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Winter Rose Care

© Mark Whitelaw

Regardless of where you live, roses will require some preparation during the coming weeks. For those living in warmer hardiness zones, your tasks will be minimal. For those in colder climates, extraordinary preparations may be required.

In southern warmer zones (USDA Hardiness Zones 9 and 10), freezing winter temperatures are not much of a concern. Rose care is limited to keeping fungal diseases in check as temperatures cool during the coming months. Many rosarians in these zones perform a light fertilization in November to ensure blooms for the December holidays, after which they perform their annual pruning in preparation for next spring.

If "black spot" has been a problem in this season's garden, hand-stripping leaves from the shrub and removing dead and diseased leaves from the ground are also good ideas after pruning chores are complete. Unless you keep a hot pile, do not put these leaves in your compost bin. Winter temperatures are generally too cool to kill fungal spores.

For temperate southern and coastal zones (Zones 7 and 8), freezes can be expected, although normally of short duration. Winter rose care begins after the second "killing" frost, usually around mid-November. For grafted roses, mound organic, shredded mulch around the bud union to protect it. For own-root roses, cover the base of the canes and surrounding near-surface root zone with 2 - 3 in. (5 - 8 cm) of mulch.

"Dead heading" and fertilization should have been discontinued prior to fall flush so that your roses could prepare themselves for winter. Permit rose hips to remain on the shrub as food for overwintering birds and color interest in an otherwise dull winter garden.

For the colder, central zones (Zones 5 and 6), winter rose care may require a bit more work. For those rose classes and varieties specifically adapted to your hardiness zone or colder, prepare for winter using the procedures outlined for Zones 7 and 8. Rose classes and varieties not well adapted to these zones require extra protection, however. Although individual roses may vary (especially the Species roses), as a rule of thumb those roses which are not well adapted to Zone 5 or colder winters are

· Bermudas

· Bourbons

· Chinas

· Grandifloras

· Hybrid Musks

· Miniatures

· Noisettes

· Teas and Hybrid Teas

For these classes, rosarians have few choices but to provide extra winter protection. Three options are available: (1) Burying the rose, (2) building a protective cage around the rose, or (3) transplanting the rose into a container and storing it out of weather extremes. In each case, work should proceed after first killing frost and ideally before snow cover.

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