Hi Overdrive: The Rosarian Karl Bapst (zone 5a) advised me to put pots in a dark, unheated garage so roses go dormant. I watered them twice a month. I did that and the young rootings survived.

The other rootings with 6" top growth I planted outside, and mounded 12" of dirt on top, they all died through my zone 5a winter.

Thank you, Overdrive, for the info. you gave last year on anti-fungal property of tannin in composted pine bark. Kittymoonbeam posted a great thread, "What are you doing in your garden?", see below link. I would love to hear your experience in Organic Roses Forum, thanks in advance.

Here is a link that might be useful: What are you doing in your garden? Organic Roses Forum

This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Oct 5, 13 at 12:43

thanks for the tip: I am thinking of putting the pots sideways under my spruce trees, and covering them with a fluffy used blanket, then covering with another 12" of loose freshly fallen leaves, and then another cloth.

It has been a huge amount of work to get to this point, so I don't want to lose them.

I notice that this Purple Pavement sends up much smaller canes than Hansa, for instance, so I might be able to pull it off growing them indoors. They have been indoors for 4 weeks now, and there is absolutely NO sign of any aphids, no spider mites, and not other pests of any sort. About 6-8 weeks ago there was a spider mite infestation, but I hammered that with AVID miticide. - paul m.

I have one cutting which I started early this year and is now about 2' tall and still sending out bulbs. When it gets cold enough It will go in my unheated garage for the winter.

Other new cuttings that Ive started [17] are now inside under a cutting dome under shoplights. Some [about 4] have started rooting with nice white roots and when these get decently rooted will move into my garage too. No way do I expect all 17 to root being a realist if 1/3 to 1/2 of those to root I will be satisfied.

I was also really happy to get 30% - I ended up with total 36 rooted cuttings.

Hey Overdrive since you seem mechanically inclined you could also do what I am doing this year and thermostatically control a small room so they don't get the extreme temperatures. I can't comment from experience as this is my first year doing it but I think maintaining a temp of -10C will enhance the chances of survival of my potted roses and a few cuttings that struck. I am building a simple box 6'X6'X6' (plans at the moment) out of styrofoam inside an unheated insulated storage room. I will use a 100w light bulb, possibly 2, to provide the heat. The thermostat (can't give you the model atm) will take 120/240v so it is a simple wiring job with no relay.

I would think that if you just have very small plants you could do this set up in a large plastic tote that you could insulate with blankets. I am doing this with my dahlia tubers. Again I have zero experience but this was the best solution I could come up with, of course with help from the folks on the roses forum.

If interested I could provide more details next week when I have the thermostat in hand. If anybody else would like to try this and would like help I would be willing to do a pictorial. Just let me know :)

Have a great day.

SCG

Your best bet is to follow Strawberryhill's advice. Roses do better going dormant than struggling to survive indoors all winter. You cannot give them nearly enough light or humidity to keep them happy inside.

Hi - my lighting facility is very "hard core", means I overdrive the lamps, and pack the fixtures side by side with no gaps. I have a PAR meter, and it shows the lighting is around 400-500 PAR, which is lots, trust me. I overwintered and grew out my Winchester Cathedral cuttings 6 winters ago - my main problem was with spider mites and aphids, so this time around i have the proper insecticides to wipe them out as soon as they show up!
last year i overwintered Hansa - and she is too vigorous to grow indoors - she sends up huge canes, and that turned into a mess, but Purple Pavement is a much shorter rose so I think I can do them indoors. - paul m.

I was just searching the net looking for folks that overwintered cuttings/seedlings, thanks for the update. I might have just found a local job for the winter which will mean I can run my grow room, YAY!

On average how big would you say your seedlings will grow from cuttings in 7 months? I have to modify my setup if they will get over 36".

Second, are you still running that venture ballast and would you still recommend it? I am thinking of adding a HPS/MH light to my system to get better penetration for taller plants. Might be easier than using side lights like I do now.

Thanks,

SCG