Do you usually cut Tea roses to the ground where you're at? I seem to recall that Teas rarely enjoy being pruned that harshly, and often give up the ghost. I had a Vintage band up and die within a day after I snipped off a dead limb. It was a Tea-Noisette.

Josh

We had the polar vortex and a brutal winter so I had no choice. However, the Cramoisi Sup came back like a champ.

Josh, Josh, Josh,
You didn't notice the cold from the Arctic enveloping so much of the middle tier of the country this year. That's ok, obliviousness happens to all of us.

Right now, it's too early to decide what's dead and what isn't. Spring is sort of getting condensed into several weeks that should be taking several months.

I still find new growth emerging where a month ago there was none (and in years past the growth would be happeneing out on healthy canes).

Redsox, you're going to have to give them another month. After THIS cold spell, uncover the soil....pull mulch back, and water the roots well. Dilutest organic fertilizer (maybe fish emulsions) on the roots may help wake them up.

Just because above ground are dead (and some to a lot of them may be really dead) doesn't mean that we can't get new growth from the roots......we just need to give them Tender Loving Care and the more obsessive the better.

I tend to leave a lot of old canes in place, in part to support new growth and also to deter hungry rabbits who go for the freshest new growth but who won't go through dead canes to get to it.

Ann, still waiting on some of mine, as well.

All but my toughest roses died back all the way to the mulch line. So to try and get them thru Winter Part Two, i completely covered all the new growth with mulch. The few!! that were too tall to cover up will just have to deal. Meanwhile my yard looks ridiculous from our effprts to cover all the most vulnerable shrubs...tarps, dropcloths, tubs, and some fetching sack-dresses i made and popped over what i could. Gardeners are crazy, and i am the worst.

Same here Prairie Laura! My garden looks like a refugee camp. LOL. I covered lots of tender new growth on perennials and annual salvias. Potted roses I took into the garage (again).
I fretted all winter and I'm just done with that. It's Darwinian from now on!
Susan