Gardening Tips: Preparing Roses For Winter

November is the time to prepare roses to avoid winter damage.

Roses should be planted in sites protected from strong drying winds and exposure in at least 6 hours of sun per day. This ensures healthy plants which are much more likely to be overwintered successfully.

Roses must be allowed to go dormant, and harden off which simply means they are allowed to slowly adjust to lower temperatures before any winter protection is applied. This process begins with a hard freeze typically around Thanksgiving. Temperatures that have dipped into the twenties for several hours or long enough to kill seasonal vegetation is the signal that it time to mulch the roses.

The best way to protect roses in Chicago is to mound or hill up the base of each plant with 10-12 inches of compost or soil or a mix of the two. Once this pile has frozen, another 12" of leaves, hay, evergreen branches should be applied.

Lisa Hilgenberg is the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden Horticulturist. She teaches classes for the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden and mentors interns from the Garden's urban agriculture programs in the summer. Lisa draws on a rich family farming tradition, having spent many summers on her grandparents' farms in Iowa and Minnesota. You can follow Lisa on Twitter @hilgenberg8.