The first thing to find out is whether or not your garage is insulated. If it's insulated then it's pretty easy.

1. Wait until the temperatures are ~ - 6 C overnight. The next day, take all of the leaves off and water really, really well.

2. Take the rose into the garage and cover with blankets, sleeping bags, whatever. The pot should not be on the floor - but on a piece of wood or something insulating like that.

3. Leave the rose unbothered until about March. Actually I'm not sure how big a 10 gal pot is. With my pots I leave them alone until then. Then I water them with about 1/2 cup of water each month.

4. In the spring, gradually start taking blanket layers off until it's warm enough to take it outside during the day (around +5C). Each night bring it back into the garage (uncovered) until the outside NIGHT temperature is +5C. Then you can leave it outside day and night as long as the nighttime temperatures play nicely.

5. Remember to water really well once they get outside.

I overwinter 50 rose bushes this way and have never had a loss. Good luck!
Carol

Carol's advice is very good. Only thing I do differently is water more often. I water my tree rose every month all winter long. Sometimes it's just a shovel full of snow on the top of the pot but it's something. Wrapping the graft at the top of the tree is very important because if that freezes and dies the rose is dead even if the roots live.

I also kept my in the garage. I water my once a month. I don't really cover it with blanket or anything. I make sure that it's touches the inner wall. My are in 33 inch pots.

This post was edited by Joopster on Fri, Aug 8, 14 at 17:08

Good point, joopster. The bigger the pot the more insulated the roots will be. You might want to put it in a larger pot before winter. I would look for something in that resin/foam material. That would also be better insulation than a ceramic pot.

I wintered my 36 Knock out rose trees and 12+JP rose trees (baby blanket, raspberry blanket) in the garage before. For 7-8 years I had no problems with knock out rose trees (without any covers), the rose trees from JP, were all slowly gone with the wind, they couldn't take the winter cold here. I watered them once a month during the winter. Then last winter I stored all my motorcycles/scooters in the garage, put rose trees in the shed, they were all dead this spring. Last winter was too cold. So I started over with 23 Knock out rose trees in pots this Spring. I will winter them in the garage for sure. If you love Knock out rose trees, wait for Breck's big sale next year, for $50, you can get two rose trees for sure. :-)

Or buy Northern Encore aka Polar Joy as a standard and not worry. It is cold hardy to below -27 C, blooms all summer (pretty, pink singles), and is scented to boot (where did that expression come from? Stinky ones?). It grows own root, which means there is no bud union to protect. I've been growing it for 12 years, and it even survived last winter protection or any damage!

Steve

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