Preparing rose bushes for winter

Now's the time to protect your rose bushes from winter's cold.

Dan Cashman has advice on preserving them until spring.

If you have tenure roses like Florabundas, and hybrid teas, and Grandifloras like this rosebush here, this is the time to cover them. And there's lots of ways to do it, but my favorite way is to leave the rosebush in the ground, maybe cut it back 10 to 12 inches with your pruner. I like to put a fungicide on it whether it's copper fungicide or some other fungicide for roses, and I like to cover them with leaves. Fungicide first so we don't get any mold growing in there, and then this whole area with chicken wire I fill with leaves, and it always seems to work, they breathe, and they're protected, and then about the middle or end of April I take the leaves off and clean them up, and start fertilizing them. Also now is a great time to seed along. We call it dormant fall seeding, end of October, early November. Rake in the grass seed, and maybe put it on with a fertilizer spreader or work it by hand, and work the ground get it loose, and fertilize it right away, and then it won't really grow until next year. So that's why it's such a good time right now because in the spring if it's too wet to do it, it's up and growing. So just a few tips from me, Dan the Tree Man, and until next time, good gardening.