Of course my zone 6b is not the same as yours, but for what it's worth I stopped winterizing at all, zip, "zero," about 4 years ago. I'm glad I did. Whatever survives, I am glad of. Whatever thrives, I am overjoyed of. Whatever wimps along, growing backwards because of poor winter survivability, unprotected, so be it. There are plenty of wonderful roses that if not tip hardy, are hardy enough to increase yearly until reaching mature equilibrium in my garden. These are the ones I concentrate my growing efforts upon.

When I winterized my roses, I got so much die back on the less winter hardy roses anyway, , it frustrated me to the point of deciding to take a different approach, stop beating myself up and stop winterizing everything. Glad I did. Makes rose gardening infinitely easier.

As stated earlier, there are plenty of roses that will thrive without any winter protection here, as well as there in WI, for you. The ones we really covet yet are not good winter survivors, I say, pass them up. Rose gardening is challenging enough here in my case, having to deal with brutal black spot, which I have just recently pretty much licked by growing only black spot free\highly resistant varietiest, and rose midge fly damage, which unfortunately needs conventional insecticides to control effectively, than to baby winter damage vulnerable roses.

Moses

There are climates like mine, where winter protection does more harm than good. Then there are climates like Moses, where winter protection does not do a heck of a lot of anything. I suspect your climate is similar to his. So if you get peace of mind from winterizing, do it. However, I strongly suspect that if you don't winterize, for whatever reason, the results aren't going to be much different. Over the years, there have been many posters from your part of the world, who found life getting in the way of caring for the roses. We told them not to worry, and spring proved us right.

May I add that it was Mad Gallica's no winterization method that I adopted, and am very happy I did. So all the ease I am now enjoying is due to listening to Mad Gallica.

Moses

Follow the National Weather Service forecast religiously. When a weather pattern similiar to what you normally experience around December 10th is forecast, spring into action the day before that weather is due to arrive. To ensure maximum flexibility, institute a plan to have coverage available for any work or other responsibilities that may arise during this period.

Or (in the case of work) just call in sick.

NickJoseph, I was wondering the exact same thing!

Since our climates are similar, I was wondering which have been most successful for you?

I find that if the roses are rated for zone 4 or colder, I tend to get virtually no dieback. But if they are rated for zone 5, I often do get quite a bit of dieback and those are the ones I was worried about in terms of winter protection.

Nancy R, I only have 10 bushes, but I do know that at least 2 of them are very delicate; the others would be......do I not want to bother & see what happens? No, I don't. I'll cover them, but will wait & hopefully it won't snow where I miss my chance to do it. I looked at the month & it looks to be even in the 40s & above freezing for a month out. Don't ever like to cover unless it is steady freezing temps for fear of fungus/disease developing. I can understand where people don't want to Winterize their roses, but that really wasn't my question--it is for the people who are going to cover, when they will do it.