What does winter hardy mean?
First, we don’t give our roses any winter protection. By spring, some plants will have various degrees of winter die back or no die back of their canes that determine our measurement of winter hardiness. We have three categories of winter hardiness: hardy to the tip, hardy to the snowline and hardy to the crown. • If a rose is hardy to the tip, its canes didn’t die back at all during the winter. • If a rose is hardy to the snowline, the canes above the average snowdepth — between 10 and 20 inches — are dead, but everything beneath the snowline is alive. • If a rose is hardy to the crown, its canes die back all the way to the ground like a perennial; but, the crown and roots are hardy and it regrows readily in the spring. For roses that are crown hardy, it’s important to purchase them on their own roots, or the rootstock may be all that the survives the winter.
