Hybrid roses require special winter care

Winterize your hybrid roses after there have been two to three hard freezes (temperatures in the teens), which typically occurs in late November at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Cut back the rose canes to about 18 inches and mound the roses with 12 to 15 inches of compost or mulch for the winter. Do not use grass clippings, which will mat down and hold moisture around the plants.

It is best to clean up and remove any rose leaves that have fallen if you had problems with black spot, which is a common fungal disease. This disease will overwinter on infected foliage.

Shrub roses do not require this special treatment for the winter, though many gardeners do so anyway.

• Clean out your gutters once all leaves have fallen. Leaves will clog up the gutters and be very difficult to remove if frozen, so monitor weather when planning this work.

Frozen pots outside will also stop you from inserting cut greens for winter decoration. Move the pots inside a garage to thaw them out so you can insert the branches and create winter container gardens.

• A quick way to clean up leaves is to rake them on to a tarp that is at least 8-by-10 feet in size and drag them to the curbside for pick up to a compost pile. The leaves are not heavy, so it is possible to remove a large volume without much exertion.

I pile my extra leaves up in the back corner of my garden. Since they are not shredded nor in a compost pile that is managed, it takes about two years to get usable compost from the leaves.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.