You can remove old flowering stems but the foliage needs to remain in place. The foliage provides the ability to photosynthesize which the bulbs need to replace their energy stores to provide next season's flowers. It is recommended that it be allowed to ripen and dieback naturally - once fully dry and browned, it will generally pull or fall away from the underground bulb easily. Tying, using rubberbands or otherwise bundling up the foliage is our human way of attempting to "beautify" or tidy up the natural process. It doesn't help and can hinder and slow the natural process and often promotes the development of disease and insect problems. It is best to just allow nature to take her course and if necessary, disguise the old foliage with the new growth of other plants. Bulbs will easily grow up through mulch. A caution might be exercised with the specific type of mulch - anything that is too moisture retentive may promote fungal issues or rot emerging foliage.

Hi all, I'm in Northern Colorado zone 5b and we get plenty of snow and cold - down to 20* F below zero on the coldest winter nights. Anyway I've had a hifin - Myxocyprinus asiaticus, or the Chinese Hi Fin Banded Shark for at least 5 years, bought locally from our town pond store. He is happily living in the pond with about 12-15 koi / goldfish. For the first few years I was worried about all of them during the winter but I've learned that Mother Nature is amazing and her creatures and plants adapt to their environment. We have the waterfall running non-stop 24/7 all year round. It's amazing that it runs under the ice and snow all winter and the fish are fine. We are doing a .3 % salt level in the water to control string algae and this works great as well as helps the fish.

Hi Susan: Per your question of how old horse manure needs to be to put at the bottom of planting hole? Half-rotted is fine, by the time the roots reach that depth, it will decompose. Anaerobic (without oxygen) through burying release acids which bring down the pH of the lowest limestone layer of my soil. Melissa in Italy buries half-rotted straw at the BOTTOM of her planting hole. She has alkaline clay, and it works great. But I don't recommend burying stuff if your soil is already acidic, or if you have dry and hot climate like Kim Rupert. Stuff decomposes fast buried in my wet clay and warmer underground (where it's -20 on top in my zone 5a) Stuff decompose less in sandy dry soil. I had discussion with Ingrid regarding alfalfa pellets. It works great in her dry & warm climate where it decomposes readily on top. But alfalfa pellets is lousy in my wet and cold climate, where it gunks up on top, can't decompose. Alfalfa pH is acidic at 5.8, perfect breeding ground for black spots ... I get BS on roses in pots, with that acidic gunk on top. I had done plenty of experiments where I induced both black spots and mildew by keep the surface wet and slightly acidic. Conversely, when the surface is kept dry and alkaline like mulching with horse manure, zero diseases. I tested 4 types of potting soil: 1) MiracleGro regular (green bag) with fertilizer included 2) MiracleGro Moisture Control with fertilizer included 3) MiracleGro Organic potting soil, fertilizer and mostly composted pine barks (chunky) 4) Ball professional potting soil, composted pine fines, gypsum, peatmoss, vermiculite, which grew that Paul Neyron that I posted. The regular MiracleGro (green bag) is most acidic pH, around 6.5. Plants are super-dark-green in that mix. I don't like MG Moisture Control for my high rain climate, I found one inch of standing water in the pots with the heavy rain here. But Kim Rupert in CA likes that stuff... he has 7" of rain, compared to my 40" of rain plus 23" snow per year. The MG ORGANIC potting soil with mostly pine fines grows the best root, since it's most loose. Ball potting soil is similar, but higher quality ... drawback? Ball doesn't have the slow-released fertilizer that MG Organic has. I bought Jungle Grow potting mix from Sam's club yesterday, really cheap... a HUGE BAG (double the normal size) for $8. Many people who grow plant seedlings like that one ... it's very well-drained, so you would have to water it often, but you'll get deeper root growth. It has slow-release fertilizer with all micro-nutrients. As to pile up horse manure, I won't recommend that unless your soil pH is acidic. If you google, "The Long-Term Effect of a Single Application of Horse Manure on Soil pH" it will show how horse manure RAISE the pH of soil, making nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper NOT available due to high pH locking up nutrients. Horse manure provides decent calcium, but not much phosphorus (essential for blooming) due to high pH tied-up. I piled up horse manure (pH 7.4) on Golden Celebration and it became stingy. My soil pH is 7.7, so it doesn't help ... although Golden Celebration bloomed more the 1st year when I brought the pH down with peat moss. I would test the pH of the horse manure first before applying. Also test your soil pH as well. The first advantage of alkaline pH of horse manure is prevention of fungal growth (both mildew and Blackspot). The second advantage of horse manure is beneficial insects and bacteria, which deter pests. Hi Bluegirl: I'm glad that you found pine fines. I'm using pine bark mulch and mix right into my heavy clay. It's cheaper at $2.45 a bag from Menards. Since my soil is tested deficient in potassium I also mix Cocoa Mulch (NPK of 2.5-1-3, much higher than alfalfa at NPK 2-1-2). Cocoa Mulch is sold for $3.59 at Menards, but best MIXED at the bottom of planting hole... if dogs eat that stuff, they become sick. Peat moss is most acidic at pH 4. Next is pine bark at pH 4.7 (the stuff in potting soil is neutralized by the addition of lime). Least acidic is cocoa mulch at pH 5.8 .... plants prefer a pH range of 6 to 7, so that stuff is great mixed in with the soil to retain moisture to provide NPK 2.5-1-3. If you mix cocoa mulch into the soil, WATER it in immediately, so the chocolate scent would be gone, and dogs won't eat that. The pre-washed stuff is safe for pets. Cocoa Mulch is lousy & poisonous to pets on top, but great mix-in at the bottom of the hole. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheapest way to test soil pH using red cabbage This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Mon, Apr 22, 13 at 13:10

Lynn....... I think you are making the overwintering of these roses too hard. I know you are a planner, but sometimes you just have to wing it. I started my rose life in San Diego and was given the same advice as above. San Diego is also considered to be Rose Heaven. Note the ARS giving that advice in San Diego gave that timing so that the first flush of perfect roses would be ready for the rose shows in early April. It takes about six to seven weeks for a rose once it has set bud to bloom, so if your timing is early April you work back from there. You do not have to follow that timing if you are not worried about having roses ready for a show, but are just growing roses for your garden and don't need perfect roses, but need healthy roses. Cooperative Extensions and Master Gardeners have been parroting the advice given by the local rose societies for more than 60 years. That's because they do not specialize in roses and figure the ARS must know what should be done for their care. In San Diego, we stopped dead heading our roses in October and then began our pruning in December to be completed by Valentine's Day, so that they would be ready to show. My experience and personal opinion is that you stop deadheading in October, allow the rose to set seed and then the rose will go as dormant as nature will allow that rose to go dormant. When we dead head, we are interrupting the plant's natural cycle of getting pollenated and then setting seed, which stimulates the rose to re-bloom. If you don't dead head, the plant will complete it's natural cycle and rest. There is no need for dormant sprays unless you have a serious disease problem or unless you want perfect foliage for a rose show. I believe in leaving the leaves because the rose will abandon them when they no longer perform the function needed for the rose. Studies show that the photosynthesis process stops when temps reach around the 70 degree level. So you can take them off or not. I think they provide a larger mass for the top growth and leaving them on helps protect the canes from the colder temps. Cluster your pots on your patio and surround them with bags of leaves or mulch and stuff the same material in the gaps between the pots to make a bigger mass and to protect the outside pots from the colder temps and to keep the temps within the mass as constant as possible. If you feel you need to protect the top growth from freezing temps, you can cover them just as farmers do with their crops. These are small roses, they don't need to be pruned for the first year except to clean out the rose and shape it. (Note: I don't even shape the rose until it's been in the ground for at least two seasons, but I live where temps get colder.) You want it to grow out of those gallon cans, so you might as well just let it grow. Cutting them back/pruning them when they are small just slows down that process because the roses are storing nutrients in their canes. I now live in a climate with temps lower than you have reported. I over-wintered roses outside for six years in containers before I got them all planted. None of them died. I should have replaced the soil in those pots, but I was too busy digging rose holes in rock. I had to over winter the pots in a totally unprotected yard and I did not go out in the rain or snow to cover them. I also had to maintain those roses in direct sunlight in high temps that lasted for months. The key to my success was the larger mass. Not taking off leaves, spraying or taking off leaves. It kept the temperatures and moisture more consistent. In my best year, I could only get about twenty out of over one hundred roses planted. The only thing you need to do differently than I have done, is to make sure the pots don't dry out while they are resting on the patio. I've been told watering once a month is sufficient, but it doesn't hurt to check and see if you need to do it more often in your climate. Once I got them in the ground, they my roses took off even better than I expected because they finally had a chance to spread their roots. So your choice is to go by the book or wing it. Smiles, Lyn PS ... this rose, 'Kim Rupert', looked horrid in the pot, this is how it looked the first year I got it in the ground.