Toni ....
What are you using for your winter mulch ? Your roses may be dieing from canker and not from the cold. Maybe we can tweak some of the ways you are taking care of your roses that still allows you to be a lazy gardener and increase your survival rate. After all, you have all of those cat boxes to clean ...
Silver Cloud is an incredibly weak rose and if any rose in your garden should die, that's the rose that should go toes up every time. It has lousy lineage. It is the seed parent in it's lineage, 'Ellen Poulsen', that gives it any cold hardiness and health. The pollen parent, 'Angel Face' is a dawg in that respect. 'Silver Cloud' is a beautiful rose, but definitely a rose that needs TLC to thrive and certainly not cold hardy. 'Angel Face' with it's horrible lineage dilutes both the health and hardiness of 'Silver Cloud'.
Don't get me wrong, 'Silver Cloud' is one of my favorite roses. I truly love it. It's also one of the first roses to break dormancy in my garden, so I have lots and lots of photos because nothing else was blooming.
It is susceptible to the strain of blackspot I have in my garden, but refoliates well before the heat hits.
Since I know it needs extra care to thrive, I treat it differently than my other roses. I have a few prima donnas, but only a few. I'd hate to have a whole garden full of them.
Smiles,
Lyn
