Cold Hardy Roses for Beautiful Blooms in Cold Climates Enjoy beautiful blooms in a cold-climate garden with tips for choosing hardy roses and getting them ready for winter.
By: Jackson & Perkins
Cold hardy roses give northern gardeners more choices, including fragrant flowers for cutting and varieties that bloom throughout the season. Start with a rose rated for your growing zone, then choose the color and flower style you love.
Gardeners in cold climates have plenty to look forward to when choosing roses. Seasonally available, hardy varieties offer a range of colors, flower forms, and sizes. Finding one you’ll enjoy starts with matching the rose to your winter conditions.
September is a good time to take stock of the roses you grow, help them prepare for colder weather, and start choosing varieties for next year.
Check the Zone Before You Fall for the Flower
A beautiful bloom may catch your attention first, but before buying a rose, check that its recommended growing zones include yours.
In Zones 3 and 4, look for roses specifically rated for those conditions. Some hardy shrub roses and rugosa hybrids are good places to begin. Zone 5 gardeners generally have a broader selection, but should still check each variety rather than assume every hybrid tea, floribunda, or climber will thrive there.
“Cold hardy” doesn’t mean the same thing for every rose. Winter survival varies by variety and growing conditions. Some cold hardy roses keep their stems through winter. Others may lose stems to freezing temperatures but grow back from the base in spring. The University of Minnesota’s rose trials illustrate how much winter survival and spring regrowth can vary by variety. Learn more about hardy rose performance.
Choose the Flowers You’ll Enjoy Most
Once you’ve narrowed your choices by zone, think about what you want from your roses.
For bouquets, look for a variety with stems suited to cutting and a fragrance you’ll enjoy indoors. For color beside a walkway or patio, a compact, repeat-blooming shrub may fit beautifully. Floribundas offer clusters of flowers, while a suitable climbing rose can add height to a fence or arbor.
Read the details on bloom season, fragrance, mature size, and disease resistance. These qualities vary from rose to rose. A hardy variety may bloom once in a generous flush or flower repeatedly through the growing season.
With climbers, pay particular attention to whether the long canes survive your winters. A rose may grow back from its base each spring yet struggle to cover the arbor you planted it to climb.
Give Your Rose a Good Place to Grow
A sunny spot with well-drained soil helps roses grow well and prepare for winter. Aim for at least six hours of direct sunlight each day and allow enough room for the plant’s mature size.
Avoid low spots where water collects. If possible, choose a location with some shelter from drying winter winds while still allowing air to circulate around the foliage in summer.
Follow the planting instructions that come with your rose. For more on planting depth and winter protection, see Jackson & Perkins’ guide to grafted and own-root roses.
Help Established Roses Head into Winter
As temperatures cool, a few timely jobs can help your roses finish the season well.
Water during dry spells. Check soil moisture through fall rather than stopping on a set date. Roses should not enter winter with dry roots.
Skip fertilizer that encourages fresh growth. Tender new shoots are vulnerable to cold damage.
Clean up fallen, diseased foliage. Remove it from the bed as part of your fall cleanup.
Save major pruning for the appropriate season. For many repeat-blooming roses, spring is the time to assess winter damage. Once-blooming roses may need a different schedule.
Match winter protection to the variety. Some hardy shrubs need little extra care, while more tender roses may require mounding or other protection after they go dormant.
Your local conditions matter as much as the calendar. Iowa State Extension offers useful guidance on seasonal rose care and winter protection.
Make Room for a New Favorite This Fall
September is a good time to shop for cold hardy roses while this season’s garden is still fresh in your mind. You know where you’d like more color, which spots have room, and what you’d love to cut for bouquets next year.
Browse roses rated for your growing zone and check the shipping schedule before ordering. In colder climates, spring delivery gives new roses a full growing season to establish before their first winter.
Although the garden feels like it’s winding down, there is an opportunity to begin something new: next season’s flowers. For an interesting article on the topic, click here .
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