Do your roses need winterization? That depends on what climate zone you live in and what types of roses you grow. As the people at Timeless Roses point out in their article, "Winter Protection", how cold-tolerant a rose is depends on its evolution; roses that originated in Europe, such as many of the Old Roses, are a lot hardier than those that originated in the Orient. Many of the best-known types of roses, such as hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras, and miniature roses, are tender and need winter protection if you live in a place where the temperature is likely to drop below 10 degrees F. (for which you can substitute the phrase, "in most of Canada"). Depending on where you live, even hardy roses may need some winter protection.
In a way, growing roses in a location where it seldom snows, such as my Zone 7 garden, is more challenging; snow is great insulation for plants. Lois Hole, for instance, recommends covering roses with fresh snow whenever possible to prevent repeated thawing and freezing (Lois Hole's Rose Favorites, 1997). It's the changing temperatures and the wind that endanger roses (and other perennials). Besides damaging rose canes, wind is very drying - a neat contradiction for gardeners living on "the wet coast"!
That's why I recommend winterizing your tender roses even if you live in a mild climate zone; cutting the canes back and tieing them up helps fight the wind's drying damage and protects from breakage, while mounding insulates the rose's roots from fluctuating temperatures.
Sure, it's another fall chore, but the rewards are immense in the spring and summer, when the roses burst into another season of bloom.
If you'd like more information on selecting and cultivating roses, you won't want to miss Mark Whitelaw's Memorial Rose Garden, a collection of over 70 articles about all aspects of rose growing.
