- Preparation for the winter takes place in midsummer
- Particularly important: protect roses from the winter sun
Roses are mainly plagued by frost, sun and wind in winter, although most types of rose do not have a problem with permanent frost in itself - this only becomes problematic when the winter sun stimulates the flow of sap on mild days and the temperatures then drop sharply again. As a result, the plant cells burst and there is sometimes serious damage, which is particularly noticeable on blackened shoots.
Roses need protection from the cold and also from the winter sun
Preparation for the winter takes place in midsummer
Even if nobody wants to think about winter when it's 30 degrees in the shade: Now is exactly the right time to start preparing for the cold season. To do this, however, you must first stop something, namely the fertilization of the heavily consuming roses. The plants should be fertilized for the last time at the end of June / mid-July at the latest. Later fertilization only leads to the formation of more shoots, which, however, cannot mature in time before winter and are therefore very likely to freeze to death. Instead, a final fertilization with a good potash fertilizer is carried out between the middle and the end of August - but by no means later.
Particularly important: protect roses from the winter sun
The sun is much more dangerous to roses in winter than frost. On clear, sunny days in January or February, when the ground is frozen, water evaporates from the plant parts above the ground, but this cannot be replaced by the roots in the frozen ground. Roses usually do not freeze to death in winter, but simply dry up. This phenomenon is also known as frost drought. This can be remedied by covering the plants with fir or spruce brushwood to protect the shoots from the strong sunlight.
pile up roses
By mounding, you protect your roses from both frost and the drying winter sun. The gardener understands this term to mean covering the plants with a 15 to 20 centimeter high mound of earth, for which existing garden soil can be used just as well as deposited compost. Incidentally, roses should never be cut in autumn!
tips
High stems in particular are endangered in winter and therefore need special protection. Use fir or spruce branches as well as jute bags and other breathable materials, but plastic bags or bubble wrap are unsuitable, as only condensation can form underneath them and mold can develop as a result. Climbing roses, on the other hand, are effectively protected from the winter sun and cold winds with the help of reed mats.