I feel your pain. We need some WARM !

My Falling in Love suffered a ton of cold damage, too.
It was actually doing pretty well (great, even) but the last cold snap did much of her in. I just yesterday cut away quite a bit of her. :(

It must have been the same storm you were just writing about, but we also had that severe cold snap here a week or so ago. I had just finished pruning and now I've noticed theres some freeze damage on my new cuts. I also noticed that Mme Franziska Kruger who looked "ok" 2 weeks ago, after spending her first winter in the ground, is now not looking good at all!

So frustrating! But it doesn't sound as bad as your losses :(

Tammy

I too live in zone 7b, and last year all four of my Julia Child received frost damage. Fortunately they lived but his year I purposely held off on fertilizing. I actually fertilized today. I think this years spring has been even colder than last years. My Magnolia tree that I can't wait to bloom each year received frost damage and half the beautiful flowers turned brown! Man was I bummed waiting a full year for my Magnolia blooms to have them go brown after a frost!! Maybe wait a week or two longer to fertilize next year.

We don't even have forsythia blooming .

Our forecast for the next 24 hours includes possible snow. So annoying. I heard an employee at Lowe's yesterday saying that they've delayed a lot of their spring orders, waiting on the weather to get over itself. N Carolina ought to be warmer by now...

In my garden it is perfectly normal for roses to grow out prematurely and be nipped by late freezes in the 20s. It happens almost every year because the Appalachian spring is so prolonged, gradual, and erratic. I can't recall a rose being killed, though, except for small own-roots that were planted too late the previous season. We had 21 degrees in mid-March with the roses in active growth (1"-2" shoots) owing to a warm winter, and they survived. I guess roses that have been growing under glass would be endangered by late freezes if they are moved out too early. I order own-roots for delivery April 15 and keep them on the deck for a week before planting. I try to get late additions planted by midsummer.

One thing to watch for is botrytis. The dead tips are a perfect breeding ground for this fungus and if you can fingerprune off the dead growth (down to the leaf axil it came from) the spare axil buds will grow without heavy fungal pressure (much less a place for canker to establish itself.)

I won't go into a "This isn't as bad as the after Easter Freeze " of several years ago, but will remind some of us about the massive loss of first bloom that that one caused.

Sorry about your losses, Ken. FIL is rather winter tender. I lost my first one that way so I potted the replacement. It fairs better in the winter pot ghetto for me.

Nothing here has even fattening leaf buds yet yet except in the pots where some are leafing out quite a bit already. But the ground roses haven't given me any signs of life yet. Still too cold. Other than a few early blooming bulbs nothing is greening up. I'm getting impatient!

Sorry about your losses Ken. If I can give you advice, after the 2007 Easter Freeze, I should have cut my roses way down, maybe even taken out canes. Some of the roses haven't recovered. I did lose two later that year.

I was just talking to my husband about the weather (it was sleeting today, on April 4th, for heaven's sake!) The difference between this year and the 2007 freeze is that year the early spring was exceptionally warm and all of my roses were leafed out and some were blooming before we had successive nights of mid 20s temperatures. Plus it was dry, very dry. Right now, none of my roses have leaves on them, just the beginnings of leaves, still in the red stage. And it's been very wet and not as cold.

Was out in the garden today (beautiful day) and really looked things over. I'm not happy with myself. I've got more dead roses. My #2 bush of Stadt den Helder, one of my Stainless Steel's, Louise Estes, Gold Medal and Louisville Lady. Two more (one of the Lady of the Dawn's and one of the Snuffy's) don't look all that healthy. All of these roses were in 3 gal. pots. All it would have taken was 15 minutes of work moving everything to the south side of the house before things got nasty. Everything in the ground, except Falling In Love, came through with very little damage. Even the babies I planted last fall.

Don't beat yourself up. This spring (or whatever it was) was crazy. My roses started to leaf out 3 different times and were frosted back. Give the potted roses more time, they may come back, especially if they are own root.

I had dieback too. Lost Fortune's Five Color and Svr. de Pierre Notting is suffering. Mine were in pots but in a place I thought was well protected. But I read David Austin the other day about putting roses in danger of spring freeze in a place where they won't thaw too suddenly. Bright Eastern exposure is not good for them.
Growing roses is progress, not perfection. And if we can be patient they will likely rebound.
Susan