WHAT?? Spring just started! How can we start winter protection?

Well, the best strategy for protecting a rose bush from the ravages of winter is to start with a healthy bush. This means a bush that has been properly planted, sufficiently fertilized, well watered, and protected from pests and diseases.

An old plantsman said a long time ago, dig a five dollar hole for a two dollar plant. I said it was a long time ago! What he meant was dig your planting hole wide and deep so the roots have room to spread out and grow.

Choose a sunny spot with good drainage

Before you do this, you need a place to put your hole. Roses like lots of sun at least five hours a day, and they don’t like wet feet. That means they like a lot of water, but their soil must be well drained so that the water doesn’t stay in the root area. So look around your yard for a sunny area.

When you’ve found a sunny location, if you’re sure the soil is well drained, you can dig your hole, then to be sure about drainage, fill it with water and if the water has drained in one hour the soil is good to go. Another way is to remove the grass and place a bottomless coffee can on moderately moist soil and push it into the soil about one inch. Then fill it with water and if it’s drained in about an hour then it is OK to plant.

Bare Root Roses

There are two ways to buy a rose bush. You can buy a rose at your local nursery and these will come in pots and be in leaf or you can buy a bush from one of the many mail order catalogs that come in the mail. These come to you dormant with no soil and are called bare root roses.

Let’s talk first about planting a bare root bush. First of all, wait to dig in your soil until it is dry enough to dig. You don’t want to dig if it is very wet as this can damage the soil structure. If you can squeeze water out of a handful of soil, it is too wet. Dig your hole about 18 inches deep and 18 inches across. You want to give the roots plenty of room.

Of course, when your rose arrives in the mail, the best thing to do for it is to unwrap it and place it in a bucket of water so the roots are covered for at least 24 hours. Your rose was dug by the grower last fall and has been kept in a bin in a room that is dark, humid and cool. So your rose needs to get water back into its system. Thats the reason for the soak.

You can keep the rose in the water longer, but you should change the water every few days. It is best to plant as soon as you can.

Potted Roses for winter protection

If youve been shopping at your local garden center, then you have a potted bush that the garden center owner either bought from a wholesale company or he bought bare root roses, potted them up and grew them on so you have your nice bush in leaf and probably budded and maybe in bloom.

Planting a potted bush is not as involved as planting a bare root rose. Dig the same size hole and fill it with your freshly made soil mix. Now dig out a hole to fit the pot. Note that the bud union is above the rim of the pot. Make sure your hole is deep enough to have that bud union two inches below ground level. Now remove the bush from the pot. If it wont easily come out, try rolling the pot on its side while applying pressure on the sides. Then pull the rose out.

This can be done by slipping your hand under the bud union palm up and gently pulling. If the roots are showing, gently tease them apart then set the rose in the hole. If the soil breaks apart when unpotting, treat the bush much like a bare root plant and use extra soil to fill in the planting hole. Now fill the hole with the soil mix and water well. There is no need to cover a bush that is leafed out with soil.

Preparing soil for roses

Roses like a sandy loam soil, so you need to prepare that for your hole. Ideally, this would be one third sand, one third organic compost and one third good garden soil.

Bring your bucket out to the hole and put your soil mix in the hole in the shape of a cone. You’ll want to fit the rose in the hole so the rose sits on the cone and the bud union that swelling where the rose canes come together is about two inches below ground level. This will help with winter protection. If the roots are too long to fit in the hole, trim them to fit. Don’t twist them around the hole. While youre at it, prune off any broken or dead roots. Now is also a good time to prune the canes to eight to ten inches long.

Fit the rose in the hole and fill the hole three quarters up with the soil mix. Tamp the soil gently with your hands to firm it around the roots. The emphasis is on gently. Excessive force is not necessary. Fill the hole with water and wait until it drains away. Now fill the hole the rest of the way with soil and water again.

After

Once that drains away, do the hardest thing (emotionally) about planting: cover up the canes completely with soil mix. This is to keep the canes from drying out while the roots begin the process of absorbing water and getting it up to the canes. This takes about two weeks and you can tell this is happening if you pull a little soil from the top of the canes and see the buds beginning to grow. Then it is time to gently pull away the soil, but be careful because you don’t want to break new shoots.

When you have most of the soil removed, you can use a stream of water from a hose to wash down the last bit of soil.