Found a couple of interesting bagged roses for $5.47 ea at Lowe's today. 'Lowell Thomas' and 'Intrigue'. Intrigue is labelled as a plum colored floribunda with fragrance. 'Lowell Thomas' is listed as a lemon yellow hybrid tea with some fragrance. Wonder if anyone has experience with these? Both appear to be grafted roses. Can they survive without protection in my zone 5b/6a?

I don't know anything about winter protection, living in zone 9 as I do, but Intrigue is highly vulnerable to black spot. I love Intrigue. It has beautiful coloring and a great fragrance, but the foliage usually looks awful. I've never grown Lowell Thomas.

I have Lowell Thomas it has been unremarkable so far - 2 years. It is lemon yellow, but I don't remember whether it has a noticeable fragrance. I don't think it likes where I planted it; it has died back to just two canes.

This makes six roses in three years from Sexton. Only one, a double pink knockout, has been labelled correctly. Mostly labelled as fragrant but not. One was a completely different rose. They are/were nice healthy roses with multiple, sturdy canes with lots of buds. One thing I have learned about spotting is never water the leaves with a garden hose. It can rain on them without any problems but will spot within about 3 or 4 days after hosing. I wonder if the chemicals in the water are the cause.

The last two are in 17 qt pots which gives an idea of the size of the bagged roses.

Jerry - Zone 5 is a miserable zone to be growing roses in.. trust me! And Intrigue is a kick-butt rose! Deep plum purple, scent a mile away.. one of my absolute favorites. I didn't find it too bad with black spot, but, then again, very few of my roses get black spot because I'm in a desert practically & water at night.

As far as winter protection, no. They definitely need protection. And lots of it. Only the Canadian roses I've found to be hardy enough to have survived without protection.

But, I'm taking Andi's advice and stating to myself "NO BODY BAG TWIGS!" LOL! I bought like 12 bagged roses last year and only like 3 survived. I just read a great article from Roses Inc, Tulsa about bagged roses:

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How Early is too Early
Each year when the roses hit the big box stores and supermarkets I start to receive calls from people about planting roses in late February or March. Some of the calls are from people standing looking at the $8.00 packaged roses available at these locations. Other calls are from people who see the roses for sale or feel the warm temperature and wonder if it is time to start planting and call Roses inc. to see what we have ready.
Those of you who know me have probably heard me say that it is important to me that my customers are successful growing roses. If I wanted to make a little early cash there is nothing stopping me from buying packaged roses and having them available to my customers in February and March. The roses are available to me at a cost that would make me a tidy profit selling them for $8.00 each. So why do I not do it? Remember, it is important to me that you are successful growing roses. February and March is too early to plant roses in Green Country.
A gentleman recently called and ask what I had available and I told him; nothing at this time but check back with us the second week of April. I could hear the disgust in his voice as he told me that he always plants his roses this time of year and they do great. He plants them and covers them up with a mound of soil and then when it starts to warm outside he removes the soil from them. If we have a cold night he covers them. What he is doing is exactly what you need to do if you decide to plant bare root roses early and if that is your desire I have bare root roses available right now with no guarantee to grow. Remember, I want you to be successful growing roses.

I have written many times about the problems with roses that are covered in wax. The wax is there to help prevent the canes from drying out during their time on the market shelves, which can be a very long time. The wax does help. The problem arises when they are planted and the sun hits them while the wax is still in place. It burns the canes in our climate and is likely to kill any that the wax is showing. I could write a page on how you can make these roses work for you providing they are the correct roses for this part of the country. My directions would include cutting them way back or leaving the soil piled over them until new canes emerge and then cutting off the waxed canes. I could tell you of the likelihood of the first growth freezing off and dramatically slowing the roses development. Yes, with the proper attention and a lot of work they may grow. The main problem I see with it is, I want you to be successful growing roses.

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So if I come across a bagged rose that I *KNOW* that I cannot get in any other fashion, I will buy it, but I will follow his advice and bury it almost 100% in the ground & mound mulch around the canes so that the evil sun/drying winds don't desiccate the canes.

The temperature issues are why I put them in pots so they can be moved into the garage during our Spring sub-freezing nights. I do not like to waste a lot of effort on just a common rose. The 'Sunsprite' patio rose I bought last year is a terrific rose and worth extra effort. Last winter, I cut the bottom out of an outdoor plastic garbage can, inverted it over the trimmed rose, and filled it with cypress bark mulch. When the can was removed a couple of weeks ago, all the canes were green with some buds beginning to show. I paid $25 for it last Spring and is worth the extra effort to keep it healthy. The $3 and $5 bag roses are just throwaways if they do not perform well. I am just on the line between 5b and 6a on the state zone map so the winters bottom out at about zero degrees and we reach 100+ in July and early August. Probably not the best environment for roses.

I bought some of those bagged roses a few weeks ago. I took the time to peel the wax off the canes. I got (labeled so unsure if accurate) Blue Girl, Intrigue, Mr Lincoln, and JFK. Only Intrigue is being stubborn with growth. There are tips but they are taking their sweet time in emerging. JFK is fully leafed now. The other two are mid performers.

Intrigue last year was one of my last to leaf out and the last to bloom (of everyone who bloomed). However, last year was miserable for me for my roses.. so I'm not blaming them I'm blaming myself. I have a small section in my yard (about 12' x 6') that I put a mixture of BlueGirl (all-time favorite), Mr. Lincoln, and, in the center, a no-name white hybrid tea. I don't know what zone/area you're in Careyana (you don't have that listed), so I'm no help there. :)

Jerry - what I did with all my roses is I buried everyone in at least 12" of mulch, which is a LOT of mulch. This winter was extremely mild for the most part, only had like 2 weeks of super cold (0 and lower), but soooooo DRY!!!!!!! We're over 20" below normal in snow.. the mountains to my west have had record snows, but down here in the Denver metro we haven't gotten ANYTHING, probably a total of less than a foot, and most of it powder, which is worthless for moisture. This winter has sucked as far as moisture content. I'm tempted to wash my car tonight so it'll rain/snow tomorrow!!! And I have too many roses to be moving them in & out of the garage.. I need to count once spring hits and everyone starts to leaf out, but I believe I have over 200 roses, so not gonna try the pot thing. LOL! Sunsprite is an AWESOME yellow.. in fact, I bought 2 extras and drove over 1000 miles down to my mom's house and planted them in her yard! She was so stressed because the deer came over & ate all the buds/blooms, but after she fenced them off so the deer couldn't get to them, they EXPLODED! I told her that the deer just pruned them for her, so they'll be fine, and they were! I have 2 Sunsprites in my front yard.. love 'em! The blooms don't shatter like Sunny Delite did...

My 'Sunsprite' was blooming at the time of purchase, early last Spring. It bloomed in what you would call flushes several times. It would be full of blooms, then bare, and back to full bloom until freezing in the early winter. Surprisingly, the later blossoms became larger, nearly twice as large as the early ones. Looking forward to quite a show this summer. The fragrance fills the air within several feet from it. Kind of like a deodorant soap.

Sorry about that, I've fixed my oversight. I'm in Austin and we're in early spring here already.

Ah, nice! Thanks CareyAna.. love being able to figure out where to be envious of.. which almost 100% of everywhere where I'm not. LOL!

Went to HD last night.. all they have as far as plants (other than the tropical indoor ones, African violets, and mini roses w/no scent) are seeds and boxed berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, & grapes). Nothing else as of yet. May hit Lowes on Sunday.. supposed to snow tonight/tomorrow.. hope so as it's so dry (watered last night) to oogle. I think that my LGS has their roses in pots now, may go oogle those too.

*sigh* C'mon spring!!

Toni, you can be jealous of my weather but not my yard. There's a lot of rocks back there, and it's painful getting them out of the way...

Trade ya! Your rocks for my aspen roots!!! Rocks are easily moved after you find 2 edges.. roots you have to cut through. LOL! :)

Watered last night, then it rained.. supposed to get 2-5" of mush today. Need clouds in order to do that. If you stand in the sun, it'll blister your skin right off it's so hot. However, if you stand in the shadows, you can see your breath. Weird weather today.. here's to a good sloppy mush storm! We need it!!

Toni if only it were that easy! When I say rocks, I mean rocks. We back up to a mini canyon and there is exposed granite and limestone throughout the yard. Where there is dirt, it's mixed with rocks of varying size. The whole yard...and takes forever to sift through and get out the decent soil. It's why there are so many raised beds here.

ah, I know those kinds of yards.. I think Andi has the same problem. When I was a teenager, I lived in the southern mountains of NM and our land was like 100% shale. Couldn't dig.. it was all shale. My father had 15 dumptruck loads of a dried up old pond dirt brought in and spent an entire summer flattening it out. Some of the awesomest dirt on the planet. Could grow anything.