| I have recently taken over the care of a home for an elderly relative, who was very partial to roses and has numerous rose bushes. As winter is quickly approaching and I've never had a rose garden before, I am concerned that I don't know what to do to preserve these beautiful flowers. Any information on winterizing this garden will be much appreciated. |
| The answer to your question really depends on what type of roses you have, however it would be safe to say that all roses will winter better with several inches of organic mulch such as shredded bark over their root zones. You should also remove any fallen foliage from the garden to try to head off any overwintering of pests or diseases. Old fashioned shrub roses grown on their own roots (not grafted) should be fine as is, with some pruning in early spring to remove dead wood and possibly open the bush a bit for better air circulation. Hybrid tea roses, pillars, and climbers, however, may need more care than that for the winter. Hybrid teas in particular will also require intensive pruning in the spring to encourage new growth and better blooms. If you are facing these types of higher maintenance roses you might want to look at a basic book or two about roses. One I particularly like because it is straightforward and has excellent pruning diagrams (a picture is worth a thousand words!) is "Roses for Dummies" by Lance Walheim, ISBN 0-7645-5031-4. In the meantime, here is some information you may find helpful: Here is an excerpt from a column we recently had on the National Gardening Association website about winterizing roses. If you have any questions after you read it, please feel free to post another question at the website: "...If you haven't stopped fertilizing your roses yet, you should stop now. Generally, it is a good idea to stop fertilizing roses in August. A more specific rule of thumb is to stop fertilizing your roses approximately 6 weeks before the average first frost in your area. If you fertilize beyond that date, you can get a flush of new growth on your rose that is just going to get zapped. Sometimes a late application can cause the rose to keep growing into fall and winter, especially if autumn temperatures are on the warm side. This isn't healthy for the rose, so try to stop fertilizing at the appropriate time. To be on the safe side, I cut the my "ladies" off the whole month of August. Another practice you want to stop around August is deadheading (I'm sure you already know what this is, but just in case my husband is reading, that means removing the spent blooms). The reason for this is you really want those blooms to stay intact and form seed pods, or "hips". When the roses form hips, the rose "knows" it is time to stop growing and start going dormant. You really want your roses to be in a full state of dormancy before the really cold weather hits. Dormancy has usually occurred in our area by Thanksgiving. Rose canes take on a purple hue when they are dormant. Once your roses are dormant, it is time to apply the winter protection. The very first thing I do when protecting for winter is to do a really good job of cleaning up the area where the roses are. I remove all leaf litter from the ground, and the first 1-2" of mulch. There are many diseases that will happily overwinter (especially that vile destroyer of roses, Black Spot) and to help prevent disease next season, you've got to do really good housecleaning this season. I never add the leaf litter or the discarded mulch to my compost heap, it is best to be on the safe side and destroy it rather than risk adding any diseased material to your heap. My next step (and this one is a real pain in the neck) is to remove any leaves that are still clinging on the canes. Most will have fallen by now, but if there are any stragglers, off they go! I remove these because I'm not very likely to go back out into the cold periodically to check and see if they have fallen and remove them. Next, soak the roses really well with the garden hose. The roses need a big gulp before their long winter's nap. What is done next depends on what type of rose you have and what your preferred method is. In the interest of time and space, I'm going to stick to the most common roses, hybrid teas. Another reason I chose to address hybrid teas is because most shrub roses, old roses, and quite a few climbers and species roses can withstand freezing temperatures with no protection. In other words, hybrid teas are the wimps of the rose world. Some folks cut back their hybrid teas severely during the winter protection process. I prefer not to do this. I leave them alone and do all the pruning in the spring. Everything above the level of the protection is going to die back anyway so this is just a step I skip at this point in time. As you know, severe prunings can encourage new growth and you really don't want that. Mainly, that is why I prefer this method. In the past when I cut back the hybrid teas hard in the fall prior to winter protection, they sometimes put out a flush of new growth if the we had a period of warm weather. You should do what works best for you. Next comes the actual protection. There are many fancy, schmancy contraptions on the market that you can buy to wrap around your rose. I'm way too cheap for that. All you need is some soil and mulch. Basically, just shovel some soil into a mound at the base of the plant, the soil should go up about 12" above the bud union (looks kind of like a knob or a knuckle, this is where the rose was grafted to the rootstock in the beginning of it's life). Then, cover the mound of soil with about 12" of mulch. I use cypress mulch but you could also use compost or straw. This volcano like structure you have made keeps the ground frozen, and strangely enough, that is exactly what you want. If the rose is subjected to freezing and thawing, damage is sure to result. Many people wrap this mound with chicken wire to keep it intact over the winter. I've never done this, but if it makes you feel more comfortable, or, if your rose is in a spot where there is a great deal of wind or animals may dig at it, you should probably add this step. That wasn't so hard now was it? All that anxiety for nothing. Your rose gardening is finished until the spring, or at least until you see the forsythias in bloom, and what a relief that is!" |
