Shelter Roses For The Winter

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part. ← Types and rules for pruning roses

How to properly cover roses for the winter

Spray roses

Shelter of roses is a very important and responsible event; not only health, appearance and flowering time, but also the very life of roses depend on its correct implementation.

In most cases, roses die precisely in winter, and not so much from frost, but from damping off and being affected by diseases, due to improper shelter.

Very often, an unsuccessful shelter and the death of roses in winter lead to the fact that gardeners completely refuse to grow roses and deprive themselves of great joy and beauty.

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But it is not very difficult to cover roses, you just need to understand what the winter hardiness of roses depends on, from which the rose dies in winter, and how to prevent this, to maintain the correct timing of shelter and disclosure of plants.

Recently, when creating new varieties of roses, much attention has been paid to winter hardiness and their resistance to unfavorable conditions, sometimes even to the detriment of the size of the flower and the degree of doubleness. In Germany, such roses are marked with the ADR sign, but the indicated winter hardiness and resistance of these roses does not mean at all that they will winter with us without shelter.

For the wintering of a particular rose in specific conditions, its age and condition, damage from diseases, the weather of the past summer and autumn are very important. The possibility of wintering roses under one or another shelter is greatly influenced by the weather of the coming winter (thickness of snow cover, temperature, presence of thaws, etc.), which cannot be foreseen. But it is necessary to cover the roses so that the shelter does not harm them under any weather conditions. It is necessary to take into account local conditions: the type of soil, illumination at the planting site, the possibility of stagnant water there, the neighborhood of buildings, etc.

By weighing all these factors, the gardener must decide which roses to grow and how to cover them. Truly winter-hardy we have only species roses - rose hips and their garden forms and varieties, mainly varieties of wrinkled roses (rugosa), which belong to the group of park roses. But even they can freeze over in frosty years to the level of snow and winter reliably when ducking. Low ground cover roses can also winter without shelter. Roses of other groups need a mandatory shelter.

Shelter dates for roses

There is considerable disagreement about the timing of shelter in the literature, but most agree that one should not rush to shelter roses, and they need to be sheltered when stable cold weather sets in -5 … -6 ° С, and according to some data, -8 … -10 ° С … However, in the Leningrad region, this approach is not applicable, since the weather in late autumn and early winter is very unstable, low negative temperatures are replaced by positive ones and, while waiting for stable cold weather to establish, you can skip the optimal time for sheltering roses.

High humidity, frequent rains and wet snow do not allow keeping the rose garden dry, and you cannot cover raw roses with foil. On the other hand, under an air-dry shelter, with sufficient ventilation through the left air vents, the rose feels good at any temperature above or below zero. Covering with spruce branches and non-woven material (spunbond) also does not affect the condition of the roses.

Why, then, can not the roses be covered early, for example, in early October, in dry weather? This cannot be done because the roses are pruned before the shelter, and in prolonged warm weather, early pruning causes the dormant buds to germinate. With further wintering, young shoots will freeze, rot, decay can be transmitted to the neck, and the rose can die. Thus, the timing of the shelter should be determined by the timing of the autumn pruning of roses.

Through long-term observations, it was found that when pruning roses in late October - early November, no germination occurs in St. Petersburg. Periods of warm weather at this time are short, and frosts always begin in November. Therefore, the optimal time for sheltering roses is late October - early November. It is advisable to shelter in dry weather before snow falls.

Preparing roses for winter

Hybrid tea rose Limbo

About a month before the shelter, you need to start preparing roses for winter. Rosaries need to be cleaned of weeds and summer plants growing next to roses, you can spud them at this time (cover the base of the bushes with earth, sand). Do not spud with peat, humus, fallen leaves. Early hilling prevents frost cracks from forming in the lower part of the bush, where they are most dangerous.

Hilling after the onset of frost can lead to the penetration of infection from the ground through frost holes, the development of diseases with further shelter and the death of plants. To prevent diseases in winter, especially "infectious burn", before hilling, I paint the lower part of the stems and forks to the level of hilling or slightly higher, as well as all defects on the shoots with water-based paint with the addition of copper oxychloride.

It is better to use a special garden paint, but you can use any paint. In no case should you prune the roses at this time, as this can cause the growth of new shoots that are not capable of wintering. It is advisable to pinch the tops of the growing shoots at the end of August and remove the buds. If an air-dry shelter is subsequently used, it is advisable to dry the rose garden by installing a polyethylene roof over it.

Pruning roses is carried out directly in front of the shelter. Roses that cannot be cut short must be tilted. It is advisable to tear off the leaves from the roses; with an air-dry shelter, this must be done.

Shelter methods

There are many options for hiding roses, each does it differently. But it is very important to do this so that the shelter takes into account the peculiarities of the climate and possible weather options. The main principle is “do no harm”. Covering roses in an upright position (for example, climbing roses on supports), filling them with fallen leaves and other similar materials is completely unsuitable for our conditions.

In our climate, we can offer two fundamentally different approaches to sheltering roses. The first one is a shelter with the help of water and breathable materials: spruce branches, nonwovens (spunbond, lutrasil), without the use of film. The second is the shelter of roses using waterproof materials (film, roofing material, polycarbonate) - "air-dry shelter".

The first method of shelter can be called "air-wet", it does not require preliminary drying of the rose garden, the use of only dry materials. During the fall and winter, this shelter gets wet and dries up naturally. It is very important here to create an air gap that does not allow the snow to press the roses to the ground. For this, spruce branches are traditionally used, but if it is absent or lacking, you can create a low support from rails laid on supports, metal arcs or lattice boxes. From above, the roses are covered with a double layer of thick non-woven material along the support. Such a shelter is not critical to the timing of the opening of roses, does not require airing.

1 - inclined shoots;

2 - hilling;

3 - insulation from the ground (board);

4 - support under the shelter;

5 - slats;

6 - lutrasil;

7 - stone

The second method - an air-dry shelter consists of a frame on which insulating materials are strengthened. The frame is covered from above with a waterproof material, such as plastic wrap. As a frame, you can use a structure of sufficiently thick metal arcs, wooden supports with shields superimposed on them, boxes, etc. The frame must be strong enough to withstand the weight of the snow.

As an insulating material, you can use fabric (for example, rugs made from old clothes), non-woven material folded in several layers. When choosing materials, one should avoid materials that would attract mice. The main feature of this method is the need to dry the rose garden, use only dry materials. Leaves from roses and all extraneous plants from the rose garden should be removed so as not to increase the humidity. To make it easier to break off the leaves, you can spray them with 3% copper sulfate a few days before the shelter, this will also disinfect the roses.

With an air-dry shelter, it is not necessary to spud the roses, but if you do this, then only with dry earth or sand. If it was not possible to pre-dry the soil in the rose garden, you need to cover the entire surface with dry earth with a layer of 3-5 cm (it must be dried in advance, take their greenhouses). The ends of the shelters cannot be covered with foil. When sheltering in warm weather, the ends can be left open for airing, and later covered with lutrasil in several layers.

After a cold snap and snow falls, the ends can be covered with a film, but it is better not to close the air vents with polyethylene for the winter, then you will not have to air the rose garden in early spring. Thick lutrasil, placed under the film, not only insulates roses, but also shades them, does not allow the shelter to turn into a greenhouse in early spring.

1 - color of shoots;

2 - hilling;

3 - dry land;

4 - trimming in front of the shelter;

5 - lutrasil or spruce branches;

6 - frame;

7 - insulating material;

8 - polyethylene;

9 - stone.

It is very important to understand that improper cover, especially with the use of a film, not only does not bring benefits, but can cause great harm, up to the death of plants. When covering with film, the decisive factor is the dryness of the cover.

A simplified method of sheltering roses is quite justified for more resistant varieties, in warmer regions, under favorable wintering conditions: when located in a warmer, dry area, where water from roofs does not get, etc., with good snow cover and not too low winter temperature. The most reliable in any winter weather is a properly conducted air-dry rose shelter.

Drying the rose garden under a polyethylene roof.

The bush rose is tilted in front of the shelter.

A rosary prepared for shelter. Hybrid tea roses are cut, supports are installed.

The rose garden is covered with foil for the winter. The air vents covered with lutrasil were left.

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