Not a personal experience for all of them, but these roses are listed as Zone 5 hardy. That said, they still need winter protection in 5a conditions. I’d personally recommend going with own-root plants whenever possible.

My personal standout for hardiness is Olivia Rose Austin — she showed zero dieback even after a very harsh winter.

Here are some David Austin varieties considered hardy to Zone 5:

• The Poet’s Wife
• The Alnwick® Rose
• Teasing Georgia
• Brother Cadfael
• Gertrude Jekyll
• Munstead Wood
• Boscobel
• Princess Alexandra of Kent
• Eglantyne
• Mary Rose
• Winchester Cathedral

Iowa 5a may be pushing it for most Austins. Over time, I've learned that my 5b is more comparable to a Michigan 5a than a Michigan 5b, and more comparable to a Colorado 4b. So location plays a big role. Also grafted roses are hardier than own-root, so long as the bud union is buried. They are more vigorous, so bounce back from winter better, and the canes mature faster, so they are better suited to handle the cold when it comes. I've had decent success with budded older Austins like Heritage and Othello. Mary Rose blackspotted too badly, but was reasonably hardy.

Winter protection only works in very dry climates, if it even works then. There have been many people over the years here who were regular winter-protectors until life happened. Then they found out it didn't make a difference. Don't count on it.

If you like Austins, try some of the real thing.

Keep an eye out for Rose Rosette Disease.

Aside from many hardy Canadian varieties, in general I’ve found many David Austin roses are hardier than other modern varieties. Even though my current location is rated as zone 5b now, it was previously 4b and still get the -20 to -25 at least once or twice each winter. There is generally good snow cover during the coldest weeks (or more like months here), though, and I believe that protection makes a difference. Here are a few that do well for me although they all stay relatively compact compared to my previous midwest zone 6a garden:

Silas Marner

The Country Parson

Eustacia Vye

Emily Bronte

Gertrude Jekyll

St Swithun

Princess Alexandra of Kent survives but has stayed puny for the past 3 years - I’ll likely replace her. I added Harlow Carr and Crown Princess Margareta last year and so I’ll have to see how they do. I have heard Lady of Shallot and Gabriel Oak is very cold hardy and I’ll be adding them this year. I have grown both in my last garden but the climate was very different.

@Dave5bWY How did the Bishop's Castle I sent you in Feb 2024 end up doing?

@susan9santabarbara Bishop’s Castle is doing really well! I planted it in a large pot and it bloomed well last summer. It’s just starting to wake in the garage with other potted roses. Thank you again for it! I meant to take a picture and post it last year but last summer and fall were crazy busy but I’ll be sure to this year.

@Dave5bWY So glad to hear that! I kept meaning to email you to ask, but didn't want to be intrusive. Kudos to you for getting a grafted bare root from SoCal to thrive in WY in February :-D

we had a really nasty winter here in minneapolis, more like a z4 than a 5. anyway, st swithun has the most surviving cane by far, but i don't think i lost anything but elizabeth which was pretty small. at the public rose garden here, there are lots of austins. wollerton old hall and crocus rose and gertrude jekyll are the biggest. i would just plant the ones you like the most on the south side of the house and they will be just fine.

i don't know as much as others here, but i suspect that getting lucky with a mild winter or a lot of snow cover really helps in getting them established. we had an extremely mild winter and then a pretty rough one, back to back, and i will be interested to see in the relative vigor of the new roses.

they are a mixed bag, but they do no worse than the kordes roses in my garden, at least. worth trying some, in my opinion. the 5 year guarantee from david austin is really nice, too, and if you bundle a few bare roots together, that's a pretty good deal with shipping.

In zone 5B, I've had virtually no dieback on James Galway and Mary Rose. The last two winters we have had very little snow. I never gave Mary Rose any winter protection. I did dump about a foot of loose dirt and leaves on James, but not sure if it really mattered. The canes all look green now.

Voles love my Mary Roses here and have eaten both to a nubbin. The two are trying to come back from the damage. I just sprinkled castor oil Gopher Scram on them. Hopefully that will help.

I have several Austin roses that survive in a "virtual" zone 4-5 pocket on the cold side of my house. The bulbs bloom a good two weeks later in that bed than everywhere else on the house and I have to pick zone 4 roses for them to have surviving cane.

These are Austins that have handled that cold:

Teasing Georgia

Lady of Shallot

Carding Mill

Susan Williams-Ellis

Olivia Rose Austin

Golden Celebration

With enough moisture going into the winter and a good root system established, I think most of the Austins are worth a try in a northern Iowa winter. I would plan some winter protection methods since the moisture in Iowa isn't as severe as what Mad describes. My method is to stack filled leaf bags around the roses to make a "down coat" effect but not have those leaves touch the rose canes. Then I protect the canes themselves with oak leaves and/or pine needles that don't retain moisture for added individual protection. The leaf bags around the edges of the bed or around particularly fussy roses hold in the leaves.

Here are Austins that are marginal to survive and/or bloom in zone 5a:

Othello, The Prince, Falstaff - basically those burgundy/purple ones. If you want that color, try The Dark Lady, Fisherman's Friend (if you can find it), Munstead Wood

Crown Princess Margaretha - mine survived 9 years but never had surviving cane and only bloomed once in one of those 9 years

Gertrude Jekyll - good at surviving but absolutely never bloomed even once in the same 9 years.

I agree that grafted is a much stronger plant for Austins, and I pot mine up for about a month in kiddie swimming pools with constant access to water so that they have a really strong root system before planting. That has made a world of difference in all my roses.

Let us know if you need more advice on roses with your move! We're neighboring states with similar conditions.

Cynthia

No one is going to try this one, but I can assure you that Jude the Obscure is a 6b rose. Here in zone 7, we had a zone 5 winter in 2016-7, and reached -20F a couple of times. Jude was not happy, and was my only Austin to show significant cold damage that winter. He had just one cane above the graft that was ok. But the following summer, he came roaring back and is easily 8 feet tall now---but if you could have seen Jude at the end of that winter--awful. Diane

Summer of 2017, Jude's a coming back, thank you.

June 2024. I think Jude made it back.

I’m very surprised that hardly anyone in zones 4–5 seems to be doing real winter protection for their roses. My initial knowledge about roses came from rosarians who grow them in these colder zones, and the majority of them build some kind of protective tunnel and cover their roses with fabric. Some even manage to grow tree roses by bending them down to ground level just to be able to protect them.

I remember one particularly harsh winter when almost all of my climbing roses experienced severe dieback. Ever since then, whenever extremely cold temperatures are in the forecast, I always put some kind of temporary protection over the branches. I’m not too worried about grafted hybrid teas and floribundas, since I know I can always bring them back even after severe dieback. But I really don’t want to lose strong canes on my climbing roses.

This year we had a very cold winter, all of my climbers came through without any dieback at all—while some of my other grafted roses weren’t as lucky. And now, they’ve already started pushing lots of new buds.

I grow David Austin's in southern IA zone 5b. I planted them 5 years ago. I've lost one, Munstead. I try to plant them in sheltered spots. Most years I've dumped a pile of mulch on their base in the fall, but that didn't get done last year, so we'll see how they are this spring. I'm sure southerners would cry about the die back I have, but I'm just happy they're alive! I do think this last year was harder on them than some, more because of not much moisture or snow cover, than the cold. I feel like Iowa has good soil etc. so that makes up for it and they grow like crazy once spring comes. Japanese beetles cause me more anguish than winter dieback.

These are the ones I grow:

Abe Darby

Teasing Georgia

Bathsheba

Wollerton old hall

Vanessa bell

Claire

Crocus rose

Lady gardener

Crown princess Margarita

Alnwick

Boscobel

Rose marie

Jude

Diane I'm very surprised Jude is doing ok for me. I have him right up against the house, sheltered from the west and north. And when it snows and blows that's where a snowdrift forms.

Ashley, that's amazing. My Jude is up against a 9 foot wall, so you'd think he would get similar protection. We don't have much snow here, let along drifting snow. Still, I can't complain. My Jude is starting his 21st year in my garden. He came straight from Austin 21 years ago and is grafted. Good luck with your Jude. Where did you get him? Diane

Diane, I got him from Heirloom!