How to Protect Roses for Winter

Posted by Barbara M. Martin Nov 8, 2006

Hybrid tea roses need special care to survive cold winters. (Hybrid tea roses are the most popular kind of rose.) If you live in USDA winter hardiness zone 6 or colder, here's what you'll need to do in late fall. Wait to do this until after some hard freezes stop the rose from growing and it is going into dormancy.

First, insulate the roots with a generous layer of organic mulch. (If you live in zone 7, mulching is all you need to do.) (If you are growing old garden roses or landscape shrub roses, mulching is all you need to do.)(If you have a tree rose, winter care is different and I'll address that in a few days. update: Tree Rose Winter Care.)

Next trim back extra long canes so they don't whip around in the approaching winter gales; cut the longest ones to about three feet. This is done to theoretically prevent the wind toppling the plant over. Do not prune more than that now, the serious pruning is done next spring.

Now insulate the base of the rose to protect the graft and lower portion of the canes. The best insulator is soil piled about a foot high around the bottom of the plant and burying the canes. Dig the soil from elsewhere in the garden not right next to the rose.

Heap organic mulch over the soil to help keep the soil in place.

Some gardeners will use special gear for this job such as rose cones. I think the soil covered with a bit of mulch is just as good if not better. It looks a lot nicer, too.

Next spring, you'll gradually remove the soil and expose the canes to the sun and air.