I was wondering about this too, because I have a few shrub roses that have produced some pretty tall canes and it's fall and i'm looking at them and thinking, how is that going to get through the winter? And it's going to be sticking up through the snow if we have some.

But I also had a Camellia one year that was supposed to be hardy just to my zone, but to give it added protection, I tried putting the wire around it and stuffing it with leaves. What a mess that made. The shrub did not prosper - with it's evergreen leaves covered with fall leaves all winter and it didn't last more than one season and that was the end of my experiment with Camellias.

I'm resigned to either cut back my tall canes early enough in the summer to keep them lower thru the winter, or just leaving them alone and what will be will be. All my roses had a lot of die back last year, surprisingly. Some years they don't. They are fine, they grew back from the ground, but that made them pretty small most of the season. I am considering buying hardier roses to get less die back, to add to what I have now.

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA Thanks for your help. I did the Minnesota Tip for my Santana in the last year, and the result was amazing but it did involve lots of work. I did what you did for my Uetersens, it was better than doing nothing but still observed diebacks this spring. Also, I tried to place a backyard bag over my La Belle Sultane, which was attached to a small trellis, the results were surprisingly good. I just don't know how to deal with my monstrous Kiftsgate.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) Thanks for your suggestion. Any suggestions on the climbers for Zone 5?

Meng Han - Sounds like you have more experience with it than I do. [g] Hope you will post with results again when you decide what you want to do.

Baltimore Belle, Queen of the Prairies, many multiflora ramblers if you have acidic soil (I don't, so they struggle here) Most of the Explorer climbers if you don't want something ginormous. New Dawn if you are close to the zone 6 border. I can grow it, but it doesn't grow 20 miles north of me.

BTW, La Belle Sultane should be tip hardy in any remotely normal winter.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) I was so bummed when I saw that Burling wasn't carrying Queen of the Prairies this year. So pretty.

I have New Dawn and it usually has living tissue pretty high up. But not always tip hardy. Last year I pruned a lot off it. The same spring that I had a lot of die back on all my roses.

I love the look of a large rambler but they scare me a little and I don't see a place I have for one on my small 1//4 acre property. If I had an acre with a corner out of the way with enough sun, I would get one in a minute.