My rose bush?

Question

I have my rose bush in a rather large planter until I can find the perfect spot. We have had our first frost and Im beginning to wonder if I should bring it in over the winter or if it would be ok outside?

Im in PA, not sure of the zone. We are blessed (sarcastic) with all four seasons. The pot holds up to 2.5 sq ft of soil.

I have actually thought of planting the whole pot! LOL If inside Im assuming that I water it as though it were a regular house plant?

Answer 1

If your planter is really large like 25 liters or so then your rose should be fine. However, any smaller and you may be looking at problems. There are several things you can do to help it. You can find a sunny location inside your home, you can plant it in the ground, you can insulate the outside of the pot with straw and bind it with burlap, or you can move it to the south side of your house where you will get a great deal of winter sunshine. This area is always warmer than other areas.
Good Luck

EDIT: PA is contains zones 5a-6b. Either way you get pretty cold so it would be a good idea to try and protect the roots of your rose. I forgot to mention it, but you could move it into a garage or some place where it is guaranteed not to have a deep freeze. This would actually be ideal because the rose would still get to experience dormancy without danger of root damage. However, if you don't have a garage and you are too worried about it being outside and you decide to move it inside then you just water it like a normal house plant, but you will have to make sure it gets lots of bright light. Also, wait until the latest possible time to bring it in and take it back out as soon as the weather warms above freezing.

Answer 2

Where are you, and what's the USDA zone? (or the lowest temperature you're likely to see).

As a guesstimation rule, plants in pots are killed a full USDA zone warmer than plants in the ground... so let's say you're in USDA zone 5. I would expect plants that were hardy to USDA zone 5 to winterkill in a pot there, and I'd probably worry about plants hardy to zone 4. Just a little worry, but some.

You can mitigate this somewhat by insulating the pot heavily,
or you can just dig a hole, plant the whole thing (pot and all!) and backfill the hole with something loose. Dig it out next spring, scrub the outside of the pot and you should be good to go.

Answer 3

If it's in a pot, bring it inside. The problem is that rose bushes themselves will die off in the cold. But, the root system stays alive as long as it does not freeze. When the bush is in the ground, you can do a number of things to help insulate the root system and avoid having the roots be killed by the cold. But, a plant in a pot is surrounded by cold on all sides and is more easily killed by the cold.

Answer 4

On a gardening a show I read that tropical plants in pots can be wrapped in bubble wrap as insulation and kept in a garage or basement over winter. I would think this work for your rose, too. Just wrap around the pot with the bubble wrap to insulate it. If you don't have natural light in your garage or basement youmight add a grow light. Good luck!

Answer 5

You are correct for your moment hypothesis. Your rose trees are first-class meals for plenty of bugs and the carnivorous spiders are consequently feasting at the bugs for your roses. You have to establish the insect that's inflicting the harm. If this can be a caterpillar (small inexperienced caterpillars assault rose leaves) you'll be able to use Bt - a organic insecticide so we can no longer damage the spiders. If it's every other variety of insect you'll be able to use every other insecticide, however it is going to additionally kill the spiders.