Cinta said:RpR, do you dig the roses up or just pilling the soil on top of the rose?
I dig a trench next to the rose.
First I make sure the roots on the side of the rose to be tipped are in looser soil then I a shovel and pry up, just bit, trying repeatedly till the rose tips comparatively easily.
I bury most of the tipped branches with dirt; I have heavy dirt so often I just take the largest chunks and just make sure they hold the rose down.
By spring time the entire stem will be covered.
Then I put a mound of dirt over the raised part of the root ball.
In my soil by spring when I uncover them all you will see is flat black dirt, with a few dips and mounds.
I also put leaves over the roses.
Picking up the leaves in spring is easier if you put fabric over the rose bed and the leaves over that. Then in spring after removing x amount of leaves with a fork, you can grab the corners of the fabric and make a bundle to pull off of the rose bed.
I found a car cover to work best.
Without the fabric, depending on how cold it gets where you are, you should add at least an extra six inches of leaf cover.
Depending on leaves used, in spring, two to three feet of leaves will often compressed down to eight to sixteen inches.
Unless you have a very good memory, use something to at least mark where the end of the tipped rose bush is located.
For some roses I will dig one trench and tip them towards each other.
As I said I have hard soil and it somehow fills in the hole even if I leave the hole half empty.
When I uncover them, even when I marked where the ends were, they just seem to be a lot deeper than I remember planting but then when I am done burying in the fall the bed is full of pits and bumps but by spring it is darn near level.
When I uncover them in spring using fabric, I will find many worm trails with large night-crawlers some times in transit.
It looks like a a 3d highway map.
When you dig them up in spring, be gentle if you have long canes.
Some times I will snap them off because I tipped them up too quickly.
Also dig a hole and loosen the part of the root ball, so that dirt is not stopping it from going back into place, that is being tipped back into place.
