Home › Winter Protection and Mulching › Winter Protection and Mulching: Hybrid

Winter Protection and Mulching: Hybrid

ROSES-WINTER PROTECTION OF. Hybrid Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals in most winters can be safely carried over by hilling up the soil about the plants to a height of six or eight inches, thus covering the lowest six buds, and then covering the plants with hardwood leaves eighteen to twenty-four inches deep. The leaves should be held in place with cornstalks or brush to prevent their being blown away. A three or four inch blanket of stable manure may be applied before the leaves are used and a windbreak of boughs of pine or fir trees, or cornstalks may be substituted for the leaves if manure is used. Cultivation should be stopped in September to discourage late growth, but the plants should be thoroughly soaked with water in October, just before hilling them up. This protection should be removed piecemeal in the spring, to gradually harden-off the plants.

Standard roses may be protected by laying them on the ground and treating them as tender vines. This is the most satisfactory method. They may also be wrapped with straw and burlap, or boxed, with a filling of leaves within the box. The safest method in severe exposures is that of burying them.