Question
I have a rose bush and can not remember when I cut it down last year! It is next to the garage in a northern suburb of Milwaukee. We have not had a hard frost yet, and it is still producing buds. But the forecast is for a possibility of snow this week! Do I cut the stems down to about 12", and cover with leaves and a cone? And when should I do that?
Thanks very much.

Answer
Even though roses are producing buds, when the weather gets cold enough they will then start drawing down the nutrients to the roots. This usually happens after a couple of really hard frosts. If you cover he rose before the hard frosts you are just making  greenhouse type of environment and the rose will start to grow a lot. So you wait until the two hard frosts when all the leaves have dropped off and then you cut it back low enough so it fits in the cone. You can fill the cone up with leaves or you can hill the rose up with soil or compost up to about 12 inches high. Rose roots will continue to grow even when the deep soil is around 40' so it is best to wit until the weather turns nasty. You won't kill the rose by waiting but you could kill it by making a greenhouse where it starts putting out new growth which would definitely get frozen. Hope this helps.