be fixed:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-6-ft-Bamboo-Garden-Stakes-6-Pack-BB6/100555811