Rose lifting at the Arboretum is scheduled for April 12. If If it were me, I would fluff the mulch to dry it out, but leave it on as long as possible.

I don't have roses, but did some fluffing myself today. Showing growth are pasque flower, iris, gentian, hellebore, and especially Corydalis bulbosa and Haquetia epipactus.

What type of roses are we talking about? Hardy Canadian, rugosa, shrubs, etc? Or non hardy hybrid teas that have been mounded or tipped?

If your roses are tipped you will have to wait until the frost is out of the ground. Several years ago I tried a little too early and while the ground was thawed out up above, 5-6 inches or so below ground the roots were still frozen in place. With the snow just now melting away I'll bet the ground is still plenty frozed down a couple of inches deep.

If your roses are mounded with wood chips or leaves I'd do like Leftwood suggested and "fluff" the mulch. Matter of fact I was just out checking on my 120+ roses this morning pulling back a little mulch on some of them. The 10 day forecast doesn't look too bad so I'd say really get to it when you have time. I'll probably leave most of my rose stuff until next weekend since I promised myself I would get the taxes done before Monday...

I just "un-leafed" my zone 6 rose today, though I left a lot of the compost heaped around it. Some of the compost is still actually partly frozen at it's base so that'll stay another week. My hardy roses are all left pretty much on their own, with just light leaf mulching in winter and they are all dandy.

-Marie

We removed the straw bales from our roses today. The tender tea roses had a lot of dieback, but the John Cabot climber (which we laid down and covered) is alive at 7 feet tall. I tied it back on the trellis. It's covered with leaf buds all the way up. Hooray!

Perhaps someone more experienced can tell me if we even needed to cover the J. Cabot. I know it's very hardy for our climate, but is it hardy enough for no winter treatment?

windytown, I don't cover my Darlow's Enigma, Dart's Dash, Mary Queen of Scots, Champlain, or Tuscan Superb - does that help? I believe Cabot is extremely hardy here and should be fine without any protection bar a few leaves or some compost at it's base. Might get a little die-back or (like in my garden) bunny or hare pruning, but that's not always a bad thing.

-Marie

I don't cover any of the hardy shrubs either, I just let the leaves and snow collect about them. The only problem I ever have is with rabbits and the one year I did cover them (with straw) I lost two because I forgot to bait and trap and the mice ate them complete...Helen

Oh and as to the reason for the post, I think it too early to uncover hybrid teas and such...

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I love this site and look forward to a wonderful gardening season. Go away gray skies!

I Thank everyone for their replies. My rose, I believe, is a hybrid tea - at any rate it had a very long stemmed white bud on it when I bought it last fall. I believe that makes it a hybrid tea. The tag on it says "Peace", but I don't think that is right. When the white bud opened, it had pink edging on the petals. But, whatever it is, it is beautiful.

I covered it partially with potting soil and partially with leaves, and then put a cone over the whole thing. Over the weekend, I did take the cone off and fluffed things up a bit. I did take away all of the mounded soil. I don't want it to mold.

It appears that I am going to have to cut back quite a bit of the old growth. The bush is green only up as far as 6 inches or so from the ground. Being a total rose-novice, I am thrilled to see that any green made it through the winter.

Those rose cones... well, I dislike them. They over-insulate? Tend to fry the poor things with even the slightest sun on them. I use a cylinder of chicken wire, mound a bit of compost at the base up past the graft (the bumpy part on the main stem where it looks like two bits were shoved together? They were!) and then cram it full of leaves. Then in spring when thing start to melt, first you just remove the chicken wire, then a few days later loosen the leaves, etc... worked every time! and there's always a bit of dieback here, just the way it is. The leaves give great insulation but allow everything to breathe more than the styrofoam cones do.

Just a consideration for next winter...

-Marie

Thanks Marie. I think I will do that in the fall. I have heard other people say they don't like cones all that much, for various reasons.

I have plenty of chickenwire so I will give it a try. My aim is to improve on the amount of stem that seems to have winter-killed. Carmellia