Home Gardener...Quick Guide to Winterizing Your Roses

If you are concerned that a beloved rose bush might be harmed in the chilly winter weather about to leap on Eastern Pennsylvania: worry no further.  There are several steps you can take to protect your tender roses.

I have lost rose bushes in tough winters and if you love a particular variety and don’t want to take any chances you might want to consider following this brief check list I have devised.  I have broken them up into seven items for your easy reading.

1.    Water them deeply before the ground freezes solidly.  It has been rather dry so this is an important step.

2.    Let rose hips develop; it is part of the natural cycle of the rose bush and can’t hurt this late in the season.  Critters like to nosh on them in the winter and they look neat too!

3.    Do not fertilize the roses until next spring.  You should have stopped this by the first real frost.

4.    Loosely mound fresh garden soil around the main stem up to 1 foot high.

5.    You can trim scraggly branches back and then tie the remaining branches together with a narrow, long fabric strip, twine or rope.

6.    Once the ground is solidly frozen you can mound a foot or more of mulch around the dirt mound.  You can put paper over that and tie it firmly with string to keep the mound together until spring.  You could also put chicken wire or boards around the mound of leaves/mulch to keep it from blowing away.

7.    In spring once the forsythia are in bloom you can start to carefully remove the layers.  Be cautious as there may well be new growth on the rose canes that is hidden by the mulch and soil.  Do not remove the protection too soon as this area is infamous for late frosts and cold snaps.

I do some of these but generally do not do the mounding of dirt and mulch.  But then I live here in town and figure the wind and harshness of the country is not going to hit my little yard. 

If you want more detailed information you can check on line at any number of rose care websites.  They will give similar advice and probably more information than my short article.  I didn’t want to get too detailed here so I invite you to research further if you are deeply interested in this topic.  I didn’t get into anything for climbing roses so you can find out about that on line too.

Just watch out for those thorns while working around your roses!