I took cuttings from my roses after 13 F freezing night, and they still root.

Oh Oursteelers, dang it anyway!

I am so sorry that your yard got decimated. You must be ready to pull out the shotgun.

What a terrible waste. I hope that you can save your plants.

Straw that is hopeful to read. Even if just some make it that would help ease the pain of the destruction a little bit

Kristine, they are so maddening. Just damaging so much plus they left behind poop under the snow that the puppy found so he had diarrhea two nights in a row!! Oh how I wish our yard could be enclosed!

Tina, i know the feeling. I would have cried seeing all that destruction. As for saving them, the ONLY success I've had rooting cuttings is when I stick just them in the ground any time of year. I hope you don't lose any, especially any of your prized, hard to find ones.

My grandson took a bunch of cuttings in September and just sent pics of them last week. They all look as big and healthy as the own root bands we purchase. He doesn't follow any conventional method, and uses grow lights in his basement. He roots roses year round. Everything I've told him NOT to do, he has done and has been 99% successful. Beginner's luck? i don't know. He's in MI, z5, no experience, but a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm. What I'm saying is, it never hurts to try.

Flowers that makes me feel so much better! Even if there is a chance I can at least have hope through the winter.

I’m not particularly great at cuttings anyway and then with the environment being so inhospitable this time of year I was pretty dejected. That is amazing about your grandson-heck, I think my success rate is barely 20% in good conditions!

I take cuttings year round and currently have many I hope are rooting in pots of sand. Last winter I rooted about 150 plants in pots of sand. These are out in the open but near my house for warmth. I have some pvc pipe with the ends stuck in cinderblocks to create hoops. Last winter I covered these hoops in clear plastic tarp when it was very cold but left it open when it was not so cold.

Some varieties seem to root better in cooler weather. Experts can be quite wrong so I applaud your grandson, flowers. It can pay to take what they say into account but it is ok to try other methods. I do things that are not supposed to work that work well for me.

One incredible thing an " expert" said was that dogs really don't enjoy their food. Hee hee.

Oursteelers, is your yard too large to fence?

I’m so sorry, oursteelers! I know the feeling, only in my case it was javelinas. (I can’t tell you how great it feels to have all my back yard fenced in and unavailable to rose predators now.)And I’m also thinking how nice it would be to sit down to a nice dinner of elk roast. I can imagine all the salty things I would say to that elk on my fork.

It’s too large and funny shaped plus one whole side is a dry creek bed (in the summer) that is the boundary between us and two neighbors-they would not ok having a fence be there

judi what is a javelin?

@erasmus_gw those people clearly don’t have labs!!!!

Also, any idea which roses seem to prefer the cold? Although I’m not necessarily sure on who I stuck in the ground-there were do many beanches everywhere

I have a record of what I rooted last winter but don't know where I put it. Offhand, Sharifa Asma roots consistently better in cooler weather. Some Gallicas, Teasing Georgia, The Pilgrim are better in colder weather. I suspect unrooted cuttings can pretty easily be stressed by higher temps and in cold weather can stay fresh longer while waiting to root. Kind of like a vegetable stays fresher in the fridge.

Oursteelers, javelinas are a pig-like animal in the peccary family. Very rude and destructive like a pig, roving in bands and wiping out whole gardens in one night.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 ugh-they sound awful!

I have stuck "cuttings" which were broken branches in the ground in Fall like this weather, oursteelers, and they did root. This worked much better for me than rooting inside or in pots.

You guys arr making me feel a lot better! Thank you so much! Even if they don’t take at least I’m not depressed amd moping now!

I love how that there's always something new to learn here. Judi, I had to look up javelina. Nope, I wouldn't want those running loose in my garden either! Of all the critters we gardeners put up with, those sound particularly horrible.

Erasmus, I'm sending your comment to my grandson. He will so appreciate your remarks. I've given him 30ish cuttings and he's only lost one. That's not a true 99%, but pretty good for a beginner. My own success rate is zero except for the ones I've randomly stuck in the ground.

Will add that I'm in zone 7a. I doubt rooting them in winter outside would work well in very cold climates but I could be wrong.

Well I’m in 8b (about an hour outside of Seattle) but we have spurts of really cold, February generally being the coldest

oursteelers, I hope your winter propagation will be a success!

Yesterday I took a number of Paradise rose cuttings and put some in ground around the mother rose. The rest I will put in ground where I added sand to the soil. This is the first time I tried winter cutting and I will see whether any of the will take next spring

We can compare notes, although I literally just took damaged branches and shoved them into the ground

What worked well for me this year was to first place the cuttings in water for about a month or so until they callous. And then sticking them in dirt. I think this helps because while in water, the cuttings can keep all their leaves and not dry out. More photosynthesis can take place. This was in the summer with semi hardwood cuttings, so may not apply to your situation.

When we have exceptionally cold weather in which plants are apt to stay frozen for several days I usually bring them under my house. I'm going to have to do that next week when temps will dip to 11 degrees and stay in the 20's during the day . Looks like we'll have about 6 days of very cold weather. I'll have to put my baby plants and unrooted pots of cuttings under my house. It's a pain in the neck and I don't like going under my house but I think I've saved many a plant doing that.

I did pot up five flats of newly rooted little plants the other day, so about 50 plants. Most are cuttings that were taken in November, some in October. Have still been taking new cuttings. There's never any guarantee they'll do well but fairly often it works.