Question
Each year I have lost a few rose plants due to our heavy winters. It gets very cold and we can get up to 6 feet of snow. I was wondering if when I cut my roses back for winter, can I place plastic buckets over them to protect them from the snow pack or, if we do not get much snow, then to protect them from the frost and ice? Or would covering them with buckets cause more harm then leaving them uncovered? In the past I have just piled up soil or mulch to cover the joint.

Answer
It all depends where you garden and how cold it gets, in regards to protecting your roses for the winter. Snow is an excellent blanket to keep the roses warm, providing it stays on the roses all through the winter. If you don'y cut your roses back hard for the winter, if they suffer dieback then the dieback won't go right down to the graft. Leaving longer canes usually saves a rose. Then you can cut them back hard in the spring. Just cut them back to about 18 inches and tie them up with string to stop them from getting bashed by snow and ice. Also if you get a cold winter, never fertilize roses after the end of July. This will give them time to draw down their sap and harden off their canes. Placing a plastic bucket over a rose tends to create a greenhouse. Roses have to have some moisture during the winter to keep their roots alive. There are foam cones which you can use and the instructions come with them.
Again because I don' know where you garden, I would mound the roses up with soil from another area of the garden so you don't scrape it from around the rose bush. Pile it up to 12 inches high just around the base. Don't do this until all the leaves have fallen off and the soil is rock hard. Doing it sooner warms the roots and they could start to grow and would get killed in the winter. Another thought, some roses simply will not tolerate cold winters, they do very well in the summer but then the cold does them in.