Summer containers adapt for a beautiful winter

Remove frozen plants from containers and hanging baskets and replace them with evergreen boughs, branches with colorful berries and interesting seed heads from perennials and ornamental grasses.

Garden centers will have lots of options to choose from for decorating your containers if you do not have materials available in your garden. Push ends of the stems into the growing medium in the container, as it works well to support the branches. This must be done before there is an extended period of freezing weather that will freeze the growing medium and make it impossible to insert the ends of branches.

• 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 to15 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; treat them as you would any other shrub in your garden.

• Clean out your gutters once all leaves have fallen. Leaves will clog up the gutters and be very difficult to remove if frozen in.

• Be sure to move any liquids stored in your unheated garage during the gardening season to the basement or other area that will not freeze during the winter.

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