Regional Growing Guide: New England

Early Fall in the Rose Garden

It's time to do nothing in the rose garden. Well, practically nothing, anyway. We have seen the breathtaking first big, beautiful blooms of summer. And now we marvel at the smaller, but perfect last roses of summer. Enjoy. Roll up the hose. Put away the pruners.

Fall Rose Care Means Few Cares
Roses, like everything else in the garden, have noticed our shortened days and cooler, longer nights. That's their first clue that winter is coming and it's time to shut down for the season.

You should make your very last cuts about the first of October. No pruning beyond then at all, not even deadheading. Remember that every cut you make encourages new growth. That's the last thing you want right now, because any new, tender growth will be nipped by the first cold snap.

Cut your last, perfect roses for the dining room table or for drying , then put the pruners in a safe place, where you won't be tempted to use them for a while.

Fall Brings Change
Left alone, roses will bring a different kind of beauty in fall: brilliantly colored hips. Those are their seedpods. Let the leaves drop off and the seed pods decorate the rose garden. If you haven't used a systemic insecticide, try making tea or jelly with rose hips later. They're very high in vitamin C.

Black spot Still Lurks
One drawback of fall is the ever-present black spot fungus. If you've been following a preventive spray program, continue it into fall to discourage fungal spores from overwintering in your garden.

Now sit, and smile. Sip your tea as you admire the last, most perfect roses of the summer.

Putting the Roses to Bed

Cold fall winds are trying to ease us into winter, so we're gathering the materials needed to protect borderline hardy plants before the deep freeze sets in. We cover our lavender and agastache with pine boughs, but the plants that get the most winter protection in the garden are the roses.

All roses need some fall clean-up to help keep insects and disease from returning next year, and some plants need a little extra TLC to get to the other side of winter.

Giving Roses the Once-Over
After roses have dropped most of their leaves, it's time to pick off the rest. All kinds of damage can be reduced by removing the dead leaves that harbor disease organisms and overwintering insects. Many have more trouble with rose slugs than with any other insect pest. These are sawfly larvae -- tiny green worms that feed on the leaves and turn them into clear, papery remnants of their former selves. So it is good to remove all the leaves from the plant and from the soil beneath, including the top layer of mulch and dispose of this far from the garden. This is all that you need to do for the hardy climbing rose, the rugosas, and the shrub roses. Other rose varieties should get more attention.

Protecting
These plants need lots of insulation from the cold as well as from fluctuating temperatures. Bark mulch, evergreen boughs, straw, and hay all provide good protection. Some prefer bark mulch because it's less messy, stays in place, and is easier to remove in spring. You can use oak leaves or other types that don't pack down easily like maple leaves do, but if the mulch gets compressed or holds too much water, the base of the plant can rot. Ideally, you should cover the base of the rose with 1 foot of mulch.

You can leave the piled mulch as is or contain it by surrounding the plant with some type of enclosure, such as chicken wire bent into a cylinder. You may need to tie up some of the canes to make room for the enclosure. Then fill it with mulch to the desired depth.

Another option is to place four stakes around your plant and wrap burlap around them to hold the mulch in place and break the wind. Avoid the styrofoam rose cones without ventilation at the top because they absorb the sun's heat and can raise the temperature inside enough to injure your plants.

Reducing Wind Damage
Winter winds can damage rose canes both by whipping them around and breaking them, and also by drying out the canes. You might want to tie any long canes that extend above your typical snow cover, or cut them back to 2 to 3 feet long. To help prevent moisture loss, you can spray the canes with an antidessicant spray this fall and again whenever the temperature rises above freezing during the winter. These sprays can only be used at certain temperatures, so check the labels for instructions.

With any luck -- and a good insulating snow cover -- your roses will survive yet another winter. Even if you have to cut back some dead, blackened canes (I always do), your plants will quickly make up the loss and burst forth with new growth and blossoms.