Prepare roses for winter

Preparation for winter takes place in midsummer

Even if nobody wants to think about winter at 30 degrees in the shade: Right now is the right time to start preparations for the cold season. To do this, however, you first have to stop something, namely the fertilization of the heavily draining roses. The plants should be fertilized for the last time at the end of June or by mid-July at the latest. A later fertilization only leads to the fact that further shoots are formed, which, however, can no longer mature in time for winter and are therefore very likely to freeze to death. Instead, a final fertilization with a good potash fertilizer takes place between the middle and the end of August - but by no means later.

Particularly important: Protect roses from the winter sun

Much more dangerous than frost, roses are in winter the sun. On clear, sunny days in January or February, when the ground is frozen, it evaporates from the Above-ground parts of the plant are water that is not replaced by the roots in the frozen ground can. Roses usually do not freeze to death in winter, but simply dry up. This phenomenon is also known as frost drought. A remedy creates a

Cover the plants with fir or spruce branches to protect the shoots from strong sunlight.

By piling up, you protect your roses from both frost and the drying winter sun. The gardener understands this term to mean covering the plants with a 15 to 20 centimeter high mounds of earth, for which existing garden soil can be used as well as deposited compost can. Incidentally, roses should never cut in autumn will!