My Rose Tree made it through the winter !

You may remember I had a Rose tree for the first time last summer with gorgeous blooms.

When the fall came, I had two choices: bury the whole tree or dig it up and put it in a pot to overwinter in the garage.

Well, I have no garage, so my only option was to bury it and you can see how I did that in my blog about overwintering a rose tree. (remember it needs extra protection because the graft is about 4 feet off the ground!)

When the earth was warm enough (how does one know that? well a well-known gardener says that if you can sit  on the earth with your bare bum and not feel the cold, then it is warm enough)... Now I know my neighbours well, but not THAT well... so, I waited until I could scoop up handfuls of soil and my fingers did not freeze.

It was finally time to unbury the rose tree. We took off the layers of leaves, then carefully lifted the frost blanketed rose from beneath and stood it upright...  you will recall that we only dug behind the tree and did not dig it all the way out, so it stood up, unwrapped ! and behold the small stems were GREEN ! Hallelujah ! and there were tiny buds beginning.

Needless to say, I was overjoyed and thrilled.  My friend who put hers in the garage, was also thrilled hers survived as well and with a winter like the last one (worst 'they' say in 35  years) we are very lucky.

Here is the rose tree about a week ago.... You can see we have installed a weeping hose designed for the base of a tree.... we think it will keep it from drying out and help the water situation to be more consistent.

I will post more photos when it blooms again.... there are LOTS of buds.....

Is the Forsythia blooming?

It is early Spring... well, it is almost the middle of April and here in Ontario, there is still snow on some of my flower beds.  I am not too pleased about that... but we just finished holding our local Garden Show; an incredible amount of work that kept me from thinking about my gardens, still buried.

Today it is warm and the snow is reluctantly giving up.

I took a tour around  my gardens - finally could walk near them ... just a note of caution, DO NOT walk on the soil in your beds.  The frost is not completely out, and the top is moist and gushy.  When you walk on that, you compact the soil and those tiny wee roots that will be pushing out soon, are like hairs.  They cannot push through the soil if you tramp it down.  Sure, I know you are anxious, as am I, to get in there and clean up.... wait for a dryer day, or use a long-handled rake and BE GENTLE...

My roses are greening from the ground up... and I want to get out there  and start pruning off the dead wood.  But.... my neighbour's Forsythia is not in bloom.  What is the difference?  Well, as warm as today is, tonight, "they" are calling for temperatures dropping to below 0C.  If I start to prune today, those tender green stems could freeze.  If I wait and we have more freezing temperatures, the frost will hit those deadened ends and the green parts will still be okay.

My secateurs (really, my pruners, clippers or whatever I choose to call them on any given day) are sharp.  By the way.  Make sure yours are sharp enough to slice a piece of paper easily and use those
BY-PASS pruners... NOT anvil pruners.  Anvil pruners are better for dead wood as they can crush the stems.

There are some who say that if anvil pruners are sharp enough they will not crush the stems.  But if you are like me, and get busy over the season and forget to sharpen them often, you will have jagged ends and not clean cuts like by-pass pruners give.

Jagged cuts are an open invitation to disease and we surely do not want that.

So, wait till you see the Forsythia bloom, then prune your roses. 

Here is a site that shows you how.

www.lush-gardens.com

Sleeping roses...

Visually, my roses look like they are sleeping.  But I know from researching them, they are busily forming wee little roots beneath the snow and frost line.

There are some who say that March is a good time to prune roses.  I say not.

There are good reasons for pruning and they have to do with more than shape and size.  What  you cannot tell yet, is that some of the older canes (or branches)  may need to be cut back to near the ground. But you cannot tell if they are until the  'sap' begins to rise  up into the stems.  You can then tell by colour.  Darker green or brown indicates they are older.  That gorgeous spring light green, is usually a sign of a newer cane.

If you are not sure when to prune your roses, wait until the Forsythia (x intermedia) is in bloom.  For some reason, Nature has decided this is the best time. More later - but keep those secateurs in your pocket for now.

Overwintering a rose tree

I almost forgot about the poor  rose tree. Our fall has been so warm and lovely, and the rose tree still had green leaves into November.

This is the first year I have had a rose standard, or rose tree.  "They" graft a rose bush or plant to an older, stronger straight stem, so the "tree" is tall and stands above the rest of the garden, like this.

                            This one has two different roses on one standard... pretty glorious, huh?

I almost forgot to tell you the name of this rose tree.....it is from Weeks Roses (weeksroses.com) and they label it a "36 inch Twofer Tree".... The names of the roses are Brilliant Pink Iceberg (the light one) and the dark one is Burgundy Iceberg.  They are both Floribunda roses  meaning that there are several roses on one stem - they bloom in little bunches... see the bottom lower left ? there are three dark roses on one stem.

Well, to keep this tree beautiful, it needs a whole different type of overwintering.  Remember that in a colder climate like ours - zone 5, the bud union (where the lower stems meet the "trunk" that leads to the root.... needs to be planted a few inches  under the soil.  I try for 4 inches, but inevitably, the rain washes the soil away and I have to keep building it up.

This bud union is  high up off the ground.  You cannot see it in the photo but it is just above the bottom leaves....

In order to bury this below the earth for winter - otherwise it would freeze and die - you have a couple of options.... If you didn't plant it in the ground and put it in a pot on your patio, you can move it into an unheated garage.... wrap it but don't smother it or put plastic over it or it will create to much moisture around it which can then freeze.

If you put it in the garden, you could dig up the tree and put it in a large pot - and put it in the garage.... However, we know that roses hate to have their roots disturbed.... I have moved mine so many times, that I wonder if this is true, but the experts say it is.  So something to think about  if you do this.

The other option, is to dig a trench and bury it.

Easier said than done... but when we planted this, left enough room along the left side for us to do this.

I pruned all the branches back to one out-facing bud so that the small limbs would not be bent or broken in this manoeuvre.

Being careful of not disturbing too much root, we dug a deep hole behind it (in the direction we were planning to lay it down) and as it got deeper, it was then (sort of) easy to tip it over on its side.....We put a frost blanket ( a porous piece of fabric) under and over it so that when we dig it up in the spring, we would not be injuring the tender bark.

We extended the hole to make a long trench. ... long enough to bury it.  We covered it with earth we took from pots, a bag of sea compost and hilled it up over the tree... covered the mound with lots of leaves,  some more earth to hold it all in place and them more leaves.

As this is the first  year we have done this, we shall see in the spring if we did enough.

The rose garden in winter...

Sometimes I am very sad that my garden season has ended... but when it is time for Christmas, I  am somewhat gladdened.

Here are some of the things I did to put my gardens to sleep this fall.

First, I begged bags of leaves from my neighbours.  Nice crisp maple leaves.... I think I ended up with 15 or 16 bags.  I pounded in long wooden stakes into the ground and fastened a length of burlap to the stakes.  Backed by the Spirea hedge, the rose garden would be well protected for winter.

Roses don't like to be hilled up until there has been at least one frost... a hard frost is best... meaning the upper inch or few centimetres is hard.  As long as the stems are still green, there are nutrients in them that need to be sucked back into the roots to nourish them for winter.

Even after a hard frost, there will still be green, but at least the ground will not be too warm to hill up around the roses.  The warmth around the base of the stems is a great place for mice and other small rodents to nest and what tastier morsels than yummy green bark in those long hungry months.... then in the spring, when those nasty wee  beasties are fat, your roses are suffering.  So wait as long as you can, then cuddle up, and go and hill those roses  up.

You can use the earth you dump out of pots, compost is good or any soil you have.  Just don't take soil from around the rose itself.... you could damage the roots.

After they are hilled up, dump all the leaves on top - even if  you have a foot of leaves, how cozy they will be.

The idea is not to keep the roots warm as it may appear... but to keep the ground around them consistently frozen.  It is that freeze, thaw, freeze thaw in both the early winter and late winter - or early spring that is so deadly.... when it thaws, the rose thinks, aha,  I should send green out.... and then comes another frost, and kills the tender shoots.  So, all this is to keep them frozen... another reason to wait till a  hard frost before doing all this.

Sure, it is cold, and fingers and toes get frigid, but at least you can go inside when done... it is worth doing it right.  See how lovely it looks?  Snow blossoms.

Have you ever moved a "Fairy"?

I think "The Fairy" rose is such a stunning rose for any garden.  It is so easy to grow, so forgiving and so gorgeous.  It blooms from early June to late in the fall.  Here it is in late October and still in bloom...

So, imagine having to move this spreading bush, that in spite of its massive blooms, has even more thorns.  Mine was about 6 feet wide and almost 4 feet tall. I think it is not impressed by being moved.
This is the third time I have moved this rose - from house to house and finally it would now be in its permanent spot.



We came up with the idea that wrapping it might work, and it did.  Here is How We did it...

I took a large roll of clinging plastic wrap that movers use to wrap furniture.  Starting at the bottom, I wrapped the bush rather tightly, pulling in all the spreading branches, but also being careful not to break them.

Here it is below- wrapped, which made it so much easier to dig up.  Notice there are not many spreading roots…. This is because I transplanted it only the  previous  Fall and it had only one summer to grow in rather poor soil. As a tenant, I was not prepared to replace all the soil  in this borrowed garden, but I did add compost and fertilizer.

Because it had to be transported in the backseat of my car, I wrapped the roots in plastic.

Here it is with the roots wrapped in plastic.




And.....

All safely tucked into the car for the long drive to the new garden.  I say this with tongue-in-cheek as the ‘new’ house was literally around the corner from this one.

We love this neighbourhood so didn't want to move far!

Here it is planted in its new - and last - home.  The previous Fall, when we moved it from the last garden a medium sized piece broke off from this one so it too, got planted.  At least, no flowers or leaves fell off in the process.

Below you can see the largest piece on the right, and the smaller piece that broke off, to the left of the Japanese Maple.  There are Iris, Lungwort, Monk's Hood, Phlox and a Pee Gee Standard Hydrangea in the corner.

The Mysterious Peony

THE MYSTERIOUS PEONY:



That same week, I moved more plants.

Among those still in pots, was a ‘sort of Peony’ - I say, sort of, because when I bought it on our Master Gardener’s trip to Montreal (at a nursery in the middle of nowhere) I saw only the tag and I fell in love with the colour. It was less than $30.00.
I am not sure why, but I neglected to write down the type or name. Then, when it came time to plant it in its new home, there stuffed down under the earth, was the tag.

                                             This is what it looks like. Isn't it glorious?

It is an Itoh, or Intersectional Peony.  Its name is ‘Cora Louise’ and  has the best traits of both the herbaceous peony and the sturdy stems of the tree peony.   Until lately, its price was in the thousands of dollars but in the last few years, most gardeners who love peonies,  were able to find one for around $100.  My, was I lucky !

This peony is listed on many sites as ‘rare’.  Its gorgeous blooms are stunning and once it is established, it will bloom for longer than a traditional peony.
             
          You can find out more if you search on the net for Itoh peonies.

Here it is in early bloom -nestled behind the Fairy rose (in bud in front) and the Japanese Maple

I like to have other  flowering plants among the roses for several reasons.  One is that some roses get leggy and reach for the sky, showing off at the top of the branches and leaving the lower ones rather naked.  This Peony has gorgeous foliage that stays crisp and green until late fall and hides some of the taller roses behind it.