Hello!

This weather – no comment! Just try to remember that it is still Fall! And winter is still to come! However, there are still some fall garden chores that must be done before the wicked winter weather finally hunkers down for a “few” months.

And so our timely topic for today covers some tips to help put your roses to bed for the winter. Regardless of whatever kind of winter lays ahead – mild, cold, snowy, icy, rainy, bone chilling – all roses must be protected from those inevitable cold temperatures. And keep in mind, roses can also be injured by fluctuating temperatures as well (you know – freezing, below freezing, above freezing, super freezing). So protect those roses we must! Here are some suggestions humbly submitted for your consideration.

One of the very best ways to avoid winter rose injury is to keep those roses healthy and happy during the whole growing season. Healthy and happy roses are strong, rugged roses. And strong rugged roses have been regularly bathed and properly nourished this whole past year. And so these strong, rugged, healthy, happy roses are more likely to escape winter injury than those roses who have lost their leaves because of insects, diseases, or nutrient deficiencies. These weakened roses already have several strikes against them, and their winter survival is in doubt, although not impossible.

Make sure that your roses are well watered before the ground freezes hard. With all the rain that we’ve had lately, plus all those lake effect snow showers, dry soil is not a problem!

Also, around now is a good time to do some limited pruning of your rose bushes. Nothing major, mind you, now in the fall. Spring is the time to cut back those roses. However, anything weak, or damaged, or diseased, should go. You can remove a few inches off the top – nothing more.

Also, clean up the ground all around the roses. Get rid of any fallen leaves, or any plant debris that can harbor insects or disease. You may even want to spray that rose bush with a fungicide now to reduce the threat of black spot in spring. And, as long as you are spraying that rose bush, spray that ground under and around those roses as well.

To protect your roses from cold, drying winds, mound the soil 6 to 10 inches up around the rose canes. It is vitally important that you bring this mounding soil from another part of your garden. If you dig this dirt from around your rose bushes, you may end up injuring those rose roots by removing that protective soil covering them. At this point, the ground may be all frozen or partially frozen because of all this wintry weather.
Some people don’t even use soil to mound at all; they use plain, old peat moss, or even sphagnum peat moss, since these drain a whole lot better. They figure that regular soil may hold too much moisture around the canes, and eventually cause problems with rotting or disease.

Some people tie the rose canes together after mounding the soil around them. This keeps the rose canes from being whipped around by those wicked winter winds and from having their root systems loosened.

We’re not going to stop there! Roses up here in the North Country need even more protection. You can place leaves or evergreen branches, or hay, or straw, or strawy manure over those mounded canes. Hold all these in place with burlap coverings. Or you can use those Styrofoam rose cones for winter insulation. Or you can also try just regular old cardboard boxes to cover those rose bushes, a lot less expensive than the Styrofoam cones. Just remember to put rocks on those box flaps to hold those boxes in place for the winter.

If you do use cardboard boxes, make sure that they’re not a dark color, since that dark color will absorb the winter sun’s bright rays and heat up the inside of the boxes way too much! In other words, you’ll cook your rose bushes! Not a good thing!

More thoughts on winter rose protection next week.

Remember - Eat Smart New York!

And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D