I have found that when I mulch my roses for the winter, they die of rot. But, when I don't mulch my roses for the winter, they die of cold. Either way I lose about the same number of roses. One way is way less work though so guess which one I do now. Soil may be too heavy for mulching your roses with, especially if you have clay soil. Also, if you mulch too early in the year they're more likely to rot. This winter, I waited til we had truly dangerously cold temperatures to do anything (below 20 degrees with predictions for possibly low teens), and then I mulched lightly with fresh dry wood shavings. My roses look great now. Didn't necessarily have to do anything as the temps never dropped into the low teens after all, and I've found that there's not enough damage to be worthwhile until temps drop into single digits. So, my roses were not mulched until mid January, and I uncovered them at the end of February; they were covered with a light fluffy airy material for only 6 weeks. Not buried in soil for 4 months. I've been told that winter protection is not to protect the roses from cold so much, as to protect them from freeze and thaw cycles. They need to experience the winter cold to let them know that yes it is winter now, but you don't want them to get cold then warm then cold then warm because they think the first warm spell is spring and start to grow. So I leave mine exposed to the cold until it gets really really cold. Books are just guidance. The fun of gardening is figuring out what works in what conditions. Every winter is going to be different.

+oM, From the FWIW category. I on a personal level have been raising trees from seed, bare root trees, and containerized trees and growing them into the fabric pots for the last 2-3 years. I have been pretty successful. The containerized plants have all had the usual issues of circling roots, and planted to deep in the containers. These plants I have literally hacked up the root systems to remove the problems (while completely leaved out), followed by replanting in the fabric root pruning pots for the remainder of the growing season. Results have been good so far, with little to no apparent root circling problems. One issue that I have encountered, is that the fabric tends to drain somewhat poorly at times, so that you can end up with a very wet bottom layer that is ripe for certain disease problems to begin. Some trees this won't matter, for others it can be fatal. In an attempt to try to resolve this, I have taken to cutting multiple ~1-1.5" T shaped slits around the bottom to act as drainage holes for excess water. I do not yet know how well this will work, but I would expect it to an improvement. Arktrees

Hi all, been a while since my last post. Busy, busy. The orchard is going strong, except for a few hiccups. My biggest concern this year is my four year old Liberty apple trees. After three good years of growth and no bearing (they would have but weren't allowed) four out five are having issues breaking out of dormancy. One is leafed out like normal, two blossomed out but are struggling to leaf, one is partially leafed and one is stuck at green tip for almost three weeks now. I remember them being slow last year, but not like this. They have been well watered this year, fertilized, and despite a few hard frosts no abnormal spring weather. Bases are cleared of competition, no succors. Bark looks healthy, feels healthy, green interior and flexible, not near a road so not suffering from salty runoff. Pruning was normal this year. Only variety in the orchard not hit by southwest disease. They are about seven footers on bud 118. Be a shame to lose any of these trees, any advice would be appreciated.

Alana, I'm colder than your zone so some of my experience might not apply, but once the roses (and bulbs) start growing, there's nothing I can do to convince them to stop. They might get a bit frost nipped here and there, but unless you get weather returning to the 20's for several days in a row (and that's all day, not just a brief tip in the night), you should be fine. Apparently roses when they first start growing in spring have nature's equivalent of "antifreeze" in their canes and they're more insulated against cold snaps than they are later in the season. Roses like the rest of the garden are reading a multitude of factors that you may not be aware of (e.g. day length, soil temperature, moisture), and they usually know what they're doing or can recover from it if not. As for pruning, I prune off obviously dead wood as soon as the crocus and such come up, which is before the official forsythia blooming start to pruning season. Dead wood is dead, and the rose doesn't know you've cut it until you get into live cane. If you're worried that it's too early to prune, leave an inch or so of probably dead wood on the tips, and it'll just be a haircut to the rose, not a stimulus to start growing more cane. Once you can tell that the rose has indeed given up on that cane, and you feel better about stimulating growth, you can do a second round of pruning to get rid of those stubs. In my zone, we always have to do 2 or 3 rounds of pruning to get rid of cane that was only temporarily alive in the spring, so this isn't unusual for us. Bottom line for me is I prune off dead wood as soon as I feel like being out in the garden, and then do a more detailed prune once the leaves are definitely emerging. I figure if it has leaves it's going to be subject to weather variations with or without my pruning, and I want to get it done before planting season starts. Cynthia