What kind of leaves, Jim? Usual recommendation is that oak leaves are OK but maple leaves compact too much and get soggy. I'd say sycamore is also NG. Object is to keep the canes reasonably dry but protected which is why I use shredded cedar bark. If the leaves are a soggy mess by spring, they'll do more harm than good.

Thanks Lily.

My trees are mostly Locust, one big Elm and also a big Maple. A couple of other big ones that I have never bothered to identify. I need to do that.

Hi Jim,

Yes, definitely stay away from the Maple leaves for protection. They are o.k. shredded and mixed in with some compost, spread over the beds but not against the plants. I've only been growing tender roses for a couple of years, but last winter I mounded up my HT's and Austins with 10-12" of soil in November, and once that froze, I decided to cover the mounds with shredded cedar bark, as Oldroser does. Everything came through fine, all green under the mulch. This year, I'll save time, and do both together! Of course, if I had buried the graft 4" instead of 2", I could probably get away with not protecting the Austins. The only roses I lost were potted ones, taken out too early from the shed, before that wicked spring freeze. Live and learn.
Judith

I, too, don't use leaves due to the sogginess and they "stick" to the canes.

I use topsoil and pine mulch to mound the base of the roses.

Leaf-only never worked for me, regardless of tree species. Leaves flatten over the winter to a very small volume. It's the air pockets that provide the protection. I would make big cages out of hardware cloth, wrap them around my rose and stuff the cages with leaves right to the top. Come spring the leaves would be wet, matted and well onto an early rot. And I would be lucky if there was four or five inches left.

I use a wood chip mulch. In the fall I rake this around the crowns of my roses as high as I can, usually in November right before the ground freezes. Later, in December, I'll toss snow on top of the wood chip mound. This snow lasts through to March the following spring. Lots of air pockets. I might even cover the snow mounds with pine boughs to shade them and slow down any sun melt.

OK a bad idea. Sorry I mentioned it.

So sitting here reading the replies I still wanted to think of another way. Wow what about styrofoam. Great insulator, doesn't wet. Perfect. Pellets would be good but how to contain them? The boards are stiff so how to get them around the rose? Well make a square of boards then fill them with pellets? Man a lot of work but I might try them for a couple of climbers. Spring would be mess dealing with all that light, clinging white stuff.

Well they would be white like the snow!

Alright back to the bark or whatever.

Stay away from styrofoam pellets - you'll never get rid of them. Quite a few people in northern New England use boxes of styrofoam insulating board to cover their beds but for that you need neat, rectangular beds, roses cut back to about 18" and double stakes to slide the planks of insulation into. And weights on top to keep the stuff from blowing away. Don't think your area is cold enough to warrant this procedure.
I'll still go with shredded cedar bark - cheap, light, easy to apply and in spring it turns into mulch and from there to compost.

I have used loose leaves from Brandon elm, cottonwood and green ash leaves for two winters in a couple of areas. They worked well but a big big pain in the tassel to cleanup come spring without ripping canes and such up mainly due to the scale of the garden - found my peat moss easier and swore off using leaves en masse. Of course the cottonwood's propensity to drop twigs and branches in the fall did not help cleanup much when tossed into the garden from the bags (leaves were free from a neighbor).

Water retention not really that much of an issue for me due to low snow fall. For small spot applications it is probably less work - my 77 year old mother still uses them in spot applications for HT and minis in a cold and wet zone 3B but covers the leaves with a tarp.

Isn't cedar resistant to decay? Why not use something like pine and leave it become an organic mulch. Now as to peat moss, I remember seeing Riku with a picture of his huge pile of bags and bags of peat moss. Anyway I always have in the back of my mind that peat is so difficult to wet and not something to put in a container mix. Plus being acid. So maybe it's ok for winter protection.

Yes leaves get way too soggy.

I use pine needles. They are light and airy and don't retain water. (and free). Do you have any white pines near you? My neighbor has a couple and I rake up his needles. But this isn't enough so I raid a neighborhood a few miles away that has an abundance of pines--the residents bag the needles during leaf collection season and I drive by and rescue them.

I have 9 old and big white pines on the road in front. Lots of needles but I am reluctant to use them because the County uses salt liberally in winter and it drains off toward that area of the lawn. But I'll have a closer look and see if the berm in front of the trees might deflect the water. Maybe taste them?

Those salts are pretty water-soluble and surely most has been rinsed off any surface needles by now - I would personally not recommend tasting them, however :)

Which brings me to a point that should be made: find out about, and get behind, any efforts to mandate non-NaCl road salt if you live in an area with winter snow. See this link for a great bit of info about what's been considered in some watersheds affecting New York City. I know quite a few states are beginning to make changes like these, and perhaps, Jim, they've already made the switch where you are. A quick phone call to your Dept. of Transportation could answer any questions you have. Table salt is a scourge and needs to be kept off our roads.

The shredded bark seems to decay very nicely after a year as mulch. It's light, easy to carry, easy to apply. I'm not into heavy labor at my age.
Pine needles are fine but suggest you collect them into a pile and hose them off rather than tasting them. And remember you'll need about a bushel or more for each plant.

The leaves make excellent compost makings for the following summer. What Foghorn do is to bag up those shredded (hopefully) leaves in those ugly black plastic bags. They go into a pile out of sight. Foghorn also steal what leaves he can from the neighbors.

He tip what he has't to, wrapp some, and hill with dirt, pine bark or other "on sale" mulch stuff. After everything has frozen nice and solid, Foghorn heap the bags on top of the buried canes and between and around the rose bushes.

Foghorn rips those black bags off and untips the tipped EARLY in March otherwise Foghorn has one soggy disease ridden mess. Foghorn leaves the mulch and dirt in place in case of the usual visits from Mr. Frost. OK! This year Foghorn got burned by Mr. "Late" Frost.

We have the polar winds here and only have a brief January thaw. Just trying to keep everything frozen is our goal.

Foghorn think you may have a greater temp variation than we do here in the Mudwest. We keep the excess leaves piled into two bins made from wire fencing material. That might be the best. YMMV!

Watch out for those soggy birds!

Stefan

Fascinating article. Another intance where our love of the automobile is impacting the environment. You should see the new documentary on climate change, called the 11th Hour.

A couple of years ago I tried using the sand from road application. It accumulated in the roadside drainage system. At the time several posters warned about the danger of salt contamination. And I didn't take that seriously for the same reason you mentioned about the solubility of salt and the fact it would be easily rinsed off by normal rain fall. Couldn't tell if it made any difference in winter protection so gave that up. Too heavy and need to take off in Spring.

So I'm wondering about the use of bark. I suppose you can leave it on. And I wonder if it suppresses weeds?

Hi Jim, for my more tender roses - I tie their canes together with strips of panty hose and take a large styrofoam cone (with the top cut off) and sit it over the rose (canes will be sticking out of the open top. I then fill the cone with woodchips, which seem to drain better than anything else I have tried. I've used shredded bark, compost, etc. but always had a problem with canker. Chipped wood doesn't seem to do that. I've been able to save a good foot of cane on very tender hybrid teas using this method. I do this for the rose beds in our lower meadow garden which gets the full brunt of winter cold and wind. I don't have to do anything to my hybrid teas on the upper garden against the East wall of the house, as they are very protected there.