Morden Belle -- what should I do to prep it for the winter?

16 years ago

I already figured out that I deadheaded it wrong (Opps... I hope it will forgive me next summer!?!...)

I must admit that I've never grown roses before so the fact that it still has green leaves and hasn't keeled over is pretty good!

Anyways, is there anything I need to do for it to get through it's first winter? I planted this one around mid-May so it should be fairly settled-in I guess.

When do I prune it? Any good links? I did try searching but not sure if being in zone 3 changes what we do for roses?

Ang

*** feeling back to bug everyone with such basic rose questions ***

Featured Answer

valleyrimgirl

16 years ago

I have both the Morden Belle and the Morden Centennial.

http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a184/valleyrimgirl/roses/

I am still adding pictures into the rose album, but there are a few in there to compare with.

Here is a separate picture of Morden Belle (purchased in '05). She is a small rose that I find only grows about 2 feet tall here and when in bloom quite often the branches arch and go onto the ground. I have not noticed the flowers fading like the Centennial does. The flowers are just the tiniest bit smaller than the Centennial. Very pretty. I like her.

The Morden Centennial (purchased in '99) on the other hand is quite tall...4 - 4 1/2' tall. Clusters of 10 - 15 or so flowers are quite common. Its stems are very sturdy and it is always upright in form, never had any branches fall down. The flowers open and fade slowly.

Does this help, Sharon?

Brenda

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Comments (13)

don555
16 years ago
I've got two Morden Centennial roses that I've had growing in zone 3 for 5 years or so. Morden Belle is a newer introduction (2004) that is said hardy to zone 3. Morden Centennial is supposed to be a bit hardier (to zone 2). I don't really do anything special for mine, maybe dump a bit of loose snow on them if they are looking exposed. I prune them down to a foot or two tall in the fall once they lose their leaves. There's usually a bit of winter dieback in the spring that you can prune out when you see what branches survived and which didn't. They seem to recover very quickly from any winterkill. That's about it... any snow you can use to cover them will help lessen winterkill... you could use straw or something, but that's a real pain to get out of the thorny branches in the spring, so I don't recommend it.
-Don
CrazyDaisy_68
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks Don! That really helps!
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valleyrimgirl
16 years ago
Ang, I have a number of Morden roses, also. I do nothing for them for the winter, no pruning, no extra covering, no nothing. Since they were developed here in Morden, Manitoba I am not worried at all about them making it through my Manitoba winters.

I have 2 Winnipeg Parks, 1 Morden Belle, 1 Hope for Humanity, 1 Morden Centennial, 1 Morden Sunrise, 5 Morden Blush, 1 Morden Ruby and 1 Morden Prairie Joy. None of them are babied at all. If there is any tip kill it just gets pruned off in the spring as I am cleaning through that particular flowerbed.

Note...Winnipeg Parks started blooming in June and has always had at least one flower on it all summer. Right now, it has another 5 flowers blooming on it. It is 7 years old and this year made a baby about 10 inches away from it. The baby had about 7-8 flowers, bloomed true to mom and is about 10" tall. I am going to dig the baby out next spring and transplant it somewhere else to another flowerbed because Winnipeg Parks is my favorite Morden rose.

Brenda
sazzyrose
16 years ago
Ang, my Morden Belle has made it through 2 winters without any special protection.
I have the majority of the Morden/Explorer roses and find that these Canadian roses are extremely tough.

Shelley
prairierose
16 years ago
My roses get a lot of grief from chinooks, and the snowcover is anything but reliable. I do mulch with straw, about 6 to 8 inches thick, then pull it away in spring so I only have 3 to 4 inches of mulch. My Morden Belle is new this year, but my Morden Centennial is several years old, and gets better every year. I have more trouble with winterkill on my old Hansas and Adelaide Hoodless, not that it seems to slow them down much.

Connie
valleyrimgirl
16 years ago
Connie, I don't have the privilege to get chinooks here in SW Manitoba. Could you send some our way this winter?

Maybe you should do some protection, as Don does.

Brenda
prairierose
16 years ago
Brenda, Don said he usually uses snow, which is not always available in the chinook belt, plus you can lose a foot of it in a day if things warm up, or it decides to blow. That's why I use the straw. It's the freeze/thaw cycle that's so hard on our shrubs and perennials. The plants get fooled into thinking it's spring if you have a few days of chinook, and then you plunge back into the deepfreeze. If the soil also freezes and thaws, that's right nasty for them too. I used to have a really nice east-facing bed where I could grow all sorts of things that supposedly aren't hardy here, just because they got the snow cover and weren't exposed to chinooks.

Connie
Crazy_Gardener
16 years ago
Any newly spring planted rose, [hardy or borderline hardy] I alway mulch over with straw the first winter. Here too we can sometimes not have snow till Nov/Dec.

Sharon
sharons2
16 years ago
Now, how does Morden Belle differ from Morden Centennial? I have seen Centennial, but not Belle.

Comparison pictures, anyone?

Thanks,
Sharon
CrazyDaisy_68
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the great info everyone! Straw sounds like a good idea for sure. This particular flower bed does tend to get alot of snow and since its right in the middle of our walkway it gets lots and lots of extra dumped onto it, BUT there has been one winter (2 years ago?) that we pretty much had zero snow cover almost all winter long.

Sorry for being MIA for so long, but ya know between work/family I'm swamped! I'm getting 2 days off in a row next week which will be great for winterizing my garden and looking into getting straw, etc!

Ang
sharons2
16 years ago
Yes, some. It tells me a lot that I didn't know before; but it's got me fairly confused, too. I've seen Morden Centennial in person before; and it was a bright almost warm-toned fuschia - not a cool blue-toned fuschia, like I had expected it to be.

Your Morden Belle picture looks about the color that Morden Centennial looks in real life, and your Morden Centennial picture looks more lavender - like my Therese Bugnet. At least on my monitor, anyway....

That's pretty revealing about the size and floppiness differences, though. I hadn't picked up on that.

Sharon
valleyrimgirl
16 years ago
Sharon, there are more pictures in the rose album that I have in the Photobucket. Maybe those will help a little more for the color comparison. Centennial is a nice medium pink, darker in true life than the picture shows and as it fades it goes a creamier pink. Belle is pretty true to the color shown above.

The link to my rose album (and others if you wish to look at them)...

http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a184/valleyrimgirl/

Brenda

Morden Belle -- what should I do to prep it for the winter?

valleyrimgirl

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Morden Belle -- what should I do to prep it for the winter?

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