How to Winterize Shrub Roses
Shrub roses are hardy siblings to the more tender hybrid tea roses. Shrub roses are easier to winterize; they don’t need to be covered completely and in some climates will survive winter without any protection at all. To ensure that your shrub roses last through the cold winter months, follow a few simple steps beginning in late summer.
Do not fertilize after early August. Fertilizing encourages the plant to put out succulent new growth that will not survive winter.
Stop removing faded flowers in late August. Allow them to remain on the plant and grow rose hips. This will help harden off the shrub rose and prepare it for cold weather ahead.
- Shrub roses are hardy siblings to the more tender hybrid tea roses.
- Fertilizing encourages the plant to put out succulent new growth that will not survive winter.
Remove the shrub rose’s fallen leaves from around its base. Do not compost them; bag them and put in the trash or burn them, as they may harbor rose pests or diseases.
Prune your shrub rose after the leaves drop. Remove any canes that are dead or diseased. Then remove any canes that are crossing or crowding others. Finally, cut the individual canes back by about a quarter of their length.
Gather the canes of your shrub rose into a loose bundle and secure loosely with twine. This will keep snow from weighing down the individual canes and possibly cause them to break under the weight of the snow.
- Remove the shrub rose’s fallen leaves from around its base.
- Prune your shrub rose after the leaves drop.
Cover the base of the shrub roses with 12 to 18 inches of hay or straw. This will protect the roots from winter kill caused by freezing and thawing during winter. Don’t cover the canes completely because if you do there is a greater chance of mold or fungus forming on them.
Winterize Knock Out Roses
As the bestselling rose in North America, Knock Out roses (Rosa radrazz) have encouraged countless amateur gardeners to grow what was otherwise considered a picky plant. Winterizing these roses used to be as simple as caring for them the rest of the year, but recent developments in rose plant diseases have changed the experts' advice for putting your Knock Out rosebushes to bed for the year. It seems to be the perfect home for rose rosette disease. When infected, formerly healthy plants produce snake-like bunches of bright red shoots. Rose rosette will gradually spread throughout the plant, killing off parts until the entire bush is dead. The method will depend on where you live. Wrap the canes together with synthetic twine to protect them. Loosen the soil around the plants' roots, and then use a garden fork to tip the plant into the trench. Mound about 12 inches of soil (removed from another part of your garden) around the bases of the plants.
- Cover the base of the shrub roses with 12 to 18 inches of hay or straw.
- Mound about 12 inches of soil (removed from another part of your garden) around the bases of the plants.
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Writer Bio
Sharon Sweeny has a college degree in general studies and worked as an administrative and legal assistant for 20 years before becoming a professional writer in 2008. She specializes in writing about home improvement, self-sufficient lifestyles and gardening.
