Cold-Climate Instructions:
1. In early fall, stop cutting roses and let plants form hips (seedpods) as they prepare naturally for winter.
2. After the first frost in fall, protect plants from the potential damage caused by freezing and thawing cycles by piling soil over the base of the plant; cover the bud union and up to about 2 feet. Use fresh topsoil or compost, not soil scraped from around the plant.
Prune overly long canes on bush-type roses to prevent wind damage. Expect a certain amount of winter kill (when canes die as far back as the bud union). Plan to prune off dead canes in early spring
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Step 3. Mulch after the first hard freeze
1. Wrap twine around the canes to hold them erect as you work. Use a garden fork to gently unearth the plant's roots. Dig a trench to one side of the rose large enough to contain the height and width of the plant.
Step 1. Dig a trench the size of the height and width of the plant.
Hybrid Tea roses:
- Reinforced plastic cylinder or styrene cone for each plant
- Straw (mild climates)
- Soil (cold climates)
- Wooden stakes
- Burlap
- Twine or wire
- Roomy cardboard box
- Shredded newspaper, dry leaves, styrene packing pieces, or peat moss
- Bales of hay
1. Rose cones: Purchase a reinforced plastic cylinder or a styrene cone for each plant, if you like. Place the cylinder or cone over the plant and fill it with dry leaves, soil, or bark chips. Remove the protection in early spring.
1. In mild-winter areas, pile straw around the base of a tree rose (a plant grafted on a tree-length stem).
2. In cold-winter areas, use soil instead of straw. Place a framework of wooden stakes around the tree.