The roses that hold up in Michigan are tough shrubs: rugosas such as Hansa and Therese Bugnet, the Canadian Explorer roses, Knock Out, and the climber New Dawn. Hybrid teas, tree roses and florist miniatures often sit on the same garden center shelf, and they need real winter work or they die back hard. Pick for hardiness first and flower form second. What follows sorts the shelf by name.
Which roses survive a Michigan winter
Michigan runs from USDA zone 4a to 6b on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, and each of those zones is set by one number: the average coldest night of the year. The mildest ground is in the southern Lower Peninsula near the lakes, around Detroit. The coldest is in the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. A rose that is fine in Detroit can fail 300 miles north, so the first question is always which end of the range you garden in. For the basics of planting and care, see growing roses in Michigan.
Which types clear the cold end of the range?
Rugosas clear it easily. They are bred from a species that grows wild on cold, windy coasts, and most are hardy through the coldest zones in the state with no protection. The Explorer series, developed in Canada for prairie and eastern winters, is the other safe bet. Its climbers and shrubs are meant to come through winters with little or no dieback. If you garden in the Upper Peninsula or the northern Lower Peninsula and want roses that need no tucking in, start with these two groups.
Do hybrid teas survive a Michigan winter?
At the warm end of the state, they usually do, with a mound of soil over the base. Toward the cold end, canes die to the ground in most winters. A grafted hybrid tea that dies to the ground may not come back as the rose you bought. Winter cold is only part of the story. Snow cover insulates the crown, so a bush under a steady blanket of snow in the Upper Peninsula can fare better than one on an exposed, snow-free slope farther south. Freeze-thaw swings in late winter do a lot of damage too.
Spring frost matters as well. The last spring frost comes around April 30 in the Detroit area and early to mid May across most of the Lower Peninsula. A warm spell in April can push soft new growth that a late frost then burns. The first fall frost typically arrives in mid to late October in the Detroit area, and earlier farther north. Roses that are still pushing soft growth then go into winter poorly hardened. The full routine is covered in Protecting Roses Through a Michigan Winter.
Named roses that hold up here
Five names cover most of what a Michigan gardener needs, from a hedge to a fence. They are sold widely, in garden centers and by mail, and each one has a track record in cold-winter states.
| Rose | Type | What it handles | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hansa | Rugosa shrub | Cold end of the state, wind, road salt spray | Spreads by suckers on its own roots |
| Therese Bugnet | Rugosa hybrid shrub | Cold end of the state with no protection | Blooms heavily in the first flush, lightly after |
| Knock Out | Repeat-blooming shrub | Most winters in the southern and central Lower Peninsula | Tip dieback in colder spots |
| New Dawn | Repeat-blooming climber | Typical winters across the Lower Peninsula | Canes can die back in the north |
| William Baffin | Explorer climber | Cold end of the state | Needs a trellis or fence to climb |
What makes Hansa and Therese Bugnet so dependable?
Both are rugosas, with the thick, wrinkled leaves and thorny canes that go with them. Hansa has double, fragrant, magenta-purple flowers and sets orange-red hips, and it tolerates salt spray, which suits the edge of a driveway or a road. Therese Bugnet has softer pink flowers and nearly smooth canes, and it forms a tall, loose shrub. Both sit well in the colder counties where most roses struggle. Both are usually grown on their own roots, which matters more than it sounds (see the label section below).
How do Knock Out, New Dawn and William Baffin compare?
Knock Out is the easy repeat bloomer, flowering from early summer until frost, and it is known for resisting black spot. Michigan summers can still bring leaf diseases, which Rose Diseases in Michigan: What the Climate Here Actually Brings covers. In harder winters Knock Out loses some cane tips. In spring, wait until the buds swell, then cut back to green wood and the shrub fills in quickly. New Dawn is a pale pink climber with a long history and good cane hardiness, though in the north you may lose the upper canes. William Baffin, an Explorer climber, handles the coldest parts of the state and gives deep pink flowers on a tall frame. John Cabot, from the same series, is a magenta-red alternative.
Sold here, but not for this zone
Garden centers in Michigan buy from national growers, and the stock ships to Michigan the same way it ships to Georgia or Oregon. Some of it is rated for far milder winters. A rose being on the shelf in April says almost nothing about whether it will see the next May without help.
Which roses on the shelf need winter work?
Four kinds turn up most often, and all four need a plan before the ground freezes:
- Hybrid teas and grandifloras: sold in every color, and they need a soil mound at the base where winters run cold. In zone 4 they often die to the ground anyway.
- Tree roses: a rose grafted on top of a trunk. The graft sits exposed in the wind, so the whole plant is normally tipped over and buried or wrapped.
- Florist miniatures: the potted roses sold around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. They are forced for indoor display and are usually poor survivors outdoors.
- Tea, China and Noisette roses: southern catalog favorites that suit warm-winter states and usually fail outdoors in Michigan, even in a mild winter.
Why do garden centers sell them anyway?
Because they sell. Many gardeners will do the extra work for a hybrid tea, and a well-tended one repays it. The mistake is buying one and then treating it like a rugosa. For a grafted rose, mound soil over the graft union once the ground starts to freeze, and the plant has a good chance of coming back true to type. Tree roses and miniatures need more than that, and the steps are in Protecting Roses Through a Michigan Winter. If you are not willing to do the work, put your money into the tougher roses above.
What to check on the label before buying
Start with the grade on a bare-root rose. Grade 1 is the top, with the most canes and the thickest ones. Grades 1.5 and 2 are smaller and slower, and a Michigan winter is hard on weak plants. Potted roses seldom show a grade, so judge them by cane thickness and the number of green, healthy canes.
Next, find out whether the plant is grafted or on its own roots. A grafted rose has a visible knob at the base, where the named variety was joined to a vigorous rootstock. An own-root rose is the variety all the way down. The tag or catalog listing will usually say so, using phrases such as “own root” or “grown on its own roots,” or “budded” for grafted.
That difference matters more the colder the winter. In a hard winter, canes of any rose can die to the ground. A grafted rose that dies above the union can sprout from the rootstock, and what grows back is a different rose, usually a plain one that you never chose. An own-root rose that dies to the ground regrows as the same variety. Where dieback is routine, look for “own root” on the tag before you pay.
Last, read the zone printed on the tag. It is the coldest zone the grower expects the plant to survive. If the tag says zone 5 and you garden in zone 4a, plan on protection every winter.
Checking this against your own county
The state range hides a lot of local variation. Lake effect, elevation and snow depth all shift what a rose will endure from one county to the next. MSU Extension keeps an office in every county, and the staff there can tell you the hardiness zone for your address and which rose varieties have done well locally. Ask your county office before you buy anything borderline. It costs nothing, and it is quicker than losing a $30 rose to a hard February.
Common questions
Do Knock Out roses die in Michigan winters?
Most survive. In the colder parts of the state they often lose cane tips or die back further, but they usually regrow from the base. Wait until spring buds swell, cut out the dead wood, and the shrub recovers.
Do rugosa roses need winter protection?
Generally not. Hansa, Therese Bugnet and other rugosas are hardy across the whole state, including the Upper Peninsula, and cope with wind and road salt. Leave them alone and prune in spring.
Why did my rose come back with different flowers?
You probably bought a grafted rose that died above the graft union. The rootstock sent up its own growth, and that is what is blooming now. An own-root rose avoids the problem, because everything that regrows is the variety you bought.
What hardiness zone is Michigan?
On the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, Michigan runs from zone 4a to 6b. The southern Lower Peninsula near the lakes, including the Detroit area, is the mildest. The northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula are the coldest. Check your county for the exact figure.