Oh, i should probably mention that the Beloved is the only little hybrid tea rose (i think of it as the beating heart of the bed, what with its small size and blood red color). It may need to be treated differently than the others? I think Lace Cascade is a climber (although i don't have it on a trellis yet), and Tempting Georgia, as i understand it, can either be climber or shrub. Beyond that, i could engrave what i know about roses on the head of a pin - in three languages.

HELP!

:)

I don't know what zone you are in, estraya. That will have a great deal to do with when your roses will go dormant. If you are in zone 6 or lower you will probably want to use some kind of winter protection. There are a number of methods for this from those white rose cones (which I do not recommend) to mulching of various types.

Also in colder climates we don't usually fertilize after August. Fertilizer promotes new growth that will not have time to harden off (age) before there is a killing freeze. They recommend discontinuing deadheading too for the same reason but I, personally, cannot stop myself from doing so. I hate a messy bed but that's just me.

I do not cut mine back in the fall, unless they are extremely tall and then I only cut them down to the average height in the bed, 3 to 4 feet ususally. I found that if I cut them back in the fall I still had cane die back in the spring so I had to cut them even further and was left with nothing but stumps which took much longer to get to bloom in the spring. In milder winters I've had very little die back and had blooms by mid May. In very cold winters I lost some cane but after spring pruning was still left with a good size plant to start the season out with. For climbers I do not prune in the fall ever. Any really long canes cane be staked and tied to protect them from whipping around and being damaged by high winds. In the spring you will be able to tell how far any of your roses will need to be cut to. You will see new growth beginning to show on the canes. When you cut to that growth if the center of the cane (called the pith) is white you've cut to good wood. If it is tan or brown you need to cut further until you reach good white pith even if you are cutting off what looks like new growth. If the center of the cane is dieing it will not support that new growth for long.

I think you should go to the American Rose Society web site. On there you can get in touch with a Consulting Rosarian from your area or find a rose society in your area that you can get local information from. They will be better able to tell you about the timing of all this for your zone. They will also know more about what types of protect work well and are available locally.

BTW, you've picked some really beautiful roses, your home and your garden are lovely and your roses look very healthy and happy. Great Job!

I second Seil - what a wonderful planting you have there. Welcome to the rose world, ENJOY!
Pauline - Vancouver Island

That looks great! You are going to have a great little rose bed there! Thanks for the pictures.

Kate

I remember your earlier post about the septic tank. Great job, roses look great.

If lows around 10 are possible, be sure the graft of the hybrid tea is covered for the winter. I don't know the other roses, except I think Teasing Georgia is hardy below zero. For roses that are hardy in my zone, I don't do anything at all to prepare for winter. They will bloom until stopped by a freeze of around 27 degrees, and personally I don't believe in trying to slow them down. In fact it's hard to slow them down because they love fall weather. I do the last feeding around 6 weeks before the average freeze date (Nov. 15 here), so the fertilizer is mostly used up. Roses will use much less water in the cool fall weather.

WOW, thanks so much guys! I'm taking from all of this that i can pretty much relax and enjoy the blooms until they fade naturally with the cold. Come spring, i'll focus my energies on pruning and reshaping, and all matters fertile. White pith! Who knew!?

And i'll check about that graft, Michaelg. We tend to have fairly mild winters here, but i'll check with a local rose society as Seil suggested to see if i need to "blanket" the graft. Great memory, by the way!

Thanks again all,

estreya

Estreya, are you located where you have weather coming down the Columbia River? If so you may have heavy ice storms or freezes to contend with that others in Washington don't have. IF you are away from the river gorge then you pretty much have nothing to worry about. My biggest problem is with voles eating the roots off roses, but I seldom loose a rose to freezing here in the Puget Sound area. If you are where you get weather down the gorge then talk to some of those Portland rose growers.

Your new garden is lovely!

Hmmm ... it's about 25 minutes North of Portland! Honestly, i have to get better about planning for the cold. It was a weakness of mine least year. I got lucky with my sprinklers cause i did nothing but turn them off, and i know i'm technically supposed to have them winterized. Now that i have roses and other plants to fret over, i'll do better ... thanks Lizalily ... :) ...

Modern roses store their nutrients in their canes and do not go completely dormant. It's best to try to avoid cutting off as much of the cane as possible in the fall because the rose needs those nutrients available for their spring growth. Up here in the mountains of northern California, the practice is to only cut them back to the point where the cane might break due to the weight of snow. In other words, we choose where the cane will break instead of waiting for nature to take the plant back for us.

Smiles,
Lyn