cut rose back for winter as well as hydranga's???

[sue oines]

hello all from south dakota,
As well as most of you i love gardening This spring i planted a old cow wood cow bunk with beautiful wave petunias, and some of this and that, it turned out absolutely beautiful!!!! For those of u that may not know what a bunk is, its an approx 4ft deep by 20 ft "planing box" if you will. Then i stuck some decorative items in it, like old wood birdhouses, and even have added lights to show the beauty at night, its awesome. I live on a working farm, so now i have collected huge rocks out of fields we plant and made a huge rock gargen with, all sorts of flowers.
i do have a ??, as u may know our winters get pretty chilly, last winter we had at least 12feet of snow covering the rock garden. Most everything came back, however it was tough on the roses and hydrangeas. So ?? is do you cut rose back for winter as well as hydranga's??? Also would it help to cover them with bark or some other type of cover?? i lost some of my grasses, and replanted this spring but i fear i'll loose them again, if i don't cover them with something, do i cut them back as well??
sorry such a book this 1st time just excited i found this sight
look forward to hearing back about how to save my roses, hydrangeas and grasses!!
thanks!!

[cupakathy]

Hi Sue, I am new here, too. I'm from Upstate NY and in the last couple of years I've had the time to create a few flower beds. I had a couple of mystery plants and quickly got help identifying them.

Welcome!

[luis_pr]

If you hydrangeas are hardy to your zone, I would make sure that they maintain 3-4" of mulch at all times. Technically, that should be enough for hardy varieties. But if you want even further protection, you can put a chicken wire cage around the shrub, at least 6" away from the sides and the top. Then pack them full and tight with dried out leaves, hay, etc. Put a cardboard on top to keep the eaves in places and hold it there using some rocks. Save unused leaves. During the middle of winter, check to see if you need to add more leaves (they settle sometimes).

[luis_pr]

I just realized you also asked questions about roses.... Duh! I guess my brain fried during those 100-degree days we had this summer.

I would start with making sure that the fertilizer applications do not keep the shrubs in growth mode. Another thing you can do is to stop pruning and deadheading so the plant forms hips, an action that tipically makes it slow down growth. To do this, stop fertilzing by August and pruning around the same time.

You can winter protect using the same approach as hydrangeas. Another similar approach used in cold locales is to fill plastic bags with the leaves and put two bags on opposite sides of a pruned rose bush, about 1 to 2 feet tall. You can also create a soil mound around a poruned shrub to a height of one foot. Here is a link with more tips, including the famous Minnesota Tip:

http://www.ars.org/wp-content/uploads/2 ... strict.pdf