I was asking these same questions last year :) I live in Knoxville, so we are similar in climate. I had about 20 1g pots, 10 5g pots, and maybe 10 still in their band containers by the time winter came around. After asking for advice on here, what I ended up doing was putting the majority of pots on my covered front porch and covering the open sides, where the rails are, with plywood to protect them from the wind. I also muched the top of the pots heavily and kept the pots very close together with the more tender varieties toward the center of my ghetto. I kept the most tender varieties in my unheated garage. For the bands, I purchased two of those mini greenhouses from Lowes (they cost about $50) and put them outside on the back patio in the most protected area. I also watered them about once a month. This system worked well for me. I think I lost maybe two plants (Austin's Allux Symphony...boohoo!) Had there been enough leaves around I would have covered the plants on the porch with them for extra protection, as quite a few posters suggested. I'm by no means an expert, and as you know last winter was mild, but this is what I plan on doing this year as well :) As for planting, I was told that the potted roses are better in the ground than in pots, even if you have to sink the pots with the roses still in them. I think my last potted roses made it into the ground around October. Some nurseries, like Pickering, offer Fall bareroot shipping. I know a lot my disagree with me, but my Fall planted bareroots do better than my Spring planted one. Just be sure to mulch well :) Good luck! Tammy Here is a link that might be useful: my post from last year...

This past winter was my first winter in a cold zone. Up here in the N. GA. Mts it gets cold. (The movie "Cold Mountain" was filmed in this area.) I brought 23 new roses with me when I moved from SE FL. last Sept. Everything was in 3 gal pots. The old lady living next door to me has 3 old HT's in 25 gal. pots in front of her porch. She showed me how to winter protect everything. It worked like a charm. 5' wood stakes, burlap and chicken wire. Put the stakes up around the pots in a square staying about 18" from the pots. Wrap the burlap once around the entire area using a staple gun to keep the burlap in place. Then put the chicken wire around the burlap using the staple gun. Then pack everything with fall leafs. When she gets up to about 4' she puts a layer of news paper on top of everythig, going around all the canes that are still sticking up. Then she finish's everything off with leafs. In mid March she takes everything down and spreds the leafs through her bulb garden (where her roses are), prunes everything up and bingo! Mr. Lincoln, Double Delight and Peace have been stunning all spring and summer. Mine, being in 3 gal pots I did just a little different. Packed all the pots together, covered everything with leafs, threw a layer burlap on everything and put more leafs on top of that . I didn't loose a single rose under this protection and all my roses are on cold sensative fortuniana root stock. And yes, several mornings at 5 degrees and a steady 20 mph wind is fair chilly. Many,many days we never saw anything above 25 drgrees. So I know with proper protection, roses in pots can survive a cold winter.

Yes, the polar vortex did a lot of roses in this year. So don't feel bad about losing yours. Sometimes things just happen. As for bringing them inside the house I do NOT recommend it. They will not be happy and you stand just as great a chance of losing them inside as you do outside in the garage. They won't get enough light and the humidity will not be right for them. They just fail to thrive inside. Put them in a protected spot in the garage, where they won't get blasted every time you open the door, up off the floor on blocks and water them some every month through the winter. It's still the best chance they have of making it. We can't predict the weather but hopefully it won't be as bad as last years.

Pam Tapla the above poster knows the ins and outs period. Now i think if you leave out in that room and it gets cold enough again like the first time it lost its leaves i would think the up and down cycle so close to each other would do more harm than good( starting to sleep then wakeing up and back and forth) so if you can like you said bring indoors in sunny spot i would do so and see if it can continue to survive then when spring arrives slooowly assimilate it to the outdoors so it wont go into like a shock. If it survives then it would probably not get Ripe fruit , these tree's can take a decent beating but usually show it when it comes time to bear fruit so maybe the season after next it will do much better then of course they have been known to surprise us as well. Best of Luck and let us know what happens ! Martin