Wintering for your Rose Garden: An Important Fall Routine

December 13, 2008

Gardening
Getting roses to over-winter successfully is no small feat if you live in a very cold climate. However, it can be done regardless of where you live, especially if you buy and plant very hardy rose varieties such as Explorer, Parkland and Buck roses. Many of the old fashioned roses will also do quite nicely?there?s a good reason they have been around as long as they have!

The trick to keep roses alive but dormant during the winter is to protect the bud graft from freezing or being damaged. You can do this by planting the bud union deeply when you first plant your roses. Then, after the last rose of summer has fallen from your plants, cut the canes back to the ground and remove all fallen leaves that have any trace of black spot or mildew and burn them.

The second is to add protection to a bud union that is above the ground by bringing in soil from another part of the garden and making a pyramid of soil around the plant to cover the canes after cutting the canes back to 12 to 18 inches above the ground. Called ?hilling? by most rose gardeners, this system works best when you spray the clipped canes with a lime-sulphur and dormant oil combination before you hill them up to defeat problems with fungi.

Some gardeners swear that using peat moss to form the pyramid around the cut canes keeps the plants dry and warm; others prefer the insulating abilities of Styrofoam containers cut to cover the canes.

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Garden Tip...

There is no sight more attractive in a window-garden than a fine Ivy vine trained up the casement, over the wall and ceiling; its dark, rich, glossy leaves, and thrifty look, make it an object to be admired. If grown in pots in the house, the soil will soon become exhausted, if the plant is growing rapidly, and it should be changed or enriched with decayed manure at least once each year, care being taken not to disturb the roots to a great extent. It is a mistake to allow Ivies too much pot-room, they will do better if the roots are considerably confined. Soap-suds or liquid manure if applied once a mouth when the plants are growing, will promote a luxuriant growth. When dust accumulates on the leaves, as it will, if grown in-doors, wash it off with a damp cloth or sponge; if this is long neglected, you need not be surprised if you soon discover the leaves to be covered with red-spider or scale-lice. Cold water is the best wash, when washing be sure and treat the underside of the leaves as well as the upper surface. I would recommend the "English Ivy" as being the best sort for general cultivation.
~ James Sheehan
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Research from Canada suggests that gardeners who use a poly foam blanket to cover their roses see more of their roses to survive even the coldest winters. A poly foam blanket makes your rose garden appear to have been visited by space aliens, especially as you must weight and seal the edges of the blanket with additional soil to keep the blanket firmly in place when winter winds rage. But if that doesn?t bother you, this is a great system to use.

Additional over-wintering techniques involves wrapping the roses with burlap and filling the enclosed space with leaves, or making small enclosures of wire or snow fencing and filling the enclosed space with leaves or other insulating material to keep roses warm.

Whichever technique and whatever materials you use, just remember that the whole point of using it is to protect the bud union from freezing and prevent it from dying on a cold winter night while you?re sleeping in your warm bed.
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Garden Tip...

Good, fresh, rich soil, is an element that is indispensable to the growth of healthy, vigorous plants. A plant cannot be thrifty if grown in soil that has become musty and stale with long continued use; it must have fresh soil, at least once a year.
~ James Sheehan
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