Climbing Rose Bush budded but now looks dead after cold spell.?

I planted 2 climbing rose bushes on a trellis in my yard last May...they were well established and full in the fall and should flower this year. The vines began to bud leaves and then we got a cold spell (central IL). The leaves all died and now we have had about 2 consecutive warm weeks and there are no new buds of foliage. Any experience with this? Is the plant dormant or dead? How to tell? Thanks.

Climbing Rose Bush budded but now looks dead after cold spell.?
It may take awhile before it puts out new growth. Or it may be dead. You can scrape the bark and see if there is any green, living tissue underneath. Or you can wait until mid May and see what happens.



This has been a possitively freaky year. A warm January, followed by a pretty darn cold February. Then an early warm up, with temps in late March/early April in the 70's and even 80's (20 to 30 degrees above normal), then followed by an unprecidented freeze in April - not a brief one, but 7, 8 days, getting down to the low 20's...at which point covering really doesn't help much.



The unseasonable warmth spawned early growth which simply had no chance against the unprecidented extended freeze.



Roses got hit the worst, in my opinion. It most likely have some branch kill, as well as new growth kill. Waiting and seeing what it does it really all you can do. Don't water it more than normal. Just give it time.



Some roses may have been killed completely. Some may have been killed down to their graft, and may produce new growth from low on the plant. In which case, when they bloom, you will most likely see the red rose of the root stock rather than whatever rose it was that you purchased.



I expect to hear a lot of "My rose bush changed color!" this year....



Again, all you can do is wait and see.
Reply:It will be just fine, make sure you cut back any dead branches, and keep tending to it as you did before, just be patient. If you really want to be sure it is alive, all you have to do is take your fingernail, or a knife and scrape a piece of the bark back, if it is moist and green it is still living.