Take specific steps to protect hybrid tea rose through winter

Q. This is the first year I planted a hybrid tea rose. Because the flowers were so beautiful, I want to make sure the plant survives our winter. How do I prepare the plant for the cold?

A. Since hybrid tea roses can easily fall victim to winter's severe cold and drying winds, proper fall preparation is necessary for successful blooms next year.

Do not fertilize roses after Aug. 15. Stop deadheading/cutting roses after Oct. 1 and allow the plant to form rose hips that the birds will enjoy. Fertilizing and cutting canes encourages new growth; the plants need time to go dormant before freezing temperatures arrive.

Do not apply winter protection too early. Wait until a hard killing frost causes most of the leaves to drop. Or, wait until the temperature has dropped into the teens for several nights which is usually after Thanksgiving.

Providing sanitation is the first step in winter care for tea roses. Remove any foliage that has not fallen from the plant. Prune any diseased/dead canes; leave major pruning until next April. Do not compost them. Instead, destroy all debris and foliage from around the base of the plants. This debris could harbor disease and infect the plants next year.

There are several ways to protect tea roses. The idea is to keep the plants uniformly cold all winter and avoid the freeze/thaw conditions of northern Illinois. It is important to protect the knob-like bud union, where the hybrid rose is grafted to the rootstock, from severe cold.

•Place an 18-inch chicken wire cage around the plant. Fill the cage with about 12 inches of well-drained garden soil/compost. After the ground freezes, fill the cage with straw or evergreen boughs. You can also just "hill" about 12 inches of soil around the base of the plant and mulch when ground is frozen; however, the cage method works well because it keeps the soil in place.

•Cover the rose with a Styrofoam rose cone. Lightly prune the rose to fit under the cone. Make sure the top and bottom of the cone have 4 or 5 one-inch sized holes to allow for ventilation. If heat builds up under the cone, the plant may break dormancy. Don't place the cone over the plant until the ground is frozen (December or later). Put a brick on top of the cone to keep it from blowing away.

Last spring I found a lot of brown needles on my evergreens. I think it was a type of "winter burn" due to strong cold winds. How can I prepare my evergreens to avoid that problem this year?

A. It sounds as if your evergreen needles were damaged during the severe winter. Cold winter winds and sun can quickly desiccate (dry out) evergreens. It is particularly important that all evergreens (needle and broad-leaved) are well watered before freezing temperatures. On broad-leaved evergreens such as holly, boxwood, and rhododendron, you will find browned foliage if the plants suffered winter damage.

While evergreens must be protected from cold, dry winter winds, they do need access to light and air during the winter. You can protect low growing needle and broad-leaved evergreens by creating a windbreak of burlap or canvas around an individual plant. Before it freezes, select stakes about two feet taller than the shrub, and pound them into the ground around the evergreen. Once the ground begins to freeze, nail or staple the canvas/burlap to the stakes and surround the entire shrub. If you have a group of evergreens too large for individual windbreaks, you can position one large windbreak to protect the plants from strong prevailing NW/W/SW winds.

Making windbreaks each year can be time-consuming. Therefore, if you plan on planting new evergreens, consider the location of existing windbreaks such as a house, garage, fences, walls or other objects that block wind. To protect the new evergreens from Northwest/West/Southwest winds, plant them in areas protected by these windbreaks.

• Provided by Mary Boldan and Donna Siemro, University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners. Send questions to Ask a Master Gardener, c/o Friendship Park Conservatory, 395 W. Algonquin Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016, (847) 298-3502 or via e-mail to cookcountymg@sbcglobal.net.