Good grief, Dora, that's a lot of work! I'm too lazy to grow dahlias or gladiolas because they have to be pulled up and thrown in a box each winter, but what you have to do is over the top!
Where I am in south-central Kansas, St. Patrick is a fairly tender rose. I know people who grow it in a pot and bring that pot into their garage each winter. If I know a rose is a tender one, I will mulch it heavily in the winter, but that's all. (I don't grow St. Patrick) If it makes it, great. If not, I learned something, and I have an opportunity to buy a new rose for that spot.
Potting and un-potting is too much work for me. I plant them well, water them, prune them if they need it, and maybe mulch in the winter. That's it. No spraying, no babying. I have over 300 roses and lots of other plants and I work full time, so that's all the care they get, and I think they look great. Especially considering our harsh climate out here.

If I had 300 roses I probably wouldn't do it either. Most of the ones that are in the ground are zone 3. I cover my zone 4's but I know people who don't and their roses usually survive, but mine are a bit farther from the house.

Thanks for giving my process a name Lynn, although the writer seemed to be more organized than I am. Sometimes I have trouble finding them again in the spring.

I just get own root roses that will survive our harsh zone 4 winters.

Austrain copper and a wild species I cant think off the top of my head , does really well hardy to zone 3 so should be fine. I high reccomand a book if you can pay the price, Growing roses in cold climates. They sell it on amazon.

Another excellent book was written by Bob Osborne, the owner of Corn Hill Nursery, a Canadian nursery, Hardy Roses: An Organic Guide to Growing Frost- and Disease-Resistant Varieties. Also sold by Amazon.

Smiles,
Lyn

I have hardy roses as well; the hybrid teas are just for variety and in case I ever want to enter the rose show, although they never seem to be blooming at that time.

The new hardy rose this year is Prairie Snowdrift. I just put it in the ground this weekend.


Zone 4 roses are sometimes able to survive if covered so I also put them in the ground. I might try again at some time, but my space is very limited and I prefer to put plants in the ground that I know are going to survive. The others go in pots. I try to avoid paying more than $5 for a hybrid tea.

Thanks for the book suggestions. Since we're on the subject, I might as well give the Calgary Rose Society a plug – their book has gone into its second printing and is available on their website.

Dora ...

One of the things I liked about Osborn's book is that in one section he described the cellular activity of how a plant goes dormant which I found quite interesting.

I do wish I had studied horticulture back in the day, but I didn't know I would like it so much.

Smiles,
Lyn

The things we learn about ourselves, hmm?
Fortunately when you do it for fun, it stays fun.
How did you start gardening?

Dora ....

I had just gotten out of a month's stay in the hospital for pneumonia and needed something to make me get out of bed and get on with life. I decided to grow plants in containers because I lived in a condo and whatever I planted would die without care. I had to get out of bed. It was a first step.

I visited a miniature rose nursery and potted up several roses and thus began my passion for roses.

How did you get started ?

Smiles,
Lyn

Not to interroupt but I got started when I thought about my biological mom, she died when I was 12/ she loved roses. her name was naturally, Rose.

Rose labellie Junge. I planted a rose bush in honor of her and I'm going to do something that would make her proud/ get it to bloom.

My mother was part of my reason for growing roses as well - she loved them and could never grow them successfully in zone 1.

I also started with a container garden and miniature roses. I have a friend who is a master gardener, and she used to always invite me out to the horticultural show. I used to buy miniature roses from the rose society every year, and still do when they are available.

I might take clippings this year to start indoors over the winter, because the rose society no longer has a supplier for its miniature roses, although that might change by next year of course.