Roses

Question

The weather next week will be very warm, upper 50s some lows of 60s as a daytime high n lows of 45s and it’s still winter in Michigan, but the weeks after that it will be back to 30s n 40s with night temp in low 30s. My question is how will my roses react to that big warm spell? I have mulch around them 4 in high and they are all hardy for zone 5a. What should I do? I don’t want to lose them. I planted them last summer.

Answer 1

I so well understand your concerns, we have been having the same conditions here in Northern Colorado. Some of my rosebushes are pushing out leaf buds and some of the mini roses have new foliage already! Worries me big time but there is little we can do. The best thing is to leave them alone and not do anything that might encourage more growth. The mulch you have in place is great and should help keep things in a colder state that will hopefully prevent them from getting too carried away with starting to grow. I have seen this before over the years and the roses have come through okay for the most part. One Easter we had a big nasty freeze and that did kill five of my rosebushes. Those bushes were ones that were not as hardy performers in my rose beds anyway except a couple that the wind had removed much of the mulch before the freeze hit. So the best thing is to check the roses and make sure the mulch is still holding in place. If there are places where the wind or settling has decreased the coverage, add a bit to just those areas. Then we watch and hope Mother Nature takes care of them.