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.