Sniff, it's gonna freeze this beatiful rose tonight

One last shot of the blooms on my Double Delight Standard Rose Tree. It's gonna freeze tonight and that will be the end of them. I'm trying to think of a way to save them for a bit longer. Maybe wrap a blanket around it?

Sorry the picture is so bright looking. It's so gloomy out that my camera needed to use a flash and I needed to use the +brightness just to find the plant in the screen.

I've enjoyed this rose tree all summer. I bought it from Park's seed late spring sale for something like $5. It's been a treasure and enjoyed by all that come to visit. I think I'll wrap it in blanket insulation this fall and see if it will survive the winter. It's supposed to be hardy to zone 4, but around here anything can happen and I'd like to save it if I can.

Any ideas?

And a bud too!

When I worked at Jackson & Perkins, I spoke to gardeners in Maine who grew tree roses and actually trenched them once they were dormant. They'd dig a little trench next to the rose, then loosen the root ball a bit, tip the rose over on its side into the trench, and pile soil on top of it. The things we do for our plants!

Others shield them above-ground. You could try making a cylinder of chicken wire just a little larger and higher than your rose and securing it around the plant. Then, stuff it tightly with straw and wrap burlap around the cylinder. That will insulate it from the wind and still allow it to breathe.

And these HUGE dahlias too! Whaaaaahhh!!! I'm not ready for this. I've spent so much time on my landscaping plans and plants that I am having a hard time saying goodbye to some of my favorites. I know I have to though, that's why I'm sad. I could do the cover/uncover thing, but I don't have the time with a full time job. Another season soon to end here.

I've spent the day getting in the rest of the garden produce, the brugs, the housplants I had outside, and took 3 disks of last minute photos.

Sniff...I guess I'll go off to the kitchen to finish the chow chow and salsa...and POUT!

JoanJ I would be tempted to dig a ditch to drop it in
sideways before winter truly sets in. It would be so nice
to have it keep the height it has grown to. Dump a load
of hay and leaves on top of the dirt as well. A friend
brought some of her roses from B.C. to Saskatchewan and
I suggested this...she hasn't lost any of them yet.

Thinking, thinking, thinking....I've read about digging the trench and burying it in. My problem is that I have lots of other plants growing around it that would get uprooted/dug out. So, I know I have chicken wire, 2x4's, straw, and insulation. I'm gonna look into that in the next few days. I don't have time to get it done for tonight, but I can get it done soon. Tonight I may try to throw a blanket over it.

Thanks for pouting with me! :)

Dig the trench in your vegetable garden and move it there
for the winter?

Joan why don't you cut the roses and dry them. Either hang them upside down in a dark closet or put them face up in a tin and trickle some fine sand onto them. Put the lid on and wait a couple of weeks!!

I could dry the flowers Margaret! I hadn't thought of that. I'm gonna go pick some the next break I get here. I'm trying to put up tomatoes, make chow chow, find room for plants to bring in and everything.

I wish I would have had another day's warning about this.

Do you think digging the whole plant and moving it into a trench elsewhere would work?

Joan I honestly don't know, unless it's in a very exposed area and it looks as though it might be. I should follow the good advice from the other gals!!! The wire cage is a very good idea but I have never had to 'bury' the entire bush myself so can't advise on that!!

cover them with blankets and pray! I drag out every old blanket,sheet,rug-what ever i can find to cover my babies with.
I feel for you-I know my turn is just around the corner-it was a balmy unnormal 87 here today and boy was i loving it-gathered a few of the garden decorations(unhappily)and put them away till spring,figured id do it while it was warm this year.

GOOD LUCK GF!!!

HI, I would stick tall stakes around the plants and cover with blankets-the stakes keeps the cloth from touching the blooms-you might be able to save the roses anyway for that bud to bloom. I have had a light frost on roses that have gone on the next day to bloom -but DD is a tea rose-so?/
For winter, I use the wavey, white plastic things to hold in the dirt that I throw over the bud union (2") and then fill with chopped oak leaves. For the larger bushes I use chicken wire and do the same thing. The dirt over the bud union seems to help a lot; and do not forget to give them a good watering before a hard frost--I have had freeze dried plants before!!!

Lots of helpful info here, thank you so much!

For tonight, we wrapped them in a blanket. But I need to come up with a better plan when winter does actually hit for the long duration. These are rose trees, not bushes.

For my rose bushes, I have rose cones that I will insulate with leaves and quickly put over them before the leaves fall out. LOL! Been doing that for 2 years with a few others that I had, and seems to work.

This is my first year with rose trees though, and I'm stumped as to what to do with them, but there's lots of ideas here that I will kick around and I'll come up with something for them.

We gathered all the ripe/semi-ripe tomatoes and covered the rest. Couldn't come up with anyone that needed any tonight. Too cold for them to come pick them I figure. Picked all the peppers, cukes and zukes that were on. I packed all my brugs and houseplants in, and for now, I'm just praying that if I forgot something it will somehow be spared.

When we lived in zone 3 we used to take our tree roses and bury them on their sides in the vegi garden for the winter. It worked great!

How deep do you bury them?

Hi JoanJ
Make sure you water in your Rose a few weeks before
freeze up. Just before our deep winter freeze dig it
out keeping as much soil, as you can, around the root ball.
Lie it on it's side in the trench and cover with a mound
of peat moss to a minimum depth of 10". Cover with about an
1" of soil. Spray the surface of the mound with water just
before freeze-up, so that it forms a frozen crust. Keep
the spray to a minimum so that the underlying peat moss
stays dry (to prevent the build-up of ice around the graft).
Keep covering it with snow all winter to prevent damage from repeated thaws and freezing.
I've potted up the rose before sinking to keep the root ball and the soil it was growing in together.
It is also suggested that the rose be wrapped in burlap
before it is buried.

Thanks! Sounds like a lot of work, but probably worth it.

That's a very pretty rose, and I agree, it is so sad when things freeze, but part of nature's cycle. Like the Bible says there is a time to be born and a time to die........

We always just buried them about four inches down at the shallowest and covered them with a bale of hay or straw. Never had a problem with them that way. When spring came we dug them out and replanted them in their old area.

MaryE, yes, it's so sad for me this year to see all my hard work and efforts waste away. Your reminder of the bible verse helped me put things in perspective a little better. Thank you.

Ponditis, you gave me a thought when you said you buried them 4 inches deep and covered them with a straw bale. This makes me wonder if putting straw bales all around them, then packing straw all around the inside, then putting more straw bales over the top would work? I really, really don't want to have to dig them up every fall and replant every spring if I can figure a way to do it differently. I hate to disturb something that's settled in if I don't have to.

It might just work if you have the space to do it. Sadly in a town yard we just didn't have the space. I would try it. Good luck and let us know if it works for you.

These are in good sized gardens, and right now they have mostly annuals growing around them. The perennials that are there will be done soon too. I think it wouldn't hurt them to be covered up with straw for the winter either. I REALLY think this idea is the most appealing to me so far. Easier too, and I can get all the little square straw bales I need.

Thanks! And if this is what I decide to do, I'll let you know how it works/worked.

Great! I really think it should work in a dry climate like ND. If you lived in a wet climate maybe it wouldn't work though. No telling until you try it.

JoanJ, that is a beautiful rose. Hope you figure out a way to keep it over winter. I have one tree rose that was a gift to me a few years ago. i have it in a about 5 gal. clay pot that is moved inside insulated room off the garage for the winter. Doesn't bloom as well as if planted in the ground but still pretty. Good luck with yours. Donna

there was frost on my lawn day before yesterday but not cold enough to hurt anything.