Oh my, you took the words right out of my mouth. I have been doing garden work the last few days and ALL of my roses have swellings or new leaves! I have never seen this in early Feb. I know we will have ice and snow before spring, but what can we do? If anyone out there has any suggestions...lets hear them! I do not want to loose any of my roses or deal with weak, sick roses the entire season. This is so bizarre! Lesley

Stigal, follow your instincts and stay indoors. I stay away from my 400 roses so I don't see this early bud swelling. I'm like an Ostrich, I stick my head in the sand or wear blinders.
Plants (roses) have gone through this for millennium and they're still around. They'll survive and be blooming at their usual time. Stay indoors and relax.
If you do anything now, you'll be writing us later to find out how to repair any damage. As you can see, I'm in the midwest also. Will be waiting until my usual pruning time in late March/early April.

Lesley
You can't do anything. Anything you do will have about the same affect as going outside and yelling at the weather.
Doing something now will have more to do with weak sick roses the entire season than doing nothing!

Thanks for the advice Karl! I always tell myself what you say, that if they are meant to grow here I need to just let them be and see how they do. And that generally works out well--they freeze back (some years even 2 times--3rd time's a charm) but still survive and bloom. Usually it is growth being frozen to death in March-April and not freakish growth in February though!

As you say, anything one would do (like agreeing with their schedule and pruning them now) would only stimulate growth and exacerbate the problem. So I think I'll consider this la NIna's gift to us after last year, when she covered my rose buds with snow in late April. Maybe get out and take a few pictures of the first spring greenery with the new macro lens for the camera! ....I feel better already...

And you're also right in that I always follow the forsythia rule for pruning and those more cautious ladies have greened their buds up a bit in the warm weather but appear to be holding off on blooming--spring isn't here yet, it's just seeing if it can trick us...

Great advice from Karl. I don't even follow the forsythia rule. I go by the calendar--what the forsythia would normally be doing, not what it is doing this year.

Thanks, Karl. I will sit tight and do nothing. I might find myself going out and screaming a few choice words at the weather,tho!! Lesley

If the forthysia get fooled don't prune. The forthysia rule is for a normal year.

So far, THEY at least are keeping their heads! They are unfazed by late snowstorms (less vulnerable than the roses to strange weather shifts, for certain) so I'm surprised they are being more cautious so far.

Okay, you've convinced me--as difficult as it may be, I will try to take your advice and ignore the bright yellow flowers waving at me through the window in the coming month. :)

Karl is right, leave them alone. Yes, if we get some real winter this month you'll lose that new growth but it's the tips usually. If you prune them back now you'll be cutting off some of the stored energy the plant will need to regrow later when it really is spring.

My forsythia has greened up and is fattening buds too. So has my lilac and several other perennials around the yard. The hydrangeas are starting to leaf out a little. And I have tiny sprouts coming up on my bleeding hearts and peonies as well. They're all just as confused as the roses. Sadly, if and/or when we get any freezing weather we're going to lose a lot of springs blooms this year.

II think it is 'when' rather than 'if' unfortunately. And I spoke too soon on the forsythias--a first green bud has opened, so I think they'll be going in the next week or two also. You're right, everything is confused. All of my bulbs are up already, even the tulips.

I wonder if that plant antifreeze stuff would be worth a try to protect the new growth from upcoming weather swings a little. Have to look back through the old posts to find the info. We were discussing it a couple of months ago when I was wondering about Wilt-Prufing to prevent them from dessication--turns out there were no drying winter winds this year anyway, at least not yet.

This is the stuff Michael and Henry Kuska were talking about some time back--did you ever try it or find a favorite supplier Michael?

Here is a link that might be useful: FreezePruf

Snow on the ground now and heading into lows in the teens. You were right Karl, except that I can't just not watch. Sounds like the Freeze Pruf stuff is trash and won't help with temps this low even if it worked well. Just will have to watch them die back several times before May and hope there's something still there to be pruned.

yep, it has been a bit of a non-winter over here in the UK although that came to an end this week once the westerly winds changed direction. Now, we are getting the vicious easterlies from Siberia and it is a very different picture from a couple of weeks ago. True, there are going to be losses but mainly stuff like almonds, magnolias and peaches. I expect the roses to sail through as they always do regardless of early or late freezes. True, england's zone 8 is more forgiving than most (although it does not feel so at present) but I strongly doubt my roses will miss a beat - unlike the snivelling agapanthus and salvias looking dreary and icy.

I imagine mine will be fine too--they've mostly only had time to produce little buds and not many have leafed out much. So not so much energy put into growth before it got cold again. Even if the buds freeze, they usually just start over near the same site once it warms. Our magnolias are still dormant and holding out until warmer weather...

Getting a little bit of chilly weather for a couple of days. High's 50, lows 30 with a light frost. Normal for this time of year.

Stigal,
At the base of each leaf there are three dormant bud eyes. In spring, the middle bud eye breaks and produces new leaves or a cane. Should that freeze or get damaged, one or both of the other two will activate.
This is why I don't get excited and run around like a raving maniac if we get a late freeze. I know my roses will survive and still reward me with blooms.
Mom Nature had the first back-up system.
Early spring growth contains a lot of sugar which acts as a natural antifreeze.
Relax, sit down and read the catalogs.

Karl...you big sweetie! Thanks for the calming message. I know you know your rose "stuff" and I intend to sit down, relax and get down to ordering more roses for this spring! Thanks a million....Lesley

Temps are predicted to drop significantly into the teens over the next 3 to 5 days and snow for tomorrow night and Saturday. Only an inch though. Not enough to cover and do much good. But then next week sometime it's supposed to go back up into the 40s again! What a crazy winter! Snow fall amounts are less than half what it was last year at this time and days above freezing are more than twice as many.

I watered my roses today! We haven't had any significant precipitation in several weeks and it has been very sunny the last few days so I thought maybe they'd like a drink. I also think they'll fare better in the cold snap if they're well hydrated. I had to lug gallon jugs of water out, ugh! If this weather does keep on like this I'm going to ask his nibbs to hook the hose back up!

My tree roses in the garage look like they do in APRIL; leafed out and ready to go.

Ahhh, yes, thanks for the soothing message Karl! Now that you mention it, I have watched the second, or sometimes third batch of new growth emerge near the dead old stuff in other years (although those die-backs tended to be in late March through April).

Catalogs full of beautiful roses are indeed the one thing to distract me sufficiently, so that I'm not tempted to snoop around in the yard. I'm going to take a few photography classes and shoot pictures of some bulbs I'm forcing indoors and before we know it it will be spring for real!

Ok it's now the end of March, and my knockout and David Austin roses are leafed out fully. We went away for two weeks and when I came back it was looking like mid May in my garden!

I'd like to prune back the David Austin so it isn't quite so tall, and the knockouts are a little out of shape on some sides. Can I do a little shaping pruning or is it too late?

I decided to ignore the wise advice and went ahead with pruning the past couple weeks. After all, my roses are not stopping their progress--first 2 rose blooms yesterday. Can't put off spring pruning until AFTER the first cycle of bloom, can I? Well, I didn't--and my garden is bulging with green bloom buds. Nothing is going to stop them from doing their thing.

Those first blooms, by the way, are about 6 weeks early--but they are blooming. Who am I to argue with them? LOL

Kate

My knock out was trying to push new growth during winter and it had a few buds on it so when I pruned, oh... a month or so ago it was pushing out like crazy so I am wondering if I didn't do that then my rose would be blooming...

Even with this very early warmth there is plenty of time to prune. Yes, if you prune back now you will delay the bloom a little but it will not hurt the rose in anyway. They'll just probably bloom when they would have done so normally anyway!

There was no waiting, I had to prune over the last two weeks as they are already blooming now. In March! Easily 4-5 weeks earlier than they ever have done before. Pickering is sending me bare root roses this week and it is almost too late, but in most years would have been on the early end. And it will be 86F on Sunday. We are breaking thousands of established records this year.

I just came on the forum to let the person who posted the amazingly clever reworking of Dr. Seuss's Grinch know that she needs to do the Lorax next. The roses have adapted to early spring and the changing climate driving it, but will we...