When I go speak for groups interested in growing roses, I always bring up the possibility of a nightmare winter.  For us, I suppose, that would be blizzards and ice storms, or perhaps a combination of the two.  However, in the rose garden, the opposite is true!

An Awful Past Winter

This winter we just went through here in my zone 6 garden is the type of winter that wreaks havoc in the garden.  January was 10 degrees above normal and I think February was about the same.  During the transition into March, a weather front came through and the temperature dropped from 50 to nine below zero in less than five hours.  The wind chills were 30 below!  The beautiful green canes in the garden froze solid in a heartbeat.

There could have been a better outcome if we had some good snow cover, but that just didn’t happen this winter!  I think we only had two plowable snow events and it all melted within a day.  Snow is a delightful thing in the garden!  It insulates everything beautifully and my roses could have sailed right through that cold snap without damage if we had just had the white stuff.  I knew the gardens were going to be a mess when spring arrived.

Prevention

Rose gardeners always have their eyes on the future!  And so, I start my winter protection program at planting time.  I do that by planting my roses deeply, so the bud union, or crown of the plant, is resting at least 5” below soil level.  That way, there are also 5” of protected cane below the soil’s surface which are full of dormant buds just waiting to send up new canes.  I generally start with bare-root roses, and you can read about this in my blog post, ‘How to Plant Bare-Root Roses in Your Garden.’  I also plant potted roses at the same depth.  Sometimes, I will pull off some foliage from the base of the potted rose while planting so the bottom foliage doesn’t get buried.

Spring Pruning/Restorative Pruning

I have been pruning my rose gardens for the past two weeks and I have another week to go before I’m finished!  I strap on my kneepads and pull on my gauntlet gloves. Then, I inspect one rose at a time.  Because we had that one really bad freeze on roses that were not really dormant, many of the canes were burned black.  But, because I plant my roses deep, new growth is already growing up from the bases of the canes.  All I can do is to cut off the damaged canes and start growing again from the ground up.  Start from scratch, as it were.  Basically, I am pruning back to green wood, and that is right at ground level.  Some of the canes are so big that I need my long-handled ratchet pruners to take them off.  When I have finished, I will put Elmer’s Glue on the ends of the canes.  This will dry clear and prevent borers from drilling down through the canes during the season.

When You Think You’re Done, Prune Some More!

If you are new at being a rosarian, you may be worried about pruning too much, but be not afraid!!  Anything black or brown or gnarly isn’t going to produce any new growth because it’s dead.  And, dead plant material isn’t beneficial to the plant, or you, or your garden.  Prune it off!  And then, sit back, relax, and watch your rose spring to life.  The new growth forms strong, new canes that will bloom profusely all summer!  In about six weeks, we’ll be enjoying fragrant, new blooms