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Watering roses in cold weather?

11 years ago

I live in NY zone 6a and the roses look very dry. We didn't have precipitation for a while. Now the temps are 48-49 but at night they are forecasted in the 26-29 range. Should I water or not?

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Comments (9)

mikeber
Original Author
11 years ago
Should I water roses in dry cold weather?
Day temps are 49, but at night they'll fall to 27.
We hadn't have precipitation for a while.
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
11 years ago
In general, once the trees lose their leaves, the water doesn't go anywhere until spring. It just sits there going squoosh. For it to be a real issue, it would have to have not rained for more than a month, which means you somehow missed Sandy.
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Thanks for the warning, Ken. I've fried plants using metal stakes and rods with our intense sun and heat. It stands to reason the reverse would also hold true. I'm sorry you had dead canes from them. Do you think a length of old garden hose slipped over the rod and secured in place with ties might insulate enough to prevent the freeze damage? I prefer the strength of metal stakes as well as their increased longevity over wood. I can imagine wooden ones would last an even shorter time with your rains, heat and freezes. We balance it out by having the intensity of sun and heat, plus extreme winds, while you have the harsher cold, rain and more constant humidity. I wonder if the ties were secured around the cane, a short length (just enough to prevent the cane from being tied against the stake) then the loose ends of the tie secured around the stake might work? I do that when securing climbers to wrought iron fencing here and it's worked. Kim
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cold weather and my roses are not dormant yet - is this normal?
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Comments (4)
ok thanks everyone - i thought that as soon as the cold came, the roses would go dormant really quick :) i'll wait until they shed all leaves... this might be a dumb question but... do the canes turn... brown when the roses go dormant? Do i prune right after it sheds all leaves? What happens if i don't cut it down and just wrap it up? Thanks for all the help - this is my first experience ever with rose plants so i get really anxious because i want them to come back in the spring :) I bought a couple of books about rose care, but lots of text and not enough pictures... Thanks again!!
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Tankless units are expensive compared to tank Electric tankless are expensive to wire and operate. The good ones (Rinnai) are expensive units because of their quality. All tankless units are very expensive to repair when the down the road issues arise. I won't buy the nonsense that they are expensive as tank heaters. At the most, $80 swing either for electric or gas. Finding someone with trained hands in your area to work/maintain tankless repairs are hard to find. Otherwise you are subjected to days, not hours without hot water and you are also depending on items shipped to you if you are capable of diagnosis, repair of your unit. The MAJORITY of homeowners have tank heaters, that's a fact. Salesmanship of trying to get the homeowners to spend thousands instead of 100's when the heater goes kaputz is putting personal finance in priority to customer's needs. Meaning that if you do not disclose the periodic maintenance of a tankless (deliming/descaling to heat exchanger to prevent efficiency loss) as required by most mfg warranties to stay intact, you are misleading the flock. The end user of such product needs to be fully aware of all parameters involving these units and understand that no one is coming over with a thermocouple or set of Robertshaw thermostats to fix their unit. It's more and more expensive. So if you have such tastes for steak when everyone is eating hamburger, expect the obvious. If money isn't a problem and got tons to spend, tankless is for you. There's a reason why homeowners never maintain their water heater and never think about it until the hot water quits coming out. They also go down the laundry list of plumbers trying to get the best price of how much to spend, usually under a grand. The majority DO care about quality, but cost is usually the driving force of MOST matters concerning heaters. That's why they price 4 different heaters from 4 different mfgs with the best deal. Jump on the tankless bandwagon and now you've isolated yourself from others that get their hot water back in hours, not days. Hopefully you of those that have tankless have in-area support when it breaks down. In my region they don't exist, the rep is usually out west or they swing it to a plumbing company as an authorized rep to keep replacing parts till it works.
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cold weather and my roses are not dormant yet - is this normal?
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Comments (3)
Well..New.. They should be feeling the weather by now.. and going dormant... I've had roses on my roof top for decades in containers.. the biggest problem isn't them getting too cold.. but warming up too early in the spring.. at first I'd cover them with pine limbs from Christmas trees... I'd recycle off the street.p the roses in a bunch together.. and cover them.. but I haven't done that in a very long time.. yes.. the bigger the container the best chance for them to be surviving.. So.. what I've get found.. is on the roof.. it will get real warm in the late bright winter days...this will drive them out of dormancy.. start the juices flowing .. only to be frozen again during a cold night.. this shatters them internally.. on a cellular level.. water taken up is frozen.. it expands..and shatters the cell walls..alayer of bubblerap might cause them to get real warm from the roof surface below.. and the heat held in by the wrap.. I'd get the planters up off the roof.. first... then perhapsawrap.. as the sun shinning on the pots themselves will heat it up...also.. you want to delay pruning in the spring... till late.. as this is a spur to them breaking dormancy also.. So.. what I do is to allow them to get as cold as they need to..and keep them shaded.. [ out of the direct sun helps ] cool and alseep... till it is considerably warm... I've gone to building up foam planters to keep them in.. andI've built a foam panneled cool room up on my roof... to house tropicals through the winter.. It's 49 in there right now. with their little heater set to NO FREEZE.. it's about 36 outside.. now.. Well the best of luck there.. if I can be of any help.. just write to me Gordon
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mikeber
Original Author
11 years ago
Not exactly. Some roses still have leaves and I planted a new one just a few days ago. Sandy took place 3 weeks ago. We had extreme winds but only 1" of rain.
The question is if 27-29 deg during nighttime is enough to damage the roots. Tomorrow, the temps will climb again to the 50 deg range.
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
11 years ago
The new one should have been watered in.

If it is temperature you are worried about, don't. Those nighttime temps shouldn't even bother leaves and canes. Roots won't even notice until the ground freezes at depth.
mikeber
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you. I though it is something more people are interested to know, since such day/night temperature differences are common also in spring.
seil zone 6b MI
11 years ago
I continue to water right up until they go dormant. You don't want them to go into dormancy dehydrated because that further stresses them over winter. Well hydrated rose canes fair far better over the winter and come out stronger in the spring.

My roses are all still green and some of them even trying to put on some new growth so I watered everything Sunday when it was in the 50s and will probably water at least one more time before winter. If yours still have green leaves on them I'd say water them. Once the leaves have dried up they should be dormant and you can stop.
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
11 years ago
Here, if possible, you want roses to dry out a bit in the fall. Fall is usually our wettest season, and the modern roses have serious problems with this dormancy concept if they have plenty of water. So they grow and bloom, and then get the equivalent of a smack in the face with a hammer when winter comes.

This does assume that the soil is actually somewhat dry. I know mine isn't because I'm still waiting for the ten minutes of perfect weather when the grass catcher on the tractor can suck up the leaves and not jam.
seil zone 6b MI
11 years ago
Well obviously if it's raining like mad you don't need to water anyway. The roses will already BE hydrated, lol!

We haven't had more than a quarter inch of rain in the last month so my roses do need watering.
susan4952
11 years ago
Mine do too. Water past the drip line before I mulch for winter...encourage roots to stretch for a drink.

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