How To Prepare Your Roses For Harsh Winter Weather

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By most accounts, roses are the most popular flowers in the United States. These sweet-smelling flowers were even designated as the national flower in 1986. So, it's little wonder that they are widely grown in gardens and beds throughout the United States. Given there are hundreds of types of roses and certain cultivars can be grown in nearly every USDA Hardiness Zone in the U.S., it's inevitable that many of these plants will be subjected to freezing conditions at some point. Preparing your roses for harsh winter weather involves performing a variety of tasks ranging from watering to pruning. But, most importantly, it takes doing these things at the right time and in the right way.

Just as preparing your lawn for frost actually begins in fall, prepping your roses for harsh winter weather begins long before the chill sets in. How you care for rosebushes during fall can greatly impact their ability to deal with colder temperatures. While fertilizing your roses is an important task, this practice should stop during late summer or early fall. The same goes for deadheading your roses. The idea is to allow the plants to enter dormancy before the winter weather arrives.

A light pruning should be performed in the fall. However, you do not want to cut the plant back so much that it stimulates new growth. The idea is to let these flowering shrubs take a break when the weather gets rough. The autumn pruning should focus on two things — removing dead or diseased parts and cutting back for height, which can reduce the risk of wind damage. Make the minimal amount of cuts necessary to achieve these goals, and save shaping for spring.

Additional steps to winterize your roses should be taken based on the hardiness zone in which you live. Those in zones 7 and above don't need to do much other than add some mulch around the base of their plants. When severe weather is forecast, you can also cover your roses, much as you would to protect fruit trees from frost damage. However, be sure the plants still receive some airflow while covered and remove the covering as soon as the conditions improve.

Those who reside in zones 6 and under will need to take a few more precautions. One method to protect your roses is a process often referred to as hilling or mounding. This involves piling soil about a foot high around the base of each plant. The mound should extend about a foot out from the base as well. After adding the soil, cover it with a couple inches of mulch. While this method can protect your plants throughout winter, don't try it until after the first freeze of the season.

As severe winter weather sets in, those in colder zones will also need to cover their roses. This can be done with burlap or a frost cloth. Smaller plants can be cover by utilizing pop-up rose cones like Purple Star Winter Rose Collars. If you have climbing roses, you can either gently lie them down and bend them in order to cover or wrap the entire plant and support structure.