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corapegia

winter care of roses

corapegia
18 years ago

I'm wondering what others do about roses in winter. A friend wraps hers in burlap but still looses some over the winter. I had read burlap is not a good idea anyway and I prefer to do as little as possible. Another friend suggested putting leaves around the base to mulch and I've heard some say the dirt should be hilled up around the base. I also heard mulch shouldn't be applied until after the ground freezes because of rodents.

Comments (6)

  • susanzone5 (NY)
    18 years ago

    I dump a bucketful of finished compost on top of the crowns for protection. It works. When I spread it around in spring, the stems that were under the compost are bright green, even if top growth had died. The underground varmints go under the soil in my garden. The mulch part is too frozen for them. They like to eat roots.

    I've got a vole happily burrowed for the winter in my perennial bed...couldn't catch or kill it this year...nothing worked...I'm prepared to replace plants this spring

    I got the compost on JUST in time this fall...yesterday!
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

  • linnea2
    18 years ago

    Susan, there's a Euphorbia that supposedly gets rid of voles and moles,
    E. Lathyris, I just bought some seeds on ebay.

  • oldroser
    18 years ago

    Was just out today, dumping partially frozen mulch on a half dozen roses. And yes I know it's late but we are going to have a lot colder temperatures and better late than...
    Last year I was very successful using shredded cedar bark held in by tarpaper tubes. This year, what with all that rain in October, and November being spent bringing in tender plants, I just never got the mulch on.
    I still have five bags of mulch to apply but whether it will get done before the next snow storm is another question.

  • robbiezone5
    18 years ago

    in the end, i didn't put much winter protection on the roses. this makes me nervous... but i'm hoping it will help toughen them up? i put a lot of thought into it, and ultimately, i couldn't decide what to do. so i just thought that i'd let them be. i'm sometimes afraid of killing the plants with kindness. and my fingers are crossed that come spring, they'll all be just fine.

    robbie

  • lam702
    18 years ago

    I've read that a mound of soil or compost is the best protection. I've used those styrofoam cones in the past too. But, if you get some unseasonably warm weather, it can heat up inside the cone and start the rose into an early growth. I am a very lazy person when it comes to winter protection, which is why I decided last year to only buy canadian roses, or rugosas. True, they're not as perfect as a hybrid tea, but they are still very pretty and hopefully, hardy enough so that I don't have to bother with all the work of protecting them.

  • klavier
    18 years ago

    I make a cylinder out of wire mesh and place it over the roses, then I will it with leaves from the lawn. I cover the whole plant (after pruning it back to a few of the strongest branches and about 1 1/2 feet in height). The differance between plants left un-protected and plants covered in lkeaves is dramatic. I save a lot of the previous years growth this way.

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