I am thinking that it will be alright. You have the fact that it is up against the bricks and will stay a bit warm. if you are really worried about its welfare during these very cold days there in N'ville, you could always bedeck it with some fleece until it warms up a bit. I have some new buds on my rose bush as well at the moment. Curiously, it is colder there than here and so I shall not use the fleece. Actually I only use the fleece on my blueberry bushes when they are in bloom and leave the rose to its own devices. Having said that, this rosebush has been newly transplanted and thus will not be quite as hardy, so taking a bit of extra precaution is perhaps not a crazy thing to do at this stage. Hope that you have continued good luck with your baby.
That is great news Ronni! Roses are tougher than you think. My zone 5 gardens have hybrid Roses that come through our winters just fine.
Thanks……….I think? No, seriously, thank you. Thank you all for your encouragement. I was seriously shocked when I saw those tender little leaves. Knowing so little about gardening, I had just assumed that those naked, pruned back stalks wouldn't begin to show signs of life until the spring. I still don't understand why, and how, it can be putting out new leaves in the middle of winter! I did what you all said, and waited till it had turned cooler, but before the onset of winter, to move it. And I waited even longer to prune it back. So how on earth it put out those new shoots when it was so cold is beyond me!
The roots will grow even in the winter, that's one reason why Fall planting is so beneficial. The above ground part of the plant will be affected by the cold but the roots, especially when mulched, will be fine and the least bit of warm sunshine will cause the plant to put out new growth. Mine started putting out new growth back in late November and we have had 62 freezes plus two days of 3 inches of ice on top of everything since then, they are still green and fresh looking. The humbling part of gardening is that humans really aren't in control of what the plants do, they have the experience ....we don't. The plants have been doing this for thousands of years without the interference of humans, so their schedule very seldom will sync-up with what we think it ought to be.
