Overwintering Potted Roses in the Garage

I contend that, if you want to learn anything about winter-protecting roses anywhere in the world, ask someone in Minnesota.  Historically, Minnesotans have experienced some of the harshest winters in the lower 48 states and that has given rise to the most unique ideas of winter rose protection you will find anywhere (witness the "Minnesota Tip").  I always chuckle when I read nationally published articles about winter protecting roses in zones 6 or 7, earnestly describing their "harsh" winters.  I grew up in zone 6 (Detroit) and all we ever did was rake leaves around our hybrid teas, with never a winter-kill problem.  Obviously not so in Minnesota, despite the fact that our winters have gotten significantly warmer in the last ten years or so. We're feeling a lot more like zone 5 than zone 4 these days.  (See my blog post: Climate Change in the Rose Garden:
 http://jack-rosarian.blogspot.com/2012/06/climate-change-in-rose-garden.html  ).

The members of the Twin Cities Rose Club (TCRC) are a bunch of smart northern gardeners and some of the best rose-growing ideas get published in the TCRC Newsletter, month-to-month.  A recent article by my friend Chris Poppe really caught my eye and I asked her if she would let me pass along her excellent article "Over-wintering Roses in the Garage" to the readers of the Minnesota Rose Gardener blog.  She enthusiastically agreed, so here we go.  Chris is a recently retired teacher from the Minneapolis Public School System; a smart lady with a beautiful rose garden on a small lot in Minneapolis (hey, she even grows broccoli alongside her roses)!  She's also the program chair of the TCRC.

Here's her article, along with some very good "how-to" pictures:

Over-wintering Roses in the Garage

 

by Chris Poppe

 

Every year, as I pile potted rose bushes (sans the pots) into the trench where I bury my tree roses, I wish that I could just leave some of them in their pots for the winter and save myself a lot of work.  But, that would only mean that I’d have a lot of dead, potted roses come Springtime.  So, I dig and bury until they’re all covered. 

Then, last year I went to the open garden offered by John and Char Turek at their farm in Chaska.  John has over 300 rose bushes in his garden - about 90% of them grown in pots.  Every Fall, John gives them all a good watering, cuts them way back and moves them to an insulated, but unheated, part of his barn, where they rest for the winter and emerge to grow and bloom another year.  Some of John’s roses are 5-10 years old and have lived in pots all their lives. 

That got me thinking.  Where and how can I replicate John’s storage area?  Living in the city, I have no barn, but I do have an unheated but sort-of- insulated garage.  Hmmm.   It’s a double garage and I have only one car, but it’s also the winter home of all my outdoor furniture (tables, chairs, glider, settee, etc), garden decorations, potting bench, lawn mower, wheel barrow, bicycle, etc. etc. etc.  Along the East side and into the SE corner, I have an old wooden picnic table which serves as a storage area for a lot of the folding furniture.                                                                             

I decided to build my winter rose shelter in that SE corner, so I shoved the picnic table about 3 feet to the North and lined the back and floor of the space with foil-faced, roll insulation.  I wedged a piece of 1” foam insulation into the space along the back wall of the garage, put another piece of foil insulation on the opposite “wall” and put a second piece of foam on the floor on top of the foil, so the pots would be separated from the floor.

The picture below shows the the start of the enclosure-building, with foil on the back wall and extending across the floor, a piece of foam insulation on the right wall and, although you can't see it, another piece of foam on the floor under the foil insulation.




Below is the enclosure as it was being constructed. The curved piece of foil will become the left side wall of the enclosure.
 

 

After watering the pots and cutting the canes back to about 10 inches, I wrapped  foil around each pot and made a small “hat” to put over the canes. Below is one of the pots ready to be put into the enclosure. The pot itself is wrapped in foil and I made a little cap of taped-together foil to cover the canes themselves.

 I pushed the pots into their insulated box, packing them together as tightly as possible. Then, I put another long piece of foil over the top of the space, tucking and taping it into place.   

                                          
When Spring came, I opened my  storage area to find that all four Hybrid Tea roses were already beginning to leaf out!

I then moved the pots out into the garden. Here is the wintered-over rose bush enjoying its first sunshine in more than five months

My "wintered-over" plants have grown and bloomed all summer.  Below is "Love's Kiss" in full bloom in mid May.

This fall, I’m going to try to winter over several more.  Give it a try in your storage shed or garage. This might lead you to a whole new program for growing roses!   

                                                                                            Chris Poppe

Editor's note:  Chris doesn't mention that one of the important things she is doing by enclosing her potted roses in foil insulation packages is not only to keep them insulated, but also to keep them in complete darkness throughout their dormant period.  Also, she mentions watering them before enclosing them.  I have read that watering the plants, but not soaking them, is the right way, which I'm sure is what she did.  At some point, perhaps half way through the dormant period, you can open them a bit and add a little more moisture, so they don't completely dry out.

I have used a similar, though less sophisticated, method, putting my pots on the wood floor of my trailer (i.e. off the concrete floor of the garage) and covering the whole trailer with a canvas top.  My garage is insulated and heated, so I am able keep them right at, or just above, the freezing point.  Another TCRC member, Millie Hisey, just puts her potted roses in the back of her pickup truck (which has a camper top), puts the truck in the garage, and goes to Arizona for the winter.  So there are several ways of doing this, but I think Chris' method is the slickest I've seen.

I'm sure Chris will be glad to take your questions.  Simply leave a comment/question at the bottom of the blog page, and I will pass it along to Chris.