Most people think of rose gardens like I do.. basically, Zuzu's house. LOL! People believe that extreme temperatures means no roses. It just means more work. This is how *I* do it:
Dig a big hole. At least 1.5 times the size of the pot, so if the rose is in a 2 gal pot, a hole that's at least 2' wide & 2 ft deep. Makes for a LOT of hard work, especially if you have crappy soil like I do (clay). I pull out the rose from the pot & shake a LOT of it's soil off. I mix this soil w/MiracleGro Tree & Shrub soil. I put the rose in the hole so that the grafted root (have VERY few own root roses) at least an inch to 2 inches below ground. Then I backfill with the MiracleGro/original potting soil mix until it's level w/the natural ground. Using the dirt that I dug out of the hole, I then pile THAT around the rose base so that it's buried even deeper. Then I mulch.
Last year, I planted at least 65 roses, maybe more (I honestly lost count). This has been one of the coldest winters in Denver's history (7th coldest December in history). It's also been one of the driest. However, I don't think I'll lose any roses because of the precautions I took this previous summer. I learned the hard way on how to bury roses (I was planting them like you plant a tree). So, let's see how things come up in the spring!
