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.....
