On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 03:32:21 GMT, "Gail Futoran"
wrote:

I planted my second rose bush last year and it did great. The
instructions said to cut back to 8 inches and cover with mulch at the
end of summer to protect it during winter. I was just wondering if
anyone knew when I should uncover it to prepare it for the growing
season. I am in Southwestern PA zone 5.

This seems like pretty strange advice to me. When you plant a
bare-root rose, you normally cover it as above, but normally, it isn't
really necessary to recover the canes year after year. Now, it might
be a good idea in your climate to mound up a goodly portion of mulch
around the base of the plant to protect the root graft (that knobby
ball of rootlike material that separates the canes from the lower
roots and that sits at or around ground level). But I'm not sure it's
a good idea to re-cover the canes for a whole season, because usually,
it isn't necessary. They might have to do it in Canada or other
*really* cold environments, but I realize that Zone 5 is starting to
get up there in terms of extremities. If I were you, I might ask some
local experts if this is really necessary for the type of rose that
you are growing. Your particular rose *might* be somewhat fragile at
Zone 5, so maybe the directions were specific to your area for that
specific rose, but usually, instructions are more generic than that.

The possible danger to covering the canes for a whole season is the
lack of air circulation around the canes for months at a time. No,
they aren't going to "suffocate". But poor circulation breeds nasties
like mold, fungi and the like. When you cover a newly planted
bare-root rose, you're only covering it for a month or so, so there
isn't a lot of risk.

Now, having said that, don't freak out and think that the rose is
going to be toast. Gail gave you good advice. I suspect that the time
to start uncovering it will be somewhere around mid-April for you.
Since this has been a fairly mild winter (in general) for most of us,
you might have some early growth starting to peek out. However, being
in Zone 5, your last frost date is probably pretty late (here on the
edge of Zone 6/7, ours is April 15th but is usually ACTUALLY more like
the last week of March/first week of April). So you want to try to
avoid uncovering your canes until then, if possible. Do like Gail said
and take your cue from new growth that starts becoming visible through
the mulch. Don't be surprised if it looks "albino", or bleached out.
That will be normal because it hasn't seen the sun.

As Gail said, uncover gradually. You might use a very light stream of
water and be very careful, 'cause the new growth is VERY tender. If
you lose a sprout or two, don't worry. Roses have auxillary eye buds
around each main one (eye buds are the little swellings that the
growth sprouts from).

Best of luck!