It is too late now to replant them. You don't want to disturb the roots so close to freeze. Go ahead and mulch them high this winter. It will help. If you want you can sink them deeper next spring. It will make winterizing them easier in the future.

I have a lot of roses that are buried only to ground level because they were Mom's and she never sank a graft. So don't despair. Unless you have a really particularly bad winter they should be fine. Roses are way tougher than we give them credit for.

One approach would be to permanently raise the grade in the rose bed by 4-5 inches. Roses can adapt to changes in grade.

I thougth about raising the bed. But then I have peonies in the bed, which are very sensitive. They wouldn't bloom if bury too deep.

How many roses are you talking about, joopster? Unless you have dozens and dozens of roses, I think you can just replant them in the spring. But I would give them some protection to get through this winter.

If you have lots of roses, you may have to make that a long-term project replanting the grafts below the soil line--maybe several years project, depending on how many roses you have.

Good luck.

Kate

All together 5. One of them I can raise the bed no problem. It's in the new bed with nothing in it yet. The other 4 not so much. I will replant it spring. Will this effect the bloom next year?

Replant before growth starts, as soon as the soil thaws and is not too goopy--during a dry spell if possible. If you must work with heavy soil when wet, work it as little as possible and do not tamp! Use lots of water to settle after replanting. Prune the canes down past any brown center pith, which indicates winter damage. Preserve all the fleshy roots if you can.

They will bloom after replanting, but it is a setback. Do not cut flowers with long stems next summer, but just remove the faded flowers. All the stems and leaves help the plants build energy.

Make a surround with cobbles, bricks, whatever. At the drip line. Fill that with mulch. This is essentially a collar to hold protective insulating mulch to protect the crown from freeze. Garden centers even sell collars for this purpose. I grow lots of roses this way and they do just fine. You can replant next spring. And don't worry. Depending on our winter and which roses you are growing, they should be fine.