Regardless of zone, just keep deadheading until there is nothing left to deadhead. Roses will either rebloom or they won’t. Any late blooms will either get caught by an early frost or they won’t. Nature will override any human attempts to schedule it in an outdoor setting.

The only reason I can think of for stopping deadheading repeat flowerers at a certain point is if a rose produces great hips and you value the winter display over late blooms.

Thank you Diane and Nollie. I appreciate your response, and respect your judgement.

My worry is that the growth made from a dead head cut made after Sept. 1, if not able to fully extend and bloom before frost hit it and it completely stopped production, would go into winter in a tender state, succumb, and stem canker set in and travel down the stem, doing further damage. Then at spring pruning, quite a bit of die back would be evident.

You know how hybrid teas are, they don't know when to stop growing and harden off for winter, and hybrid teas make up the majority of bushes in my rose bed.

Mosescut

I haven't seen where deadheading/not deadheading makes one whit of difference.

What does seem to make a difference is water. A wet fall, and they'll want to grow no matter what you do.

Plants can't grow without the sun's energy to be used in photosynthesis. Water, sunlight, CO2 and chlorophyll. Water only can't do it. Diane

Hi Moses, sorry for the delay in responding, but I don’t grow hybrid teas and don’t usually get frosts until after Christmas so I am the last person to attempt to give you advice re whether stopping deadheading earlier would help prevent winter dieback!

Regarding inducing dormancy, I imagine that when you stop fertilising and start reducing watering might have more of an impact on reducing late, tender growth than deadheading but perhaps it’s part of the mix. I think only you can judge the timing as only you really know your own climate/microclimate, but I did come across this video on fall and winter rose pruning that might be helpful, from Jason at Fraser Valley (whose straightforward, common-sense rose advice I value)..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g54eQ4qVMkw

He mentioned on a comment somewhere that he stops deadheading at the end of August and he is in a warmer zone than you. Then again, he’s running a commercial nursery and enjoying blooms as long as possible are probably not his priority.

After several years of involuntary experimenting with different environmental conditions. I'm now convinced that water is more of a key to winter survival in cold climates than just about anything I can do on my end. I still winter protect the edges of my rose beds with leaf bags and make sure they're mulched well with oak leaves or pine needles that don't mat down. However, the main thing that is necessary for me going into a cold winter is plenty of water, like Mad says.

I moved some roses from a friend's yard and replanted them in November of all things just before Rosemageddon two years ago, and I was convinced they'd never put down roots enough to survive the winter. He said simply "just water them well and they'll be fine". They were...they grew back like nothing had ever happened that next spring. Then I had to dig them out, but that's another story.

I suspect that the roses will go dormant when the soil temperatures and light tells them to, and if mine (at least in my yard) are going dormant early, it might be because of low water and I don't want them stressed and dormant for that reason going into winter. If a little new growth gets zapped I can deal with it, particularly since the whole plant will lose its foliage once we stay below freezing anyway. Deadheading or not isn't an issue as far as I can see as far as winter survival goes.

Cynthia

That’s really interesting Cynthia, you find more not less water in winter helps them through? Different climate, but I usually only water a little in winter if it’s really dry. I have lost a couple of chinas and a climbing tea noisette to winter cold, despite piling up mulch and straw around the roots. Should I have watered them more??

I don't worry about watering during the winter because here in zone 5/6 the ground is frozen and can't take it in. I water well in the fall leading up to winter so the rose has strong root systems and canes not stressed by drought, which we have all too frequently. Your tea roses in particular don't ever go dormant in the winter as I understand it, which is one reason they don't do well in our climate. I imagine they need at least some water to survive your winter periods but I'll defer to other warm season gardeners about how much and when.

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia, yes it’s difficult to draw comparisons, climate wise. Mine can be pretty extreme in all ways. Teas haven’t been a success here, they ball and brown horribly in sub-tropical summer downpours, fry in high temperatures and then suffer dieback in late winter.

Sorry for hijacking your deadheading thread Moses!

Nollie, I say that no matter where a conversation flows, the information shared is priceless. So, thank you for your enriching the subject!

Moses

Cynthia, you always give pinpoint advice. I have learned, and your practice has proven, that watering in the fall when nutrients are flowing down to a rose's roots, is very important. But, the roses are winding down for the year, why water religiously now? I believe a well hydrated rose can face the drying effects of frigid, dehydrating winter temps. and winds much more successfully. The die back and progressive cane canker a bush experiences at winter's end is partially if not wholly due to a dehydrated bush.

Moses

Moses, thanks for asking a very pertinent question in this thread and gathering a variety of methods. Like anything else in this forum, there are different ways of accomplishing an end. I agree that a well hydrated rose faces winter better, and for me that involves watering till at least the end of October. My roses are still in full bloom now and will be till we consistently get below 20 at which point they shut down. I agree that I don't worry about water once they get to that point of shutting down, but given the poor winter survival when I didn't water in fall and the dramatically better winter survival when I did water in fall (unless we get copious rain which looks unlikely), I'm planning to stick with fall watering. It may depend on your region and you may get a lot more rain in fall than we have lately.

YMMV though so carry on with what is successful for you!

Cynthia

Same dry year for me here. With the intense heat and lack of natural rainfall, I shudder to think how miserable the roses would have fared if I had not watered heavily all season long this year. As it is, my estimation is that the rose bed will not be Bristol 10 for at least two more growing seasons because of me having to slack off in their care until this year, because of my last previous 3+ years' illnesses.

Looking forward, not backward.

Moses

This is the first season I have stopped deadheading early. I usually keep deadheading until they stop blooming. But now that Palatine is going to stop selling roses and I've noticed that the price of roses went from about $20 six years ago to $60. now, I am going to try to collect seed this year and try to start my own. I will still make a few purchases because I will want roses that I don't have yet, but I'd like to learn to grow from seed and who knows maybe I will get some natural crosses that will provide me with new roses too.

And surprisingly, Julia Child has continued to push out new buds and is blooming it's head off in September, even without deadheading.