When to spud roses for the winter. How to properly cover roses for the winter - tips from experienced flower growers: how to do it - methods, materials, timing and methods

Country cheat sheet No. 8: “When to cover roses for the winter in autumn?”

The October issues of magazines for gardeners and gardeners are literally full of notes on the topic preparing plants for winter : pruning flowers and raspberries, cleaning perennials for storage, whitewashing trees, winter crops… autumn the summer resident has no less worries than in the summer. And if they grow on the site roses- it's time to think about shelter for the winter for them. All important information about when is the best time to cover roses for the winter , we have combined in one article. It turned out to be a very informative country cheat sheet, which, we hope, will be useful to both us and you 😉

Preparing roses for winter
It's time to cover the roses! Deadlines for Middle lane(including the Moscow region), the Urals and Siberia.
Auspicious dates for Lunar calendar for October and November 2018.
Fatal errors in the shelter of roses.
Features of the shelter of standard roses.
How to cover roses if only stumps were left during pruning.

Preparing roses for winter

top dressing

From mid-August, it is necessary to finish feeding roses with nitrogen fertilizers, reduce or completely stop watering (depending on the weather). Starting from August, only phosphorus-potassium supplements are used in the rose garden. In autumn, on the eve of wintering, roses need potassium-phosphorus fertilizers. They help to restrain growth, contribute to the maturation of lignification of wood (lignification of shoots) and increase cold resistance. Fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus can be applied from the end of August. Suitable superphosphate, potassium sulfate, ash, as well as special complex "autumn" top dressing. If the autumn turned out to be long and warm, it is not too late to do the final feeding in the 2nd decade of October (if you didn’t have time in September). In addition, in the second mid-September, it is necessary to stop digging and loosening the soil between the bushes, their formation, so as not to cause the development of shoots from dormant buds.

The scheme of strengthening feeding of roses in preparation for winter:

The first top dressing is made in mid-August. Dissolve in 10 liters of water: 25 g of superphosphate, 10 g of potassium sulfate, 2.5 g boric acid. The solution is applied under the root at the rate of 2 liters per 1 square meter.
The second feeding is done in September. Dissolve in 10 liters of water: 15 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium sulfate. Or you can use the complex "Autumn" mineral fertilizer.

* For foliar top dressing, the dosage is reduced by 3 times.

Pruning shoots

More recently, flower growers were of the opinion that in autumn rose bushes should certainly be cut, leaving stumps of about 30 cm, with 5-7 buds on the shoot. Now another technique is common: in the fall, the branches are bent to the ground, securely fixing them, and then covered for the winter. Pruning is carried out in a sparing mode, as needed: dry, diseased and very old, inflexible branches that prevent shelter, as well as unripe shoots of wen are cut out. It is believed that autumn pruning robs the plant of strength, requires huge costs for their restoration. Bushes uncut in autumn endure winter better, and in spring they begin to grow faster and bloom earlier.

In autumn, it is advisable to cut branches if they interfere with shelter and can break when trying to bend them down. Pruning is done only to the height of the shelter, adjusted for the variety (there is a difference in pruning climbing, hybrid tea roses, etc.).

It is better to prune roses in the middle - end of October., until the frosts descended, but the main heat is already behind. You should not rush with pruning, otherwise the buds will wake up, and the shoots will start growing again. Cuts on thick branches are useful to process garden pitch, and thin ones are green.

The main pruning is carried out in the spring, according to the results of wintering, after the removal of shelters,

Leaf pruning

Until late autumn, when it is time to prepare shelters, some varieties of roses are green and even bloom. If you leave everything as it is, during the winter, most likely, they will rot (and this will adversely affect the health of the entire plant).

Late October - early November(already after the first frost) the leaves must be removed, leaving no petioles. At the same time, the remaining flowers, ovaries and unripe shoots are cut off. Pruning is conveniently done with a small pruner or scissors. You should start from the bottom of the branches, gradually moving towards the tops.

If there is a lot of foliage and its removal becomes too time-consuming, you can get by with a little:

Before shelter, treat the bushes with any copper-containing fungicide, following the recommendations on the package.
Free from the leaves at least the base of the branches so that the bush is well ventilated, and then spray with any antifungal drug(with copper in the composition) or a 3% solution of iron sulfate.

Treatment before shelter

After gentle pruning and removal of leaves, bushes are usually treated with fungicide solutions to prevent the spread of rot. In addition to the above funds (copper content preparations, iron sulfate), it is recommended to use a 3% solution of Bordeaux mixture.

Should roses be planted for the winter?

The question is again controversial, here rose growers have two opinions:

Hilling rose bushes will protect them in frosty, snowless winters. In this case, the hill will be useful.
The base of the hilled bushes rots, so the hill will only do harm.

Conclusion: everyone chooses for himself whether to spud or not.

It is definitely worth abandoning hilling if the site itself is damp or the autumn turned out to be rainy, and the soil turned out to be oversaturated with moisture. In this case, hilling even a pre-prepared dry soil mixture will be redundant. It is advisable to carry out an okuchka if the autumn turned out to be dry, slightly frosty. Suitable option mixtures for hilling roses for the winter: dry and loose ripened compost with sand and peat. Do not use clean peat and sand - they gain moisture, and sawdust - rot.

Important! Standard roses need hilling in a mandatory order (about the features of their shelter - later in the text).

Shelter of roses for the winter: Optimal timing

After pre-training, with the onset of favorable weather, roses are ready for shelter for the winter! Question: when does this readiness come? So, the sources we analyzed say:

- cover roses you can start in the first decade of October (newspaper "AiF. In the country" ). While the weather is still warm enough, the shoots remain plastic, bend more easily (on frosty days, the shoots become brittle and brittle). The branches are bent and fixed in a horizontal position with metal pegs. Thick branches can be bent down gradually, in several steps. At the same time, shelter frames are being installed. Finally, roses cover in late October - early November, after the onset of persistent cold weather (and even light frosts), but before snowfall. At the final stage, the installed frames are covered with spunbond. Important! It is impossible to lay roses directly on the ground: there should be a gap between the surface of the soil and the shoots for ventilation, and one and a half liter plastic bottles or thick foam are placed as a “gasket”.

- Do not rush to cover ( magazine "Flower"). Roses should be thoroughly insulated on frozen ground, and it is better to prepare for this in advance - to start bend branches before frost (from mid-September). Roses are quite cold-resistant and easily endure light autumn frosts without shelter. Let the rains pass and begin to set sub-zero temperatures- then you can finally cover the roses with non-woven materials.

— Warm shelters for roses, it must be installed after the autumn frosts grab the ground or shortly before this moment - no earlier than November ("Homestead newspaper" ). A hasty shelter (at temperatures from zero and above) is fraught with the fact that the plants will begin to rot, the humidity rises, which creates favorable conditions for the development of fungal infections.

These terms can be applied both for the Middle Strip (including the Moscow region), and for the Urals and Siberia, since it is more worth relying on weather conditions, weather forecasts, and temperature indicators.

Favorable days according to the lunar calendar-2018

In October In 2018, astrologers recommend pruning and sheltering roses:

14th, 19th, 22nd, 27th, 28th and 31st.

According to the calendar from the magazine "Plant farming".

Not auspicious days for trimming in October:

October 9, 17, 18, 19, 24 (days of New Moon, Full Moon, Moon in the sign of Aquarius).

In November 2018 favorable days for sheltering roses for the winter:

1, 3, 17, 18, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 November.

Unfavorable days for pruning in November:

November 7, 14, 15, 23 (days of New Moon, Full Moon, Moon in the sign of Aquarius).

According to the calendar from the magazine "My Favorite Dacha".

7 mistakes in preparing roses for winter

1. Early cover. If you thoroughly cover the roses at temperatures above zero, there is a great danger that the bushes will soak and become easy prey for fungal infections. In early autumn - from mid-September - until the branches are frozen and bend well, you can begin to bend them to the ground. And it is better to start warming on frozen soil, not earlier than the end of October.

2. Bend branches in frosty weather can be dangerous. Frosts make the shoots brittle and brittle. The bark may crack, resulting in wounds that will become a gateway for different kind infections. It is recommended to start bending the branches in mid-September, and it is better to do it gradually, fixing the horizontal slope with metal pegs. It is convenient to use barbecue skewers for this - they "like clockwork" enter the ground, and it is easy to tie twine to the tip.

3. Early pruning of unripened shoots, while it is still warm, stimulates the active formation of new ones. It turns out monkey work. It is advised to prune unripened shoots (as well as leaves and remaining ovaries) only after the first frost (usually in the 3rd decade of October). In general, flower growers today agree that in the fall it is not necessary to carry out fork pruning; it is enough to remove old and diseased branches, and also selectively shorten them if they are difficult to cover.

4. Garter of roses with ropes from natural materials dangerous because during the winter it accumulates moisture and rots. Polypropylene twine is more suitable for this.

5. Sending roses under cover, you can not leave leaves on them. They will rot, the bushes will not be ventilated - all this opens the way for infections. In the second half of October, the leaves are cut with secateurs or, gently running hands in gardening gloves along the trunk, shake off the foliage. Attention! Rose leaves cannot be used in a shelter, they must certainly be removed from under the bush.

6. It is not worth lowering branches of roses on bare ground or film. It is desirable that it be dry under the branches. Bending down the shoots in front of the shelter, you can build a "platform" under them from plastic bottles or foam.

7. Ruberoid or polyethylene film not very good as a covering material. Metal tanks and buckets are also better not to use. It is best to cover roses for the winter with dense lutrasil or spunbond, throwing them over a frame made of metal rods or chain-link mesh. It turns out a cozy mini-greenhouse.

How to cover roses if you had to cut them short in the fall

In the event that it was necessary to carry out a short pruning in the fall (in the old fashioned way), leaving stumps 30-40 cm high, it is advised to do this:

After pruning (usually after the first frost, in the first decade of October), treat the bushes with a 3% solution of Bordeaux liquid.
Spud plantings with a dry soil mixture to a height of 20-25 cm, covering the horse's neck.
Leave the roses to harden until the beginning of November.
In the first decade of November, in dry weather, you can start warming. You do not need to bend anything, because the roses are cut short.

Ways to cover cut roses:

- The easiest way to cover roses cut in autumn is with spruce branches with a layer of at least 10-15 cm.

- The air-dry method of shelter is more often used (it is the most reliable): Build a frame over the bushes and cover it with hydro-thermal insulation material.

- Separate bushes can be insulated in this way: tie the branches of the bush together, surround it with a chain-link mesh in the form of a fence (diameter 30-50 cm). Fill the space between the bush and the mesh with soil mixture. Wrap the structure on top with spunbond in 2 layers. Straw, manure, hay moss are not suitable as insulation materials, as they absorb moisture and can provoke decay.

Features of the shelter of a standard rose

The main difficulty is to correctly determine the side of the slope, because the trunk at the grafting site is easy to break. An interesting comparison is given in an article on the shelter of standard roses in the Dacha newspaper:

You need to imagine that the fingers in a clenched fist are a bump at the site of vaccination, and the trunk is a thumb. trunk, like thumb hands, should easily lie on the bump. The scheme clearly conveys this essence:

Procedure

A small hole is dug around the trunk, very carefully so as not to hurt root system.
The trunk is bent gradually, allowing it to get used to the new position. They bent - waited a couple of days, and so on, until the plant takes a horizontal position.
The hole is dug in, the base is covered with a dry soil mixture.
It is useful to put something hard under the barrel (a log or a plastic bottle) as a support for the barrel so that it does not break under the weight of snow.
The horizontal position is fixed with polypropylene twine, tying it to a metal peg.
Under the crown of a standard rose and on it, you can put spruce branches or dry oak leaves.
It would be useful to spray the plants with a solution of iron sulfate and put poison inside the shelter for mice who like to visit pink shelters in winter and feast on plantings.
In conclusion, they arrange an air-dry shelter for the entire plant as a whole, warming the stem as well. A dense lutrasil or spunbond is thrown on top. It is better to refuse shelter with a film or roofing material.
If there is little snow in winter, it must be additionally thrown. The main insulation for roses is snow.

We hope that we really managed to collect the maximum information on the topic in this country cheat sheet, and it turned out to be useful for you. Write reviews, share your experience in the comments, we will be glad! 😉

A delicate flower not only protects itself with thorns. For all its external fragility, the plant turns out to be a real fighter, it can survive even the first frosts with dignity. It is because of this stability that gardeners are always advised to what temperature roses can be left uncovered, and how to avoid the most common mistakes. At what temperature to cover roses for the winter, read right now.

When to cover roses for the winter

Under cover, roses can withstand long-term drops in temperature even to -30 without snow, and without it they freeze already at -12, especially hybrid tea. So when is the best time to hide? Even professionals often give the wrong answer to this question for beginners.

It is generally accepted that roses should be covered when the temperature is set at -5 ... -7 o. Many still firmly believe that frosts will not only not damage roses, but rather harden them before wintering. These tips were born when there were no non-woven breathable materials yet and they were covered in the old fashioned way - a spud plus spruce branches. With this method, early packed roses could simply soak at positive temperatures, but now it is no longer necessary to wait for frost. Lutrasil transmits light, air and retains heat, smoothing out the difference between day and night temperatures. Weather late autumn unpredictable, you can’t guess what will happen: a small minus (-5o), at which open roses will not suffer, or suddenly -12o- and they will immediately freeze.

Therefore, it is necessary to cut and cover the bushes from October 15th. By this time, the vegetation of the roses stops, they begin to enter a state of dormancy. But it is quite possible to start this business earlier, for example, from October 1. Practice has shown that early shelter does not harm in any way. On the contrary, roses ripen in greater comfort.

Preparing roses for winter

Experienced gardeners know that leaving roses open for the winter is not worth it. By spring, they may die completely or be injured from frost. Which roses need to be covered for the winter, in what way, each gardener decides individually, based on personal experience. But preparatory work start early when lush bloom roses are pleasing to the eye. It is necessary to carry out planned activities from the middle of summer, so that the bush gain strength and be able to successfully winter:

Stop making complex and organic fertilizers and switch to potassium and phosphorus;
The last top dressing is carried out in mid-September, when potassium magnesia is scattered under the bushes to strengthen the roots.

Autumn pruning of roses

Rose pruning is compulsory procedure, which must be carried out with all roses, except climbing ones. There are several types of pruning:

light shaping pruning. With such pruning, you just need to slightly shorten the shoots, leaving about two-thirds of them. The cut must be made with sharp scissors or secateurs, always at an acute angle about one and a half centimeters above the kidney, which grows outward;
medium cut. Such pruning can be done with any rose bushes that have been growing with you for more than a year. The rules are the same as for forming pruning - an acute angle, a cut above the kidney, the kidney should grow outward;
strong rejuvenating pruning. Such pruning should be carried out with plants that are five or more years old. This is an excellent anti-aging agent for rose bushes, it stimulates flowering, shoot growth, helps roses to overwinter easily and promotes good growth. With this method, stumps about 12-15 cm from the ground remain from the bush.

Pruning roses in the fall for beginners can sometimes seem like something difficult. This is not true at all - if you do not know how to prune your roses properly, shorten their shoots by half. With this option, you will form a crown, and rejuvenate your bush, and prepare it for cold winter. Medium pruning for beginners is a win-win.

Autumn processing of roses

Bush processing protective equipment carried out only after all the leaves have been disposed of. If flowers remain on the shoots, only the petals are removed, and the boxes are left. If they are cut off, the plant regards this as a signal for the activity of nearby buds. If the autumn is warm, they have time to germinate and die with the onset of frost. And that means they freeze. That is why those varieties that are not pruned for the winter are freed from leaves, but the fruits are not touched.

Many gardeners try to choose disease-resistant roses, but even they should be protected from possible diseases. Even if your yard is perfectly groomed, danger can come from a neighboring garden or from wild plantings. That is why you should not rely on chance and treat roses from infection. Especially if there are obvious symptoms of the disease. Autumn spraying with fungicides will not allow pathogens to survive until spring. This way you can avoid spreading it.

For this, both long-tested and modern drugs are used.

One of the most famous substances for autumn processing Roses are iron sulphate. For autumn spraying of roses, a solution is prepared from 300 g of the substance and 10 liters of water (3% solution). The treatment is carried out after complete dissolution of the crystals.

inkstone can only be diluted in glass, plastic or enameled containers. In metal containers, chemical reaction with the release of harmful iron oxide. When working with the drug, precautions must be observed for means of the third hazard class.

Articles for flower growers

Hilling roses before shelter for the winter

After pruning the mature shoots of roses, regardless of species, the hilling procedure is carried out. Hilling roses is carried out with the aim of:

protect plants from cracking at the base of the stem;
additionally warm the roots of the plant;
protect the lower buds of plants from frost, which are on next year form new young shoots. Read also the article: → "Do I need to dig up roses for the winter."

Spud roses with loose compost, peat substrate and nutrient garden soil. It is not recommended to spud roses with materials such as shavings, sawdust, hay and straw. These materials often lead to decay of the basal neck of the bush, and are also a favorable environment for the propagation of fungal diseases.

The dependence of the method of insulation on the type of flowers

Park Rose. It tolerates frost well, and therefore there is no need for shelter. However, seedlings or young bushes are best insulated. ground cover rose. This species does not require special care.
floribunda. The bushes are cut in half, leaving a maximum height of 40 cm, the leaves are removed. Then spud and cover with improvised materials. miniature rose. Small ones are spudded, covered with dry foliage and insulation, and a frame is installed on top of them. On top of metal arcs or wooden boxes stretch the film, strengthen the ends.

Climbing rose. The stems are twisted into bundles, thick shoots are carefully pinned with wire so that they do not touch the ground, and laid on dry foliage or needles, sprinkled with the same layer of insulation on top and covered with polyethylene or synthetic fiber. Bush rose. The bush rose must be shortened and sprinkled with prepared earth with a layer of 30 cm. In this case, the entire gap must be filled. The vaccine should be hidden under a seven-centimeter layer. Tea-hybrid rose. The best method of protection would be an air-dry shelter. standard rose. Apply air-dry shelter.

The first thing to do to protect roses is to spud all the bushes until the moment when frosts begin at night and the temperature drops below -3 ° C. If these frosts have already been noted, then hilling roses is prohibited. Otherwise, it will cause the plants to die. In such a situation, it is only allowed to use air-dry shelters to protect spray roses in winter.

Before hilling, it is necessary to remove all leaves from the lower parts of the shoots and spray them with Bordeaux or Burgundy liquid (its 1-2% solution is used).

It is necessary to start hilling in mid-September (in the northwestern part of Russia) with such land in which there are no residues of inorganic origin that have not decomposed. The size of the bushes directly affects the height of earthen mounds. If the roses are undersized, then they are spud up to 10 centimeters in height, if they are tall, then up to 35 centimeters.

In order not to accidentally expose the root system of plants, you can not take the land that is located next to the bushes. You need to bring it from somewhere else. In the spring, after rocking out, this land is used to sprinkle the soil around each bush, and this must be done once a year.

In the event that there is no land of the required quality, there is the option of hilling needles with sawdust, sand or peat. But the results from the use of such materials will be worse. If hilling is carried out early, this will not affect the development of plants and their decorative effect. Their normal vegetative growth and flowering continues.

After the steady cold begins, and the earth freezes up to 6 centimeters deep, the roses are completely covered. Before starting it, the tops of all shoots are cut off with a pruner so that the resulting hemp can be completely covered with insulation material. If the bushes are tall, then they are cut at a height of 25 cm from the level of the soil itself, and for undersized bushes - in accordance with the length that their shoots have.

If pruning is carried out in autumn, then the work of sheltering roses becomes much easier, and this is in contrast to the previously used practice, when the shoots were bent to the ground and pinned. Today, the previously existing opinion that cut roses do not winter well has been completely refuted.

Also, pruning in the fall helps to heal plants if they are affected by fungi, since spores of wintering mushrooms are also removed along with the harvested shoots.

Those leaves that remain after pruning on the shoots must be completely removed and taken out of the rose garden, and then destroyed if they are already affected by diseases. If the shoots of plants are healthy, then they are used in order to propagate plants.

It is necessary to carefully sweep away the snow that has already fallen on the frozen ground, and proceed to the actual shelter of the plants. If the shelter takes place using peat or leaves, then it is necessary to first spread the spruce branches around all the bushes so that the needles “look” outward and prevent all kinds of rodents from penetrating the roses. If the plants are insulated with pine needles, such protection with spruce branches is not required, since the sawdust is very prickly, and mice cannot make moves in them.

It is necessary to pour materials for insulation on previously hilled bushes so that there is an elevation in the center, and melt water flows calmly from such a shelter.

The outer border of the shelter should be behind the bushes at a distance of up to 60 centimeters. This is very important when, in a harsh, little snowy winter, it is necessary to protect the roots of roses from freezing.

After the plants are covered, it is necessary to immediately cover the material for insulation with a film. To prevent it from being blown away, be sure to press all the edges with the help of rails and other heavy objects. When laying the film, you must be careful and make sure that not a single stump sticks out above the insulation material. Otherwise, they will pierce the film when it settles under the load of snow that has fallen on it.

If there are such hemp, then they should be cut off or another layer of material for insulation should be placed. The film can be replaced by another material that is moisture resistant - roofing felt, roofing material or otherwise. It is important that the insulation material is completely dry until spring. It is on this that the successful preservation of roses depends.

The thickness of the protection layer depends on how thermally conductive the protection material is, what the weather is like at the beginning of winter, and where the rose garden is located.

If sawdust is used for insulation, then it is necessary to take into account the level of humidity. If sawdust was obtained in the process of sawing wood that was damp, then they contain a lot of water. Their ability to retain heat is half that of those that are completely dry. If a 30-cm layer of sawdust is poured, and it is -30 ° C outside, then a temperature of 1.5 ° C will remain in the upper level of the soil.

If the sawdust is raw, then in order to maintain exactly the same temperature, a layer twice as large is required. If the winter is initially snowy and warm, then in order to protect the roses, you only need to pour 15 centimeters of dry sawdust. If the weather is frosty and there is little snow, then the thickness of the poured layer should be increased to 30 centimeters. If the winter is windy, then exactly the same layer is needed for protection.

If the roses are covered with sawdust and film, then they should overwinter well. Under them, a stable soil temperature is maintained throughout the winter, and in the spring it rises extremely slowly, when the air and the earth are already actively warmed up by the sun. This helps the roses stay dormant until the night frost has passed.

It is advisable to use dry and fibrous peat for shelter. It must be prepared in advance and dried well. All this is done in the summer. In no case should you use raw or, especially, wet peat. It is very important that the shelter is protected from water. The thickness of the layer depends on the weather and where the rose garden is located.

It is very easy and affordable to use leaves to protect roses in winter. If applied correctly, they will protect the bushes very well from possible cooling. Any leaves are used for covering, but oak leaves are best. Harvesting occurs when it is warm and sunny. Before direct use, you need to store them in heaps that are reliably protected from rain.

In no case should you cover with wet leaves. They will settle under their own weight and compress so that they will not let air through. The layer of leaves should be 30 centimeters if the beginning of winter is snowy, and if there is no snow, but very coldy up to 50 centimeters. A layer of such a large thickness is needed due to the strong subsidence of the leaves and the partial loss of their ability to retain heat.

A very responsible job is to remove all shelters from roses in the spring. If roses are hilled, then they winter well, provided that frost holes are formed above the level at which hilling was carried out. But very often in autumn the wind sways the shoots, and holes in the form of funnels appear in the mounds, which are not always visible. In this case, frost holes may well appear below, and the safety of the bushes will be under serious threat.

When warm days come (April, end of March), it is necessary to remove snow from all shelters. Next, you should remove the film, then, when it completely thaws at the edges, it should not be under the sun for a long time. If you remove it in time, it will last a very long time. It is very important that the water vapors that are formed during the heating of the shelter freely go outside.

After the mounds have thawed, you need to immediately unravel the bushes so that if there are frost holes, all the ice can thaw and all damaged tissues dry out. To do this, the bushes are opened so that air can pass freely, and they are closed with insulation material only when there is a possibility that the temperature may drop to -5 ° C.

If there are no freezer shoots from below, then the bushes should be left a little hilled - the earth will not harm the plants.

At the very end of April, it is necessary to unwind all the roses, and remove all materials for insulation from the rose garden, leaving only a small amount of them. This period can be characterized by slight frosts at night. New shoots feel very good negative temperatures. All it takes is a slight frost to kill them. That is why, if there is a possibility of matinees, you need to protect the bushes with materials specially designed for this. Completely the material for insulation is removed only in mid-May.

Peat and sawdust can be used several times. They should be stored in a place that is protected from rain, and specially dried if they become damp during the winter. But, if the roses were affected by the fungus, then the materials cannot be reused.

A good wintering of plants is the key to a beautiful garden in the coming season. Rose needs the most comfortable conditions winter sleep. We tell you how to hide rose bushes right.

How to prepare roses for winter

Of course, the best covering material for roses in winter is snow. All additional measures are taken in his absence. If you know from experience that the winter months in your area are frosty, but with little snow, it is imperative to cover roses for the winter

1. Adjust the feeding regimen

How well roses tolerate winter temperatures depends on the maturity of the shoots. Naturally, young branches will die in severe frosts, so it is not worth stimulating their growth at the end of the season.

In August, stop applying nitrogen fertilizers. At the end of the season, roses need potassium-phosphorus top dressing, which will strengthen the root system of the plant.

To understand whether roses are ready for wintering, you can by the color of the branches. The red hue of the shoots indicates active growth. Mature shoots turn green.

2. Adjust watering

In summer, roses need regular abundant watering, but in the fall it must be stopped. Otherwise, the bush will be weakened and overwinter badly.

3. Pinch off the shoots

In late August - early September, pinch the tops of all young shoots to stop their growth. When autumn is in full swing, it may be too late to do this.

4. Stop loosening

Starting in September, stop loosening the soil in the trunk circles. It can wake up dormant buds. As a result, the plant will be highly vulnerable to severe frosts.

5. Trim

In the second half of September, when the morning frosts begin, you can start pruning roses. First of all, it is necessary to remove all remaining buds, cut out weak, unripened shoots growing in the middle of the bush.

Also, in late October - early November, all leaves from the bush are removed and burned. Firstly, it is necessary for the prevention of black spot and other fungal diseases. Secondly, the leaves under cover can rot and infect the entire plant with rot.

Formative pruning is carried out depending on the type of rose. hybrid tea roses and floribunda roses are cut to the middle of the bush. pruning climbing roses depends on which group the plants belong to - climbers or ramblers. All about the differences between them can be found in our article: Everything you need to know about climbing roses.

How to prune roses in the garden?

Revealing secrets correct pruning roses of different types.

6. Treat the bushes

In order not to give a chance to the fungus, it is advisable to treat the bare bushes with iron sulphate or a ready-made fungicide. Fungicides are diluted according to the instructions on the package. Iron vitriol is used in the proportion of 300 g of the product per 10 liters of water (3% solution).

7. Spud the bush

Make sure the rose grafting site is below ground level. If it is bare, spud the bush. It is advisable to use ready-made peat soil for these purposes.

However, if frequent thaws occur in your climate in winter and sleet with rain is not uncommon, the rose may begin to rot and rot. Hilling roses in such conditions is possible only if they are planted on a slope, and the water near the bush does not stagnate for a long time.

8. Bend down the shoots of climbing roses

For the winter, the stems of climbing roses must be transferred to a horizontal position. Even if in last years they hibernated vertically, without shelter, you still risk leaving them on a support.

If the shoots are thick, there is a chance that they will break. Such plants bend down gradually, over several weeks. Every week lower the shoot down, fixing it until it touches the ground.

Even without further shelter, the likelihood of a rose overwintering well under snow is much higher than in open frost and harsh February sun.

Do not lay shoots on bare ground. When the snow melts, the plant can rot. Use as a layer wooden planks or a piece of styrofoam.

9. Don't rush to cover

Without additional insulation, roses can withstand temperatures down to -10ºС. Growers living in warmer regions cover their roses only in December. As a rule, the most optimal time to shelter the bushes - the end of November, when the thermometer is set at around 0ºС. The main thing is to catch the moment before a lot of snow falls.

10. Install the arcs

Covering roses for the winter means creating a layer of air between the plant and environment. The larger the air cushion, the more reliable protection and less risk of rose rotting. Therefore, it is desirable to install the shelter on arcs. Accordingly, it is easier to cover roses growing in group plantings than single plants.