How to help roses after winter. Helping plants after winter. Treatment of bushes in spring

With the onset of spring, it’s time to “wake up” the queens of our gardens - roses. Proper care of roses requires timely actions in the correct sequence.

Spring care for roses begins with removing the winter cover, then a thorough inspection, pruning and treatment for pests and diseases. But first things first.

When to open roses after winter?

In regions where the temperature is lower - 5º C, all roses are covered. Roses must be opened in time; the bushes may dry out. As soon as the snow begins to actively melt after winter, bypass grooves should be made so that flooding does not destroy the plants.

When a constant positive temperature is established, we remove the covering from the bushes. You should start only with daytime ventilation for 2-4 hours. To ensure good circulation, it is enough to raise the shelter.

When the soil thaws to 15 cm, it can be opened only on one side (northern or eastern). To avoid burns, the cover is completely removed after 2-3 days. It is favorable to choose a windless day, cloudy but dry.

For better adaptation to the spring sun, it is better to shade the bushes after opening. Suitable: loose agrofibre, thick paper and spruce branches.

The ground should dry out after the snow thaws, then we begin the spring unhilling of the bushes. This is done carefully with your hands or a stream of warm water so as not to break the young shoots.

If roses are grafted, this is done using a brush and a small rag. Lubricate the grafting site with a solution of 1% copper sulfate. Thoroughly loosen the soil around the rose bush. If there are no young shoots yet, they will appear a little later. Climbing roses need to be fixed on supports.

Problems with rose bushes in spring

After opening and unplanting the roses, we carefully examine each branch. You can find various problems on roses in the spring; they can freeze, dry out or become infected.

Caring for roses includes treatment and care:

  • The dark brown color of the branches means freezing, there is only one way out - remove them. If the bush freezes completely, there is no need to rush to throw it away. It is better to wait until May; new buds will begin to grow with a living root.
    There is a great way to check the "life of the bush". If the seedling is “living”, it holds firmly in the ground, but if you move a dried bush, it will begin to stagger.
  • In late autumn, sudden warming provokes the movement of juices. When frost occurs, the sap will freeze and cause cracks in the branches. They will not be noticeable on small plants up to 15 cm.
    Spring temperature changes lead to the formation of harmful bacteria in cracks. Branches with large cracks should be removed, and small ones should be immediately treated with a brush with potassium permanganate (bright pink) or a 1% solution of copper sulfate. Then be sure to smear the wound with garden varnish, this will help protect it from disease.
  • Mold appears on roses if the seedlings are not treated in the fall. Be sure to wash off the mold, and the infected areas should be washed with iron sulfate (copper-soap solution).
  • If you remove the cover from rose bushes too late, they will rot. Stem canker (burn) may appear on the branches. This is easy to detect by the red-brown spots. They become darker towards the center and can quickly infect all stems. Diseased branches are cut off, and infected pieces need to be burned. Then treat the stems with a preparation containing copper.

If the entire bush is stained, it cannot be saved. If 1-2 branches with small spots are burned, leave the shoots and allow them to bloom before pruning in the summer.

First pruning of roses

The next step in caring for roses will be pruning the branches; the splendor of flowering depends on this. Pruning is required in spring and autumn, and if desired, in summer.

Spring pruning rules:

  • Every year in the spring the branches are pruned until the buds open.
  • Use sharp pruning shears.
  • It is necessary to cut the branches into a “ring” to the base, without leaving stumps.
  • The branches are cut at an angle of 45°, retreating approximately 5 mm from the outer bud. This will prevent the rose bush from thickening.
  • When forming a beautiful shrub, it is better to leave 5-6 strong, not yet old branches, the rest should be cut into a “ring”.
  • Damaged or dry branches that grow inside the bush are cut back to healthy wood. We remove branches that are more than 4 years old; they are considered old.
  • Large cuts on the branches need to be smeared with brilliant green, or garden varnish, otherwise there may be an infection. We must disinfect the pruning shears after trimming each bush. Wild young shoots that appear after grafting should be cut off.

The length of pruning depends on the variety of roses and climate:

  • bushes in cold climates - 30 cm, in warm climates - 10 cm;
  • tall, floribundas – 70 cm (50 cm);
  • tea - 100 cm (80 cm).

Climbing and stamped rose bushes do not require massive pruning. In the spring, it is necessary to remove only diseased or fattening branches, as well as those growing inside the bush.

The final stage of caring for roses in April will be hilling.

In spring, pruning branches is much more important than in autumn. When work is carried out in early autumn, the plants will overwinter more easily.

May

After the roses are opened, inspected and pruned, you can proceed directly to disease prevention and pest protection. During this period, the first spring feeding is carried out.

Pest treatment

After circumcision in May, preventive measures are taken to combat diseases and various pests. The soil around the seedlings is sprayed with copper oxychloride or its equivalent.

In the summer, after the first flowering, treatment with a 3% solution of iron sulfate will help prevent powdery mildew and rot.

If the fungus damages it severely (more than 2 branches), the bush must be burned; it cannot be saved.

A couple of weeks after 1 spraying with vitriol, the rose bushes are treated with insecticides and fungicides. This is reliable protection of seedlings from rust, aphids, and powdery mildew. Spraying is repeated every 2 weeks, especially after 1 and before 2 waves of flowering.

Then they begin to trim the branches to form a beautiful bush. It is an active plant growth stimulator.

Pruning for all shrubs is similar, but the formative pruning differs in timing and methods. Roses that bloom early, including park and English roses, should be pruned in April, before the buds open. ground cover and climbing plants - in May after the flowers bloom.

If you plan to use rose petals (for cooking or cosmetics), then there is no need to use fungicides.

Garter bushes

Many types of rose bushes require support. After about a week, when the soil is processed and the buds begin to grow, you can tie up the branches of the plants. It is better to choose high metal supports, securing the branches with soft wire without damaging them.

Spring feeding

Let's look at how to feed roses in the spring. Pruning is an impetus for the rapid growth of new shoots. Leaves appear and future flowers are formed. For active growth, plants vitally need nutrients containing nitrogen. This is the best time to fertilize the plants for the first time.

Until the heat was established, the earth did not warm up. It is difficult for pink roots to absorb nitrogen in cold soil. Therefore, first water the ground well with warm water around the bush. By stepping back about 15-20 cm from the trunk, you can apply mineral fertilizers containing nitrogen (ammonium nitrate, etc.).

Fertilizers must be applied to moist soil strictly according to the instructions.

If the fertilizers are in granules, you need to loosen the soil with their addition, then water with warm water. Liquid fertilizers are better absorbed by plants; they are first dissolved in water and applied to the soil.

The main feeding is done in the spring, this is the key to good health and spectacular flowering of the queen of the garden. If long-acting fertilizers are used, after the first flowering you can feed them again.

Fertilizers for roses must contain the following minerals:

  • nitrogen;
  • magnesium;
  • phosphorus;
  • potassium.

An overdose of fertilizer when caring for roses can be dangerous. For example, a high concentration of nitrogen makes the plant vulnerable to fungal diseases. Be sure to strictly follow the instructions, they are always written on the packaging.

For beautiful flowering in summer you need organic matter. 7 days after mineral fertilizers, 0.5 buckets of rotted cow manure are added to each seedling, mixed with soil, and watered.

A solution of low concentration of mullein (1x10) or chicken manure (1x20) is suitable.

Showers in a rainy spring can wash away all the fertilizer. Therefore, after a couple of weeks, the soil is re-mineralized with complex fertilizers: ammonium nitrate or urea.

Calcium nitrate has a beneficial effect. In the evening, plants and surrounding soil are sprayed with it when the weather becomes warm without rain.

The listed feeding methods are for plants over 2 years old. Only young bushes are not fertilized if planted in fertilized soil.

Mulching rose bushes

The final stage is mulching the soil. After applying fertilizers, it is necessary to maintain the microclimate of the nutritious soil. This will prevent the leaching of useful substances.

Experts advise adding 1 bucket of rotted compost under each bush, then sprinkling mulch on the soil around the seedling. You can use peat or peat manure compost. Mulching the soil protects and enriches it, greatly improving the quality of plant nutrition. Other materials for mulching are also suitable - pebbles, stones. They will retain the necessary moisture and prevent the appearance of weeds.

The base of the bushes should not be touched with mulch.

If you panicked - the roses have turned black after winter, what to do, our tips will help you return your beauties to normal. After winter, roses need to be opened in a timely manner. Late opening of the covering material threatens to prevent the bushes from growing. Mold will appear in them, and then it will be difficult to bring them back to life. But you can’t rush, because the threat of frost and too cold weather can greatly upset your beauties. Winter hibernation is stressful for roses, and they need to be brought back from this stress not only on time, but also gradually.

If you are interested in a gentle beauty, read our tips.

When to open roses after wintering

Of course, climatic conditions are different for everyone. You need to focus on the weather, however, there are certain deadlines. Around mid-March, you need to start removing the cover from the bushes, but gradually - first open the upper sides, then the bottom for ventilation, then the sides, and so on over the course of a week or two, open the bushes. At this time, the buds are already swelling, the roses are preparing for spring life. Moreover, for a full opening, it is better to choose a day with little sun, or even better, a cloudy one, so that the sun, active at this time, does not burn the bushes.

How to properly prune and treat rose bushes after winter

If you didn’t manage to open your favorite bushes in time, or some troubles happened to them during hibernation, you can still correct the situation. Don’t worry, pruning and potassium permanganate solution will help us with this. Blackened shoots must be removed, and in a timely manner. Carefully rinse all wounds with potassium permanganate; if any shoot cannot be removed, after treatment, carefully apply an adhesive plaster to the affected area so as not to spread the lesion.

If mold is found, it must be carefully removed and washed with potassium permanganate (a weak pink solution). The bushes need to be rid of dried and broken branches, everything should be removed down to the first bud that shows life. Then treat with Bordeaux mixture (take 3% solution) - this will protect the roses from fungal diseases. Before setting the buds, our beauties may be disturbed by caterpillars, aphids may cling to the bushes and begin to draw juices from them. In this case, stock up on insecticides, for example, Intavir or Decis. It will also not be superfluous to cultivate the soil next to the roots with Prestige.

How to spray roses after hibernation


After winter, our beauties want to eat - they need to be fed so that they gain strength for lush flowering. Apply nitrogen in early May, or mullein, and repeat the procedure a couple of weeks later. When the buds begin to form, feed the bushes with calcium nitrate (1 spoon per bucket of water) at the rate of 3 liters of fertilizer per bush. Water your beauties often, not allowing them to dry out, they do not like this, and it is advisable to mulch the soil. If you follow these simple rules, your favorite flowers will thank you with their beauty and fragrance.

Many beginning rose growers are very upset by the death of roses that did not overwinter. Before the onset of winter, everything seemed to be done correctly: the roses were covered, and after removing the coverings their shoots were green and seemed healthy, but after a while they turned black, died and the roses died.

I believe, that the most crucial period that determines the healthy appearance of roses is spring and the troubles associated with her arrival regarding the timely removal of winter shelters.

The main reason for the death of roses is their damping off. This usually happens in the spring. And serious damage awaits rose growers if they are late in removing the covers.

The first steps to saving roses from damping off

Roses react very sensitively to spring warming. With the arrival of warm days, the period of their natural dormancy ends: the buds awaken and begin to swell. The roots in the frozen ground under cover do not yet work.

In March under the influence of the sun's rays the tops of the shelters on the frames begin to become bare, and snow slides off their ends. During this period, I throw snow on the bare areas of the air-dry shelter and add snow on top of climbing, standard and ground cover roses.

Late March - early April, when the snow begins to melt, I remove it from all hiding places. At the same time, I make drainage grooves so that melt water does not stagnate near the plantings. As it gets warmer, I open the ends of the shelters, ventilate the roses well, and then close them again, leaving small holes at the top for ventilation.

Around climbing, groundcover, standard and miniature roses, which were covered with earth or sand and covered with spruce branches, sawdust or leaves, I loosen the top layer, caked and compacted over the winter. Then I lift the edges of the insulation and make vents to ensure ventilation of the bushes.

When to remove covers from plants in spring

It is very important to choose the time to remove covers. If roses are opened too early, spring frosts can damage the buds that have begun to grow. Belated removal of covers can lead to damping off.

The signal to begin removing covers is the thawing of the soil.

When warm weather with slight night frosts sets in and the soil in the shelter thaws to a depth of 15-20 cm, the insulation must be removed. I do this on a cloudy, windless day or in the evening to avoid sunburn of the bark of overwintered shoots and drying them out by the wind after a long stay in a humid environment without sufficient air access.

I remove the covers step by step.
First stage: I open the ends.
Second phase: the next day I open the northern or eastern sides of the air-dry shelter.
Third stage: I completely remove the cover, shading the roses with spruce branches or paper.

Roses covered only with spruce branches or light boxes, I open it as the soil thaws. I perform “cosmetic” pruning on open roses: I remove and burn dry, broken and frost-damaged branches. I do the same with the leaves left on the ground since autumn.

How to treat roses in spring

After the ground has completely thawed I raked away the earth from the bushes that covered them. I do this very carefully so as not to damage the bark of the shoots. I carefully clear the grafting site (neck) from the soil, wipe it with a cloth and rinse thoroughly with a 1% solution of copper sulfate (100 g per 10 liters of water) or a bright pink solution of potassium permanganate using a brush or soft brush.

You can often find frost holes on the shoots of roses., which appear when water freezes when it gets into cracks or scratches in the bark. If the frost shoots are large and located close to the grafting site, then I remove such shoots; if they are small, then I fly.

In this case, the crack must be washed with a 1% solution of copper sulfate.(100 g per 10 liters of water) or a bright pink solution of potassium permanganate using a brush, apply a plantain leaf to this place and seal with a strip of medical plaster.

Otherwise, frost holes will turn into foci of infection with various fungal diseases. The spread of fungal spores is also facilitated by high humidity that occurs under insulating materials that were removed at the wrong time.

Sometimes mold can be found on the shoots of roses after coverings were removed late. This most often happens if the roses have been overwintered without treatment with iron sulfate or copper-soap preparations. In this case, the mold must be removed and the shoots washed with one of the products mentioned above.

Climbing and ground cover roses often damp out when pressed to the ground and covered with insulating materials., especially if the plants were not ventilated on time or were late in removing the covers. In these roses, excess moisture leads to the shoots being damaged by an infectious burn.

Symptoms of this disease: reddish, later darkening spots in the center, which increase in size and ring the shoot. In this case, the affected shoots must be cut out entirely to avoid the spread of infection.

In shoots affected to a lesser extent, you need to use a sharp garden knife or scalpel to clean the affected area down to healthy tissue, lubricate it with tetracycline ointment or garlic paste (grind the garlic cloves to a thick paste), cover with a washed plantain leaf and seal with a strip of medical plaster.

After the final removal of covers I trim the roses, following all the rules for pruning by group and variety, then I spray them with a 1% solution of copper sulfate, water them generously with warm water so that the suction roots begin to work, I feed them and hill them up.

Thus, It is important not only to reliably cover roses for the winter, but also to open them in a timely and correct manner in the spring.
Alexandra Teorina

Spring is very early this year. And there was little snow in winter. As a result, it quickly melted, and gardeners hurried into the garden. What did you do first? They opened their roses and coniferous trees. The needles were green, and so were the stems of the roses. But what is it? A week later we arrived at the garden, and the roses had turned black, and the needles on the Christmas trees had turned brown. Did the slight frosts that occurred these days destroy the plants? No, in winter the frosts were stronger, and the temperature even under shelter dropped lower. Sunburn is to blame. Many gardeners removed ALL the cover, spruce branches, and spunbond (or film) at once. Plants that had been without light for almost 5 months suddenly found themselves in bright sun. They got used to it and got burned. How to help plants after winter - experienced rose grower Elena Ivashchenko shares her experience.

ON THE SAME RAKE AGAIN...

Surprisingly, even among my friends, to whom I often remind that the cover cannot be removed immediately, there are gardeners who make such mistakes. What is this? Distrust of the experience of other gardeners (after all, they write about this in every magazine) or the desire to learn from YOUR own mistakes?

And most likely, this is our general “maybe”. Even those who have already “stepped on this rake” think that this will not happen this year. The sun is so warm, gentle, it’s so pleasant to bask in its rays.

Yes, the sun is pleasant for us people. But do not forget that we did not live without light at all. Every day in the fall and winter we went outside and received solar radiation through our faces and hands. Our body is not at all accustomed to the sun. And the plants were tightly closed for almost 5 months! And suddenly we opened them and seemed to put them on the beach, in the very sun, and for the whole day!

By evening, while we were in the garden watching the plants, nothing had happened yet. We went home calmly. And everything happens later in the evening or on the second day. The plant tissues darken and sunburn appears.

Remember yourself. If you are overheated on the beach, the burning sensation of your skin is felt closer to night. But if you, having received a burn, no longer go out into the sun, then the plants continue to stand under it every day!

A burn in plants is the drying out of tissues under the influence of the sun. When leaves are present, they can evaporate moisture to increase humidity directly near the tissues, which prevents overheating and drying out. And in the spring there are no leaves. The bark on the plant stems takes the entire impact. This is how you get a burn.

Conifers have a different situation. The needles can evaporate moisture, but it is not replenished from the roots, since the ground is frozen. Thin needles dry out quickly, which causes them to darken (photo 4).

HOW TO HELP ROSES?

First you need to assess the condition of the plants. Sometimes the stems of roses permanently turn black and dry out. All that is needed here is trimming. How to trim in this case? Many people spare the stems and cut them exactly along the edge of the burn. But this is not true. You need to trim, taking another couple of centimeters of living green tissue.

If the stems have darkened completely, cut them level with the ground or even a little lower, digging up a little soil.

Why is this necessary? Living tissue dries well, forming a cork layer, but dead tissue can begin to rot, and the damage will go down the stem.

After trimming, cover all cuts with brilliant green, or even better, with “RanNet” garden paste. It is much better than garden varnish: it not only closes the wound from infection, but also disinfects it.

You also need to shed and spray the rose with the HB101 stimulant and at the same time feed it with nitrogen fertilizers, for example, ammonium nitrate (a matchbox of 10 liters of water).

If, in addition to sunburn, traces of mold and black spots from fungal infections were observed, then you need to sprinkle with copper sulfate (HOM preparations, Bordeaux mixture). It is better to do this on the second day after spraying HB101.

THERE ARE NOT EVEN PENICHKS LEFT!

Roses that are cut to zero can grow back and even bloom this year. We just need to help them. To do this, create a greenhouse effect, that is, cover the bush with a cut 5-liter can (or bucket). Below it, the humidity and temperature are higher, which will benefit the sick plant.

But a transparent plastic can is not suitable for this. Under it, the rose will get sunburned again. You need to paint the inside of the can with garden whitewash, ordinary chalk, or simply smear it with clay (earth). Finally, you can simply wrap the can in newspaper and secure it with tape on the outside.

From time to time you need to look under the cover to see if sprouts have appeared. As soon as this happens, you need to open them (in cloudy weather) so that the sprouts do not stretch out without light.

IF THE CHRISTMAS BREEDS ARE BURNED...

Some cypress and juniper trees burn so badly that they cannot recover.

But the Konika spruce may lose its needles, but the buds remain alive. After some time, they bloom and cover the bare branches (photo 5). The decorative effect is being restored.

To help a burnt plant, you need to water it (preferably with warm water from a barrel), because melt water quickly evaporates in the wind and the ground becomes dry.

Spraying with HB101 (Epin or Zircon) will help speed up the regrowth of needles. The norm is given on the packaging, do not exceed!

And, of course, feeding will be useful. Fertikalux in chelated form and fertilizer “For coniferous plants” (in solution!) give an excellent effect.

Dear gardeners, if your plants are burned, draw conclusions and next time do not rush to completely remove the cover. Wait for cloudy weather and do this when the ground thaws and the roots begin to feed the plant with moisture.

In any case, do not rush to dig up a rose, even if it does not grow back for a long time. Sometimes shoots appear only in June! Surprisingly, some varieties restore the crown “from scratch” and even manage to bloom!

E. Ivashchenko, N. Novgorod


Number of impressions: 8329

Strange as it may seem, the most common cause of death of heat-loving garden beauties is most often not severe frosts. Roses that are properly covered for the winter are reliably protected from their effects. The main danger awaits them after the onset of spring and it is associated with two main reasons:

  • Roses that remain under a layer of winter mound throughout the spring can simply dry out at high temperatures.
  • After removing the winter shelter too early, pink shoots, weaned from bright sunlight, very often die from severe burns.

In other words, the cause of the death of the queen of flowers is most often the inept actions of the rose grower himself, either not knowing the rules for removing the winter cover, or neglecting them, but they are not so complicated. They should be performed in several stages. The first stage is proper snow retention and provision of ventilation inside the winter shelter.

First steps: snow manipulation

Even being securely covered and fenced off from the outside world, roses quickly sense the arrival of spring warmth and react to it by awakening and swelling of the buds. The trouble is that their root system, located in frozen soil, has not yet woken up after hibernation and has not started working. This is why it is so important not to let the plants wake up too early.

  • To slightly extend their winter dormancy period, it is necessary to prevent them from feeling the arrival of heat. To do this, at the very beginning of March, it is necessary to throw a certain amount of snow on the upper part of the air-dry shelter, inside which the roses have wintered, since by this moment the hot rays of the sun begin to melt the snow, exposing its ends and top.
  • Climbing, groundcover and standard roses that overwinter under a thick layer of snow should also be covered with additional snow.
  • At the very end of March or in the first week of April, after waiting for the active melting of the snow cover, it is necessary to perform the opposite manipulation: immediately shake off the snow from each winter shelter. To prevent stagnation of melt water, several diversion grooves are made next to the rose garden.

Manipulations when opening the rose garden for the first time

  • After the arrival of relative warmth (most often this happens at the very end of March or at the beginning of April), the shelters should be ventilated by opening their ends for a short time. At this point, you can water them and spray them with a growth stimulator, and also feed them with a solution of ammonium nitrate (it is enough to dilute one box of fertilizer in a bucket of water). After airing, the roses must be securely covered again, leaving only small ventilation holes at the top - “vents”. If the weather is warm, instead of three layers of covering material, you can leave only one.
  • Since miniature, climbing, standard and ground cover roses overwintered under a thick layer of soil and a cover of spruce branches, foliage or sawdust, the top layer of this cover, which was very compacted under a layer of snow, must be loosened. After this, slightly raising the edges of the shelter, it is necessary to leave a number of small vents that provide air circulation for ventilation of the rose bushes.

Sanitary pruning in early spring

It was after the first opening of the rose garden that its owners saw with horror that their beloved roses had turned black. What to do at this stage? Experienced rose growers advise: never give in to despair: blackened shoots do not at all indicate the death of the entire plant.
Despite all their tenderness and vulnerability, rose bushes have a large supply of vitality: seeming completely lifeless after winter and being pruned almost to the ground, they produce completely healthy new branches and recover magnificently.
So, what should you do when you see blackened rose bushes when you open your rose garden for the first time?

  • Remove last year's foliage and immediately rake away the winter mounds from the rose bush.
    Perform initial pruning of all blackened shoots. Sanitary pruning consists of removing all broken branches and brown and black shoots that did not survive the winter. Removal is carried out to the level of healthy tissue.
  • The worst option is the situation when, after opening the rose garden, it turns out that all the branches on the bushes have turned black right down to the ground. What to do in this case? The owner of the rose garden will have to immediately cut off all blackened shoots down to the grafting level. In this case, stumps are not left. We can only hope that after the winter only the above-ground shoots were damaged, and that the grafting itself and the root system survived the winter well. Cases where dormant buds were kept alive in grafting are not at all rare. Sometimes this process is so long that the plant awakens only by mid-July, or even by August. That is why you should not rush and throw away a poorly overwintered plant. By giving it a chance, you can save your favorite rose bush.
  • If the shoots are not so radically damaged, pruning is done to the level of healthy wood, and fresh cuts are immediately treated with ordinary green paint or RunNet garden putty. Inexperienced gardeners often make the mistake of cutting along the very edge of the damage. It is not right. It is necessary to cut off blackened shoots, capturing two to three centimeters of healthy wood. Why is such drastic pruning necessary? The fact is that healthy tissues, having dried out, quickly form a cork layer, but in dead ones the process of rotting can begin, which, going down the branch, will lead to its loss.
  • It often happens that on apparently healthy pink stems, upon closer inspection, a number of cracks and breaks in the bark are discovered, as well as so-called frost holes - places where water entered and froze during a cold snap. Some gardeners, feeling sorry for their pets, try to treat these wounds. This is done like this: each crack is treated with a brush with a solution of copper sulfate (take 100 g of the drug per bucket of water) or a bright pink solution of potassium permanganate. The treatment area is covered with a plantain leaf and covered with a medical plaster. However, experienced rose growers advise not to do this, but to cut off the damaged shoots into a ring. Their reasoning is simple: they believe that removing defective branches gives plants a chance to produce new strong shoots.

How to properly remove winter coating?

So, we have established that roses, even those that have withstood the winter cold well, most often die in the spring. How to properly release them from their winter shelter so that losses after its removal are minimal?

  • The correct choice of moment to remove the protective covers is of decisive importance. After all, if you hurry and remove them too early, returning spring frosts can destroy the sprouted buds. If you are late, you can destroy the bushes, provoking their damping off and giving rise to the activation of fungal diseases.
  • A good signal giving permission to release the bushes from winter captivity is the final thawing of the soil. After warm weather has established itself (not excluding the presence of slight night frosts) and the soil has thawed to a depth of twenty centimeters, the insulation is finally removed. To prevent the bark of overwintered branches from being damaged by bright sunlight and getting burned, this should be done on a warm but cloudy day or in the evening. This precaution can protect vulnerable shoots (which have been in a humid environment for a long time and insufficient air flow) also from rapid chapping and drying out.
  • You should get rid of the shelter in several stages. At the first stage, the ends are slightly opened. A day later, the side of the shelter located on the east or north side is opened. At the last stage, the final removal of the air-dry coating occurs. The roses remain only under the slight protection of shading created for them from spruce paws and sheets of paper. As a rule, in central Russia the date of final removal of the winter shelter from the rose garden is the twentieth of April.
  • Rose bushes that have overwintered under a layer of spruce legs and light boxes should also be opened when the soil thaws. Opened bushes are subjected to cosmetic pruning: shoots damaged by frost, as well as very dry and damaged branches, are removed. Last year’s dry leaves, which flew off the plants in the rose garden in the fall and lay there until spring, are subject to the same fate. The best disposal option is to burn them (along with freshly trimmed shoots). After removing the foliage, you must immediately remove the pile of mounded soil from the bushes. If the winter hillock remains next to them throughout the spring, the risk of damping off will increase several times.

How to help roses pruned to zero?

So that a bush cut to the grafting level can quickly grow and even bloom this season, you can cover it with a cut plastic five-liter can, the inside pre-painted with garden whitewash or covered with clay (this is done to prevent the plant from getting sunburn). The can can also be wrapped in a sheet of newspaper and secured with tape.
Periodically looking under the shelter, it is important not to miss the appearance of sprouts. As soon as they appear, the can must be removed (otherwise, being without light, the sprouts may stretch out greatly and the buds will not form on them). This must be done on a cloudy day so that the young shoots do not get burned.