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About Lynnette Payne
Expertise
I am knowledgeable in all aspects of growing roses, especially their disease problems. I can also help with organic growing of roses.

Experience
I have grown roses for over 50 years, worked in a rose nursery in the Pacific Northwest and now, thanks to retirement, have managed to stuff over a 800 roses into an acre of land.

Organizations
Vice president of a large garden club.

Publications
Have written the modern and antique FAQs for Gardenweb. Answered Questions on AllExpert when it first started and have a rose information website with photographs which is still being expanded. www.theoldrosarian.com

Education/Credentials
I studied under a British Rosarian in regards to rose history, blood lines, identification, breeding, diseases and propagation.

You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Roses > Roses > overwintering unplanted roses

Roses - overwintering unplanted roses

Expert: Lynnette Payne - 10/30/2009

Question
I purchased 58 roses this year but was not able to get all areas ready for their planting. It is early November now and putting them in the ground in their pots and mulching after hard frost is risky. I have a greenhouse to keep them humid and 50+ degrees all winter. Is this the better route? They will not go dormant at all then. Collection has hybrid teas, rugosas, floribundas, species, Old English,etc.

Thank you.
Tim Copeland

Answer
Roses need a dormant period to do their best and the winter killing of their leaves gives them that rest period. If you keep them in a heated warm and humid greenhouse, they will not go dormant and the growth will be weak. In the spring before you plant them in the garden, you will have to remove the weak growth before planting them. The ideal would be to keep them just above freezing so they go dormant and therefore be stronger in the spring.I don't know where you garden, but if there is no hard killing frost for a couple of weeks, I would at least plant the Species, Austins and Rugosas in the garden and then mound the bush up with compost, soil or mulch to 8 inches and that will make sure they go through the winter without being killed. The best time to mulch any rose is after there has been a couple of hard frosts and then you know for sure the rose is dormant and the protective mulch will not activate any growth.

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