Tips for October

Remember, these tips and tricks are current for zone 5 and need to be adjusted one week earlier for each 100 miles south of the southern tip of Lake Michigan that you live, and one week later for each 100 miles north.

   At this time of the year, your rosebushes should be looking a little shabby. The new blooms will slowly be replaced by spent or plucked blooms and you might even notice a thinning of the leaves as they drop and are not replaced. The leaves are starting to change and some are scattered on the lawn and starting to collect in the flower beds. You may have had a frost or two but unless the frosts were severe the rosebuds are not damaged and will still look good when they bloom.  you should be letting your roses set hips by not deadheading or pruning. You can still cut for vases but remember, each time you cut a bloom you are pruning. Any new growth will probably not set a bud or will be frozen back later this fall. Now is the time to enjoy what in my rose garden. This is usually the best bloom of the season. The bushes are at their largest and the cooler nights have allowed the buds to develop into the largest flowers. Remember to continue your spray program right up to the first "hard" frost.

    You'll notice the color of the canes darkening as they start to harden off. As you collect the fallen tree leaves run over them with your lawn mower to chop them up to use to cover your roses. If you don't have enough leaves, have your neighbors save theirs for you unless you have mulch, wood shavings or dirt to cover the bud union.

    DON'T put any cover ( rose cones) on your bush at this time. You need to wait until the ground freezes hard. You can use a collar of newspaper, 8" wide plastic, screen or tar paper around the base of your bush to hold the material you have used in place to protect the bud union.

    DON'T prune your roses back, wait until spring. Keep this thought; "Nature works hard all summer storing food in the animals and plants so they can overwinter and survive till spring. Am I going to cut it off and throw it away? I think not!

    Watch for sales on rose cones and, if you buy any, get those with removable lids and throw the lid away or cut the tops out of the others. I'll tell you why next month.

    Other than hilling the base ( at least 8" deep) just leave them alone except for spraying. This is prime powdery mildew weather ( warm days and cool (cold) nights.) Keep spraying every week or ten days. The more healthy they are in the fall the greater chance of making it through the winter and coming back strong in the spring.

    This is only October and November is the time to strip the leaves and tie the canes. Unless you have a really hard freeze, wait until December to put on the rose cones. The idea is to prevent the freezing and thawing cycle at the bud union, not to keep the ground from freezing.

    Now is a good time to prepare your new rose bed for next year. Get a load of manure or lots of leaves, grass clippings, compost and other organics and rototil them into the bed. You needn't do a good job, just get them in the ground so they will compost over the winter and then, in the spring, finish the job.

    If you didn't fertilize in September, do it now for a nice greenup in the spring. If needed, use a herbicide containing Trimec, in the middle of October, to kill those stubborn weeds such as creeping charley, wild violets, dandelions, and clover. Avoid getting herbicides in your flowers and shrubs or under your trees. Herbicides are very unselective and don't know the difference between broadleaf weeds and flowers or trees and could cause permanent damage or kill them.

   I start hauling horse manure from my favorite stables to put on the beds. By the time I have to cover the bud unions it's aged enough to use for that. I age it on site, in the beds, using it as a mulch. It's use in the beds at this time of the year has not caused me any problems with tender growth later on. It does help with the spring growth though, as it helps the soil. Now is also a good time to watch for sales of discounted fertilizers for use next spring, put down weed killers in the lawn, and get your outdoor projects, that you'll need for this winter, ready. For now though, sit back and enjoy. Take time to "STOP' and smell the roses!

    Keep watching for those fall clearance sales on gardening supplies. Sometime you can save tons of money on garden tools, garden hoses and repair parts, pots, trellises, and other supplies.

    October is a month that can either make you or break you for winter and next spring. The temptation is to just relax and wait until the work has to be done. If you do that, you'll have to work harder in November and, what has to be done for the winter sometimes doesn't get done due to the weather or other unforeseen happenings. Prepare what you can and think ahead so you won't be swamped with work in November and next spring. If your roses aren't ready for winter you might be looking for replacements next spring and that could be costly.

    I know this from experience. Learn from my mistakes.

    The fall of 1999 fall was a little different. In my zone 5a we didn't get a hard freeze until after Christmas. Then it hit with a vengeance, two feet of snow and temperatures below freezing.
    Many of you are planning your winter protection based on last year's experience. Not a good thing.
     We could get a hard freeze and snow before Thanksgiving. Whatever, you need to be prepared for the worse and hope for the best.
     It's still too early to cover your roses but not too early to start getting ready. You can tidy up your garden, keep the weeds pulled and continue spraying. This a perfect weather for powdery mildew.     
     Get the material ready that you are going to use to cover the bud unions. You can even put it in the rose beds near the roses so all you have to do after the ground is frozen is pull it over the bud unions.
     I use collars at the base to contain the material. I make them out of newspapers so they are biodegradable. They hold up well all winter and in the spring you can put the out with your recyclables. Work on putting them together. You'll need lots of full size newspapers.
  • Place 3 sheets of paper, fully open, on the floor. Get 3 more sheets ( Figure 1) and lay them so that half of one set overlaps half of the other set (Figure 2). You'll then have a newspaper 3 sections wide. The first will be three sheets thick, second 6 sheets thick, and the third will also be 3 sheets.

(Figure 1)

 

(Figure 2)

  • Fold 1/3 of the resulting product over on itself the long way (Figure 3).  

(Figure 3)

 
  • Fold the remaining third back onto itself (Figure 4.)

(Figure 4)

  • Staple it at each end and in the middle (Figure 5). When you put it around a rosebush you can staple the two ends together.

(Figure 5)

 
  • You'll have a cylinder (Figure 6) about 10 inches deep and as big around as a "Warps Rose Collar" and it's free.

(Figure 6)

 

     Remember, normally you wait until the ground freezes before you put down your winter protection. If we have a warm, long fall like last year, you might want to cover the bud union before Christmas. By that time the roses have pretty much gone into their winter rest.

     If you only have a few bushes you can wait until the forecast calls for a deep freeze. If you have many bushes there's no way you'll be able to get them winterized in one day.    

Have questions on things I haven't covered? E-mail me at rosenut@rosenut.com.

-Rosenut
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