Regional Growing Guide: Upper South
Hot, hazy and humid describes much of the year in this region, where roses commence their first peak of bloom by Mother's Day, then continue budding out and blooming through December. While most of the rain comes during winter and early spring, fierce afternoon thunderstorms, nor-easters and even hurricanes may blow through during summer months. The soil may be acidic or sandy: amending with lime helps balance the pH, while compost provides nutrients and improves drainage. The best roses are heat tolerant and resist black spot: new roses often offer improved repeat blooming as well.
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Bundling Up the Roses
The chilly winds of fall are a good reminder that winter isn't far behind. When it comes to facing the challenges of winter, 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 survive until spring.
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. Remove all the leaves from the plant and from the soil beneath, then remove the top layer of mulch, too. This is all that's necessary for hardy climbing roses, the rugosas, and the shrub roses. The grafted roses need more attention.
Protecting the Graft
Grafted roses are a combination of the desired variety of rose on the top and a fast-growing variety on the bottom. You can tell a grafted rose by the swollen, knobby area near the base of the plant. Grafting is a way of producing more rose plants more quickly. But the graft union itself can be damaged by cold, and some of the common rootstocks are not especially hardy varieties. So these plants need lots of insulation from the cold as well as from fluctuating temperatures, especially when temperatures dip to below 20 degrees.
Bark mulch, evergreen boughs, straw, and hay all provide good protection. Many gardeners 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 graft with one foot of mulch, but even several inches of a loose mulch, such as straw, will help.
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.
Remove the protective mulch in spring once the ground thaws and new growth appears.
Even with the proper care, you may have some winter dieback, but, your plants will quickly make up the loss and burst forth with new growth and blossoms.