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.

Good call rose nutty. Starjr you should read some about digging up and storing for winter. A great starting place is here http://dahlias.net/dahwebpg/CultureIndex/Culture.htm Unfortunately, they look to be revising/updating that site and winter prep, digging, and dividing is absent right now. You can read about the process of overwintering whole clumps of dahlia roots or cutting into single/small clumps at almost any dahlia society website. Do a google search. Below is another good learning site. Here is a link that might be useful: Mid Island Dahlia Society

I take fuchsia cuttings all the time. If I decide to get a new variety I buy a single plant and by the end of the summer I can have lots. In my climate I grow them in large pots which I hide up against the house under lots of leaves and they break into new growth the next spring. The question of 'making lots of wood' is not really relevant. However much wood is made it will be enough. Yours has already proved to be hardy enough to overwinter outside so any cuttings from it would be too. Don't keep them in the house at all - it's not necessary where you live. If you had just hung an old sheet or something over the one you had that died it would probably be alive now. If frost is predicted give a little protection. Otherwise leave it alone. Cuttings are child's play. Pinch off the end of a non flowering shoot about two inches long with a few leaves. Put it into some seed or cutting mix and keep moist but not wet. That's it. It will root. I root almost all the pieces I remove when pinching out the plants to make them bushier. Once rooted just plant them where you want them and forget about them. In the winter watch the forecast and protect only if necessary ie if it's going to dip below about 33f. mytime - I'm curious you put yours in the fridge. Is that because the fridge is actually warmer than outside? I suppose it's around 5c which is a good temp for a fuchsia in winter.

As others have already mentioned, Winston Churchill isn't hardy enough, and neither are nearly all hybrid Fuchsias, but Fuchsia magellanica, and especially southerly or high elevation forms of it, can be grown as freeze-backs with a heavy mulch. There are a few hybrids that have so much magellanica blood as to be just about as hardy (and are just minor variants of it in looks for that matter). It used to be grown that way in Victorian times in the US heartland, and occassionally still is. Don't forget the mulch as it will need some buds to escape deep frost. F. magellanica occurs over a huge range of latitudes from probably the tropics or at least subtropics all the way down to the straights of Magellan (hence the name I suppose). Small bushy plants that have been collected in southern Chile are very coldhardy. Fuchsia campos-portoi is possibly even hardier (despite being tropical--"vestigial hardiness" from a colder climate of the past is my guess). It looks very much like a fine-leaved small-flowered version of F. magellanica, to which it is obviously closely-related. It is a native of the mountains of Brazil. Fuchsia regia is also weirdly coldhardy for a Brazilian plant and quite capable of going deciduous in a freeze. It might work as a freezeback. It is a big clambering species but probably would not get so tall in a climate where it would freeze back. In the interior USA summer heat is a problem, and probably even worse are fungal diseases such as Phytophthora, which tend to hit on warm, muggy days. Fuchsias being Gondwanic have poor resistence to it.