Steve812 said:
I've had three days of 20F weather on April 23, 24, and 25 five or six years ago. It killed quite a few roses. There's a strong correlation between roses that have a reputation for being cold hardy through "hard freezes" and those that tolerate the phenomenon I refer to; but the simple condition of the temperature falling below X degrees for Y hours is not what I'm talking about.
We have lots of days where it's 60, 70, or even 80 degrees in February, March, and April. And because of the altitude, thin air, and low humidity, it is very common for the temperature to drop 30 or 40 degrees at night in those same months. For two months straight it might dip to 26 to 30 every night for after being around 75 during the day. Great weather for gardening not so great for the plants in them. There are very few places in the lower 48 states where the temperature crosses the freezing point more often than here. The conditions that make daily frosts common, make it common for long
In a private e-mail one kind reader of this forum living in Toledo suggested I trim a hybrid tea rose to waist height, invert a cheap plastic trash can over it, fill it with a loose, insulating material such as mulch, and pin it to the ground with landscape staples so it does not blow away in the wind. How to fill it? Cut the bottom most of the way off, but not quite. I love the idea. It probably wouldn't happen anywhere else, but I worry about the plant overheating and 'cooking' in the very bright winter AZ sun. Maybe I'll try cutting the bottom clean off the trash can. The light frosts rarely penetrate the mulch by two inches.
Of the following roses which five should I do this with next winter: Secret, New Zealand, Neil Diamond, Stephen's Big Purple, Moonstone, Papa Meilland, Elina, Sedona, Fire Fighter, Ingrid Bergman? I welcome suggestions.
Stay as far away from plastic as you can, period.
I have never used it on roses but have used plastic tub covers , with breathing holes, on some other less tender flower bushes. They are all dead.
If they made huge Styrofoam covers, rather than the little ones they make, that might be the cat's meow but I have never seen one.
I used to worry about cooking my roses when I left them covered in temp. in the seventies, but I never uncovered a rose that was dead with new growth.
As I said earlier, one year I missed two buried roses, for quite some time. One lived and one died. The one that died I broke several canes trying to get it out of the, by then from being walked on, very hard ground. I learned by that and other dork moves, broken canes are very hard on roses in spring.
I had a large burlap bag, six feet long and two feet wide made for a so called climbing rose before I realized burying was as close to a sure fire method as exists.
I would put it over the rose and dump leaves dry and wet as dry ones were to hard to force down till it was full and tie the end shut.
It worked to a point but I still had to cut dead cane off of the top as the plant dried out no matter what I did.
We moved the arbor it was growing on and we both decided it would better for grilling charcoal than all the hassle for the flowers was worth.
Two years ago, before I started burying all, I covered several roses with cocoa beans and cut the canes down to the point the where the bean hulls stopped making a higher mound and would simply spread out.
I covered those with a landscape fabric and put leaves on that.
In the spring the canes were green to the cut and I did not have to recut.
You could put, and I did this while landscaping for several owners, put chicken wire, though heavier but a fine stiffer wire is easier to handle, around a rose, (steak it up for support, I use the ones made out of rerod) or if they are in a row, around two or three at a time, and put leaves or some more moist mulch, to cover the center of the actual bush, and put hay (for this hay works better than straw as it holds moisture better) around the out side of the cage and over the top.
Of the roses you listed I have had Papa Meilland, Fire Fighter and Ingrid Bergman.
They all lasted as long as mom was alive and I gave the garden full attention; after mom died I condensed the garden and tried "new" ideas. Papa died when I ran shovel into the ground too close to the roots while moving them. The other two probably from late frost. Back when I could get cheap replacements even though I spent more time with them, I was not as careful, sadly.
I love red roses but in the two gardens I still have, I have only one red rose which my brother, who did absolutely nothing to the minus tenth degree to take care of the roses, commented recently, where did all the red roses go?
I sometimes think they died just to spite me.
OH yes, my brother, who does nothing with the existing roses, when mom was still alive, bough five David Austin roses for me to plant.
I put them next to the garage, which due to a warm car being in every night was always ten to twenty degrees higher than the outside temps., so the ground was warmer due to that and insulating snow shoveled from the side walk.
It was on he sunny side, even in winter and good soil.
Two went belly-up the first year; I gave the survivors more attention ( still not near what I did for the HTs) but within five years they were all belly-up even though the they bloomed well their last year, had a mild winter and were given close to first class treatment their last fall.
I will never buy another one.
Once I started using fabric, car covers work great but landscape fabric works well, between the roses and the leaves things started getting much better Frost kill pretty much went away with burying them, finally, totally eliminating it.
Keeping them moist, for me, was a big factor. Any part of a bush that was in contact with moist soil, mulch or leaves was green.
Canes that were still fully covered by six inches of dry oak leaves, would as often as not need to be cut back.
Oak leaves are recommended up here for insulating cover but I never had problems where wet maple or mulberry leaves were used and they hold more moisture but then that is just me.
One person whose roses I prepared for fall while landscaping, due to size and space, I did what is more close to the Minnesota Tip.
I dug a trench, and tipped the roses, one on each side, into the trench. I filled the trench to original level with dirt and then put leaves covered with hay over that even though the roses were only half buried; finally putting wood for weight and wind protection on top of that.
This was during a very hard winter with continuous temps. in the twenty some degrees below zero at night.
Even though they were not truly buried they survived just fine, although there was also a good deal of snow cover also.
You could try something similar to that with one or two of your HTs and see how they do compared to another method with several others.
One last idea from experience. Back when Eucalyptus was less expensive, I used that as the only mulch for all of my roses.
It helped control black spot and other bug and disease problems but also in the fall, I would rake it up around each bush as high as was practical.
I would then spread it out in spring and touch up where it needed it.
The roses did well those years but it decomposed faster than I thought would and even though I bought a whole pallet, it simply got too expensive.
I kept it around two inches deep in the garden.
I did find out though that rose bushes are excellent for cooking steaks over but you have to save them till you have enough for a good fire.
We have steak cook every spring and for many years, my fire was made from corn cobs and rose bushes with a little Lilac added for bulk.
Every one loved those steaks.
One the few things that made the fact potted roses were often a one year wonder not so bad.
So, lesson learned. You have to make a big deal about not allowing them to ship to you early.
