Question
I purchased some beautifulyellow topiaries made from yellow Roses last summer and repotted them so that I could put them on our porch.  It is getting quite cold now, and although I know I should have asked sooner, I am not sure if this is a question that sounds a little on the slow side.  They are hardy roses, I assume.  Is there any reason I cannot keep them in the winter on the porch outside?  If not, what would you recommend at this point in time?  I live in southern new jersey near the ocean.  We get a few bad snows each year and a few very cold weeks.  I have no other roses by the way.

Answer
You did not tell me where you are writing from, Dorothea - anywhere from Hawaii to Paris to Siberia and south?  Let's assume you live on Long Island and that's why you picked the Long Island Gardener.  If you can be more specific it will help me to cater to your little corner of the world in a followup!

I always say there's just about nothing that's as beautiful as a Tree Rose in bloom.  I'm glad you asked about this.  Because without special care, your plant may not survive - if you are actually on Long Island/Zone 7, the odds are not in your favor.

Tree Roses - also called "Standard Roses" - are usually trained by a nursery to grow in tree form rather than as shrubs.  They are rarely as tough as the regular shrub roses.  

At the very least, you will have to pick up your Tree Roses and move them to a garage for winter.  Most people either bury their Tree Roses completely underground for the winter or dig them out of the ground, pot them and keep them in a greenhouse or garage until spring. Gotta love those Roses.

Even if you did not go to the trouble to plant it in the ground, the outcome is no different from a Rose Expert who went to great lengths to save his Rose and failed.  This is almost always what happens when you buy a Tree Rose.  

One gardener has posted a short report
(www.mgs.md.gov/mdrose/docs/rosestandards.pdf#search='rose%20standard%20how%20to') describing how he lost his Tree Rose.  It is a pdf file so you will need Adobe Acrobat to read it.  He points out: "I tried to protect it with an improvised net filled with a mulching material."

Mulch is often used to protect regular shrub roses from the winter cold - people pile leaves, soil, compost around the rose and then remove that in the spring when the weather is warmer.  A gardener in Maryland has come up with a very good technique that uses foam pipe insulation used by plumbers.  The trunk of the Rose is wrapped with insulation sheets and taped in place with silver duct tape.  Special attention is paid at the base of the Rose, around the large bump in the trunk, where the graft attaches to root stock.  If you
purchase another Tree Rose, and you wrap it with plumber's insulation, remember to seal the trunk carefully at the base.  Then regular mulch (leaves, etc.) is placed over the roots.

This writer points out plumber's insulation can be purchased at Home Depot.  

If you have any questions, Dorothea, please ask me, and I will do my best to answer them clearly.  Let me know what Zone you're writing from when you get a chance.

Keep your Rose in the garage or the backyard, with mulch and plumber's insulation duct-taped around it.  You cannot keep them in a warm area for the winter.  Roses need many weeks of very cool weather -- but not too cold or as you see the outcome may be disappointing.  Thanks agains for asking.