How to Prepare Roses for Winter: A Field Guide
These simple steps will show you how to prepare your roses for winter easily and effectively. Follow these basics to ensure that your gals and guys wake up rosy-cheeked and ready to shine in the spring.
So earlier this fall, I’m at a nursery buying some gardening stuff when I end up looking at the same shelf as another guy who’s in the aisle with me. He looks smart. A savvy gardener. He starts talking to me about his roses and how he takes care of them. He asks me what I’m doing for mine.
When I tell him, he gets this look on his face like he knows he’s dealing with a six-year-old and he knows he’s gotta be patient.
Him: Well, that sounds interesting.
Me: It works for me.
Him: I’m sure it does. Well, (again with the “Well”), I would never consider doing that to my David Austins.
Me: Isn’t that the guy with the robot arms?
The last few articles here on The Renaissance Garden Guy have been about getting stuff in the garden ready for winter. This one’s no different. Roses in winter this time. Makes sense. Lots of people have roses, and it’s just about winter. Appropriate.
So, now that it’s settled, how do I get my roses ready for winter? What’s my game plan?
Before I go into specifics, the above garden store parable should remind you of the fact that I’m pretty much a learn-by-doing kind of gardener. I have absolutely no formal pedigree whatsoever (educational or otherwise) when it comes to gardening. Zilch. Although I do lots of research (you have to when you’re spending a ton of dough on plants, etc.), I mostly learn by doing. More accurately, I learn by making mistakes and trying hard not to repeat them.
So when you read my rose winterizing plan, remember that this is my own tried and true system, gleaned from those hallowed halls at the vaunted College of Hard Knocks. It’s a system that’s worked well for me when other things haven’t. Is it perfect for everybody? Loaded question, so probably no. Will it work for people gardening in hardiness zones 5B/6A? Yep. That’s where my roses grow, and it seems to work perfectly for them. Are there more sophisticated methodologies out there? Obviously, the guy in the aisle at the nursery thinks so.
In any case, I’m gonna let ‘er rip and tell you everything I know about how to prepare roses for winter.
The Renaissance Garden Guy "How to Prepare Roses for Winter" Game Plan
It All Starts in The Summer.
In hardiness zone 5B/6A, the time to start thinking about what you’d like your roses to do over the winter (survive) is actually summer. Specifically, late August or early September. If by this time, you haven’t given a thought to how your roses are going to make it through the nasty winter, don’t panic. You’ll see in a minute that all is not lost – there are still a few simple steps you can take to make sure they get through the cold. For right now, keep this late August/early September stuff in your back pocket. Use it for next year and follow the rest of the steps for this year.
1. Stop feeding them. Roses are massive feeders. They need regular and sustained fertilizing to grow and bloom properly. When you cut off that food pipeline, they notice and they really put the brakes on growing. This is a good thing with winter iminent. The tissues of a rose plant’s new growth are extremely susceptible to freezing temperatures and can easily be killed. A substantial amount of tissue death can be harmful, and even fatal, to a rose plant. So you really don’t want a growth spurt from your roses now. That’s why you’ve got to stop feeding them. Using your rose food’s feeding directions as a guide, you want to time your plants’ feeding cycle so that the last feeding happens at the end of August or very early in September. I actually use two kinds of fertilizer for my roses. For my full-sized Knockout and Floribunda roses, I use Espoma Rose-tone. It’s a granular with an N-P-K ratio (nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium) of 4-3-2 and it’s an organic product containing a bunch of different beneficial active microbe cultures. Great rose food. Espoma recommends a monthly application, so I start the first feeding at the beginning of April and feed them for the last time no later than the first day or two of September. For my miniature roses, which benefit from a faster uptake, water-soluble liquid fertilizer, I use (gasp) an inorganic (synthetic) product – Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Rose Plant Food. This product has got an N-P-K ratio* of 18-24-16 and comes in a granular form which is dissolved in water and applied either from a hose feeder or a watering can. Because it is water-soluble and in liquid form (after mixing the granules with water) when applied to the plant’s roots, it’s assimilated quickly. I feed my minis every two weeks with this product, starting at the beginning of April. The use of this product has resulted in wildly huge miniature rose bushes covered in blooms (no suckers – just the plants themselves growing huge and healthy). As I do with the Espoma product, I make sure that the last feeding of Miracle-Gro happens in very early September.
As with any and all products, please read and follow all manufacturer directions.
Note: I have also used another inorganic product (for two of my minis which, at the time, seemed to be suffering from rust) which also contained systemic disease control and insect control ingredients in its formula. It worked very well, and the two miniature roses benefitted from its use last year and grew and flowered beautifully. I decided to stop using this product this year because the two minis in question were rust-free. I did, however, continue to recommend it. As of this writing, however, I will no longer be using it on my roses, nor will I be recommending it for use on any roses because of an interesting article I read concerning a study on the effects of one or more of this product’s ingredients on honey bees. Click this link to read the article.
Of further note: Miracle-Gro also markets an organic rose food called Miracle-Gro Nature’s Care Organic & Natural Rose & Flower Plant Food. I can’t recommend it because I’ve never used it. Also, it comes in a granular form which I can’t dissolve in water and apply to my minis. (I like the benefits of the quick assimilation of a liquified product for my miniature roses). If anyone’s used this product, I’d love to hear what you think of it.
The main takeaway here is that you need to stop feeding your roses by no later than very early September to prevent them from sprouting new growth in late fall/winter which could easily be damaged or killed by the cold.
*For more about N-P-K ratios, check out Lilies: The Renaissance Garden Guy Way.
Since you’re now preparing your roses for winter, and you know that you’re not supposed to be feeding them anything before bedtime, why am I hawking rose food in the product rec sections below? Because the stuff I am recommending works great, and it doesn’t hurt to stock up for spring and summer. Plus, if you’d like, you can order it right here, directly from Amazon. Here you go…
Roses are extremely heavy feeders. You’ve got to fertilize them. Regularly. For my full-sized rose bushes, I use Espoma Organic Rose-tone. It’s an organic granular with an N-P-K ratio (nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium) of 4-3-2, and it contains a bunch of different beneficial active microbe cultures. It’s phenomenal rose food. Espoma recommends a monthly application, so I start the first feeding for my roses at the beginning of April and feed them for the last time no later than the first day or two of September. Click the #advertisement link to learn more, or to order this excellent product right here, directly from Amazon. Just remember: knowing how to prepare roses for winter correctly means knowing that you need to stop feeding them at the appropriate time.
For my miniature roses, which benefit from a faster uptake, water-soluble liquid fertilizer, I actually use an inorganic (synthetic) product – Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Rose Plant Food. This product has got an N-P-K ratio of 18-24-16 and comes in a granular form that gets dissolved in water and is applied either from a hose feeder or a watering can. Because it’s in water-soluble, liquid form (after mixing the granules with water) when applied to the plant’s roots, it’s assimilated quickly. Because this product is designed for rapid uptake by the roots of each plant and does not amend the soil through the accumulation of minerals and microbes, its N-P-K percentages are higher than the organic Espoma product. I feed my minis every two weeks with this Miracle-Gro product, starting in late March or early April. The use of this product has resulted in wildly huge miniature rose bushes (no suckers – mine are all own root bushes – just the plants themselves growing huge and healthy) covered in gigantic blooms (the biggest I’ve seen on miniature rose bushes anywhere). As I do with the Espoma Organic Rose-tone product, I make sure that the last feeding of Miracle-Gro happens in very early September. Click the #advertisement link to learn more about this product, or to order it here, directly from Amazon.
All of the pictures below are of my various miniature roses. They’ve all grown far larger than projected and have bloomed beautifully. They benefit from a biweekly feeding of Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Rose Plant Food. Like I do with my Floribunda and Knockout roses, I stop feeding them no later than the first or second day of September. Cessation of fertilizing at the right time has got to be a part of your own “How to Prepare Roses for Winter” plan.
An update to “How to Prepare Roses for Winter: A Field Guide” for RGG readers: As of last summer (2023), I no longer use Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Rose Plant Food as a fertilizer for my rose plants. I’ve found that the soil amending capabilities and the nutritional components of the granular Espoma Organic Rose-tone product offer better results for my rose bushes. That’s not to say that the Miracle-Gro product is not an excellent product – it IS an excellent product. (Its extremely fast uptake by rose plants yields immediate results, particularly for miniature roses.) I simply prefer the soil amending capabilities of the granular organic Espoma product. Both fertilizers are excellent, and I know many avid rose growers who swear by not only Espoma Organic Rose-tone, but by the Miracle-Gro product, as well. I’ve had great success with both, and though I’m now only using the Espoma product, I’ll continue to recommend both.
2. Stop pruning them. Again, when September begins, so does your winter rose prep action. And that action is… inaction! You got it – you basically don’t do anything and let the roses do everything. And part of your not doing anything includes not pruning. If you decide you want to shape your bush into a more eye-catching form by pruning it into submission, and you do it much beyond early September, you run the risk of killing off all the new growth you just coaxed your poor bush into generating for you as temperatures start to drop. When you prune, the nodes below your cut-off point are encouraged to push new growth up and out. That new growth is initially tender and totally susceptible to death by freezing. Trust me, you don’t want new green chunks of your rose bush freezing off on you. Been there. Done that. It sucks. For you and the rose.
For my zone (5B/6A), I’ve learned to prune my roses around the middle to the end of March. The plants are at the end of their dormancy, or are just beginning to wake up, so they won’t be traumatized by the pruning. And in the case of my floribundas (and all others, really), which bloom on new growth, pruning them at that time sets the stage for the forthcoming waves of new blooms.
Note: I make two exceptions to not pruning in the late summer/early fall. The first pertains to dealing with “suckers”. Suckers are canes (stems) which originate from the root systems (or sections of crown below the graft unions) of grafted rose plants. Some rose plants supplied by growers actually consist of the main cane, or stem, of the desired sport (variety) of rose, grafted onto the healthy rootstock of another sport. This ensures successful survival and growth of the desired variety grafted to it. Suckers happen when this process backfires. Sometimes that healthy rootstock, of that entirely different variety of rose, sends up growth of its own in the form of brand new (and often larger and faster growing) canes – these are suckers. Many times, these suckers can overrun and “choke out” the desirable grafted variety. If you think you’re dealing with a sucker, get rid of it. You’ll know it’s a sucker for sure if you follow it down (you’ll need to move some dirt out of the way) and find that it’s growing out of the crown below the graft union, or from the roots themselves. Cut it off at the point where it originates and seal the cut with a tree wound sealing product. I have only vicarious experience with this issue gained through my firsthand observation of the efforts of a fellow gardener. Her pruning and sealing efforts were successful and she had no more suckers on that particular plant. Get rid of suckers when you see them. The second exception I make to not pruning rose bushes after early September is the necessary removal of dead, potentially compromising growth. If you’ve got a dead cane on a rose bush that could potentially get caught by the wind and be wrenched from the dormant plant during the frigid winter, cut it off as close to its point of origin as possible. You don’t want the wind to rip it off in freezing temperatures, potentially creating a wound which could compromise or kill the bush.
3. Stop deadheading them. All summer long, you watch your roses like a hawk. They’re showstoppers, and you want them to stay that way. So, when you see that a bloom on one of your pride and joys is spent and ugly-looking, you lop it off. You do this not only because ugly dead blooms are, well, ugly and dead, but also because you know that deadheading is gonna get you new, beautiful flowers. Yep, when you deadhead a rose plant (right above the junction of the first five-leafed branch to a main stem, and below the spent bloom), you’ve just coaxed it into sprouting more growth from the node(s) at this point. And because the flower stem associated with that dead bloom you just chopped off is also gone, the chance to develop seeds is gone with it. Seed development, which happens in the hips at the base of the rose plant’s flowers, takes up a great deal of the plant’s energy. So much energy, in fact, that when a rose is busy producing seeds in its swelling hips, it’s also busy not doing much growing and blooming. The plant is now diverting practically all of its energy into seed development. When you properly deadhead a rose plant, you’re giving it its energy back – you’re encouraging it to produce more foliage and more blooms. And we know that this kind of action, with freezing temperatures in plain sight, is definitely bad. New rose plant tissue is easily killed in frigid temps. Don’t deadhead your roses after September 1st. Let them channel all of their energies into setting their hips and producing seeds. They’ll quit growing all sorts of other new structures and take the hint that it’s time to wind down for the winter. This is info you’ll definitely want to use in your own “How to Prepare Roses for Winter” playbook.
So when the end of August or the very beginning of September rolls around, I feed my roses one last time and then I pretty much let nature take its course. No more food. No pruning. No deadheading. Nothing. And that’s my suggestion to you. Give your roses a break. Let ’em go to sleep. It’s cold outside, the wind is whipping, snow is falling, and ice is forming. And they just don’t want to deal with any of that.
For more on pruning and deadheading, please refer to my article “Pruning, Pinching, and Deadheading Perennial Plants” here on The Renaissance Garden Guy.
Just in case you screwed up…
If you’re reading this now, and you have been doing things to your roses over the last few months that you shouldn’t have been doing (feeding, pruning, deadheading), it’s ok. You’ll still be able to get your roses through the winter. The first thing to do is to quit doing those things. The second thing to do at this point is jump in and follow these last few steps of my “How to Prepare Roses for Winter” game plan. Roses are really pretty tough, and I’m a total rose frickin’ genius, so do what I tell you from here on in and you and your roses are gonna be golden. (Ok, so I’m not a total rose frickin’ genius. The advice is still good, and if you stick to it, your plants will be fine!)
Do This Stuff in Late Fall and Your Roses Will Cruise Through Winter. These last few steps are important. It’s cold weather stuff. Perform these things to keep your roses safe.
1. Rake up thick layers of leaves. If you read my last article, you know how I feel about thick layers of fallen autumn deciduous tree leaves blanketing my planting beds. I get rid of them for (what I think are) some very good reasons. If you’ve got a thick carpet of leaves covering your bed of roses, start raking. That leaf blanket will prevent moisture from getting close enough to your roses’ roots to get them the moisture they need, and it could encourage the growth of damaging forms of mold and fungus, and hide (and aid and abet) the tunneling activities of voles and other troublesome burrowers. Get rid of those leaves!
2. Mulch around the base of the rose plants. As regular readers here know, I use wood mulch in all of my planting beds. This is a fabulous insulating medium which is gas (air) and water permeable, and attractive. As winter approaches (and after I get all the fallen leaves up), I slightly mound up some additional mulch around the base of each of my rose bushes. This further insulates each bush’s graft union (if applicable) and gives the ground immediately around each bush a bit more insulation. And, unlike a thick mound of fallen tree leaves, it allows water to easily get to the bush’s roots. Wood mulch is the way to go when applying an insulating medium around each rose bush’s base. In my hardiness zone, I feel that adding only an additional inch or so of mulch is adequate. And unlike some other gardeners I know in my zone, I do not cover my rose plants in the winter.
Knowing how to prepare roses for winter, particularly in really cold hardiness zones, means knowing that you’ll need to use mulch to protect their roots and crowns (and graft unions, in the case of grafted bushes). As I’ve written before, I love using Scotts Nature Scapes color-enhanced wood mulch. The colors are beautiful and the product performs beautifully, allowing the vital exchange of air and moisture between the soil and atmosphere. And the bags themselves are extremely easy to carry, position, and open. Great product. Click on the #advertisement link to order it here, directly from Amazon.
3. Water when weather demands and permits. Here where I live in the Midwest, we typically get a substantial amount of rain fall. And in the freezing winter months, there’s generally alot of snow on the ground. This means that rose plants hunkering down for the winter get plenty of moisture. And this is critical. In the winter months, if moisture is not permitted to reach the roots of your rose bushes, those roots could literally become freeze-dried, resulting in dead rose bushes come spring. If you’re experiencing a dry fall, water your roses. And if the dry spell continues into and throughout the winter, add minimal amounts of water to the soil immediately around your roses. If you’re experiencing a string of warmer winter days (where the temps stay above freezing both day and night), give your roses some water then, as well. Don’t soak them. Just give them enough to get some moisture into the soil around their roots. Again, the fall and winter periods here in our part of the Midwest generally provide ample moisture for my rose bushes. But if not, I’m always happy to give ’em a sip or two.
A Few More Pics.
If you know how to prepare your roses for winter, they’re going to deliver for you big-time in the spring and summer. I took a few liberties with this “How to Prepare Roses for Winter” field guide and decided to cheat and look into the future, so to speak. Below are a few pics of some of my roses from the spring and summer of 2023. I hope these shots of my bushes will help to convince you that I’m not totally in the dark when it comes to figuring out how to prepare roses for winter. Here you go…
The Upshot.
That’s pretty much the long and short of my approach to preparing my roses for (and sustaining them through) the cold winter months. Stopping all feeding, pruning, and deadheading activities by the end of August/beginning of September is how you get the ball rolling with your rose winter prepping. And even if you did inadvertently spoil your babies with extra food and primping during this critical period, your roses will still be A-Ok over the winter if you make sure they’re somewhat insulated and moisturized during the cold temperatures. Roses are, after all, pretty tough in general. This basic system has worked very well for me. Is it the highest-tech system out there? I’m pretty sure it’s not. Am I a botanist? Horticulturalist? Nope and nope. What I am is guy who genuinely loves his plants and works really hard to make sure that they stay happy and healthy. My very basic winter rose prepping plan reflects this simple fact.
And I really do know who David Austin is.
As always, thank you kindly for your readership. Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
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Well I’ll be!Never knew that pruning roses in February was doable for our chill zone.Many thanks, Patti
Thank you for your comments. I prune my Floribundas in late February while they’re still slumbering. That way, when temperatures rise, the new growth which sprouts will set new buds.
Lots of good information about roses. Your pictures remind us how beautiful they are and show us what we have to look forward to next year.
Thank you, Kevin. I’m glad the info was useful and I’m very happy you enjoyed the pics.
I like the valuable info you supply for your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and take a look at again right here regularly.
I’m moderately sure I’ll be informed many new stuff proper here!
Good luck for the following!
Thank you for your kind comments and for your interest in my efforts. I try to relay what works well for me, and what I’m confident will be helpful to other gardeners. Thanks again!
Great information. Easy to understand. Many thanks
Thank you for helping to understand why my roses never had a chance . Me! I wish I had all this information 30 years ago. To old and unable now. But I will try to pass this information on to the younger rose people. I read the bee link we absolutely have to save our bees! Thank you for including that. Oh, I believe you are totally a frickin genius!!! I great article! Thank you.
Thank you, Sharon! You are very kind! I’m glad you found the information interesting. And yes, our pollinators – especially honey bees – need all the help they can get.
Still feel the same!! Your a great gardener!! Loved rereading this.
I remember your incredibly kind comments the first time around, Sharon! Thank you for re-reading and for your thoughtful and encouraging words this time – very much appreciated. Thank you again, Sharon!
Great info. The roses are BEAUTIFUL!!! The “Six Million Dollar Man” reference was hilarious!!! Another great article!