I need some advice. I have 2 roses (Butterscotch and Barbra Streisand) in 2- or 3-gallon pots. They are still young bushes. During the recent winter freeze in Kentucky, I put them into my outside shed. As we had had so much rain and the soil was still wet the soil froze. Is there something I can do so that they do not die? Regards Conrad
Do you have a garage connected to the house? It would be cold in there but likely above freezing. That is where I put my roses in pots and two tree roses (I am in Zone 5b near Chicago). I have read in various books that healthy roses can stay alive to -40 F. The outer parts of the canes freeze and pull water out. What’s left in the canes is a very concentrated form of sugar/starch with a much lower freezing temperature (e.g., -40 F). If you keep the wind off them by putting them in the shed, and water them a little throughout the winter, they might just survive.
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Welcome to the ARS Forum Conrad. Your roses should survive since the current freeze was quick, and wet soils, even frozen soils are better than dry soils for rose roots, however, for the roses to survive the winter you will need to do additional winter protection. Let us know if have a garage to put them in. If not, you may want to put the roses in much larger pots surrounded by soil, leave them in the same pots, mound the soil on top of the canes. You may need to put some stakes and burlap to surround the roses and keep the soil in place. Then on top of the soil, cover the roses with some type of mulch, like pine nuggets. Place the pots next to your home out of the of the winter winds. When temperatures drop below 30 degrees water the roses. I put my container roses next to my home covered with pine needles, but I’m in zone 8A. What zone are you in?
Many thanks Mark and Sheree for taking the time to respond to my problem and also for the excellent advice. This is much appreciated. We live in Lexington Kentucky which is zone 6b. Maybe what would help is that I am a South African living in the USA. While we have been here for a number of years, South Africa is a warm country and where we lived it rarely went below 32 (zero), so gardening as much as I enjoy it has been very challenging. Unfortunately, I do not have a garage at home let alone one attached to the house. As it warmed up quickly after the freeze, I am thrilled to say that my roses have perked up already! Something which I would like to be clear on - I have been told that roses should not be kept in a garage as they need exposure, even through the winter months? What I am planning to do (and please feel free to give advice here) is to wrap the pots in bubble wrap and then to put them in to insulated pot plant covers. My thinking is to put these against the house hoping that they will get some warmth. I am just not sure which facing (direction) wall I should put them against. Thank you, Sheree, for the suggestion of covering with mulch or pine needles. Any further advice would be very much appreciated.