Anyone in cold zone store their roses indoors? I am thinking about storing
- 2 pots of Pinata,
- one pot Mr Lincoln,
- one pot of drift rose and
- one a mini rose I forget the name.

I purchased them from my local nursery to have roses on the patio and would like to use them in the pots again next summer.

The roses are in very large pots. They are 4 ft tall and 3 ft wide. These are not small pots. So that would be 4 very large pots to bring inside or stored on the patio with lots and lots of winter protection. I have lots of room to bring them inside in a cool area but my preferred method would be to leave them outside.

Suggestions, thoughts. Thank you.

If you have a cool, dark indoor area like a garage or basement, that might work, but I think well protected outside would be safer. Can you provide enough cover on the patio to keep the roots from freezing?

Some sort of cover - old blanket? - with a light bulb inside works well for tropicals during our occasional freezing weather.

Cinta, are you really in zone 6b? That's not terribly cold. I believe the Pinata, mini rose and Drift rose could safely stay outdoors. I have wintered Drifts and minis in pots outside without protection in very cold windy winters. guess I should qualify that by saying they were good sized, established plants. If it's not a ceramic pot, you could still water the plants all winter, just be careful not to soak the pot and turn it into a block of ice.
I would bring Mr. Lincoln inside. My Mr Lincoln that is in the ground dies back to just a few inches each year if it is not mulched well.
As far as covering the pots, don't use plastic. One year I used a big pot set upside down over the plants and that worked. Of course, here, wind will take away any covering lighter than a clay pot.

I should have said the pots are Polyethylene, double wall that I have the drift rose and mini rose .

The Pinata and Mr. Lincoln are in large brick planters.

Neal I could push them against the house. The patio is above the family room. It is a large deck with Pennsylvania slate floor. I thought it would better to store them outside because I do have cool areas i.e. garage, lower basement but they are both heated but the temps are more in the 50 - 60 degree range.

Porkpal light bulb and cover would never work here it gets too cold. The last couple of winters have been brutal. If we have a good winter that would work though.

Cindi I think the zone thing is just wrong. I have trouble keeping zone 6 plants alive because of the type of winters we get. We start with a lot of rain that turns to freezing rain that turns to snow in a 24hr span. Things end up in a block of ice for weeks then we get a thaw even up to 60s before we go through the the frozen block of ice event. It is just certain murder with that type of conditions.

Okay from the suggestions "Thank you". Mr Lincoln coming inside. Will put him close to the drafty door in the basement.

Pinata and others I will push them close to the house. I have a lot of styrofoam coolers from the Omaha steak orders to use for insulation around the pots.

Stuff the styrofam pots with pine needles (I usually have about 4 bags of those) and leaves around the outside of the pots.

Does this sound like a plan for my conditions? Your thoughts? Any additions?

I will post a pic. It might help others if this works. I will not be real upset if it does not work. I did manage to find good sales on the roses this year and I enjoyed them on the patio.

I know someone who does something similar, although he stacks all of his containers into one large insulated box for the winter, with leaves and peat moss packed in around them. He has been doing this for several years with good success and we're in zone 3.

I constructed a box in my garden shed this year and have packed my containers inside - I'm hoping it works.

I'm assuming you have a cover on the boxes?

Dora

Yes all the boxes have covers. I was thinking they would serve as thick walls around and below. I use pine needles on the plants in the garden that are marginal for my zone so I will use a lot of those too.

Back for an update. I hate to ask a question and get such great helpful input and do not return and report the results.

So from what I see it looks pretty good. What I did was. Removed them from the large brick planters and put them in nursery pots. The pots were then put in styrofoam coolers and packed with pieces of styrofoam around the pots inside the coolers. I then used the lids from the coolers to build a higher container so the limbs were protected from the wind. On top of the pots was pine needles. Lots and lots of pine needles. I gather about 30 bags in my yard in a month.

I placed these against the sunroom wall outside. They ended up looking like outdoor porta potties. The area is a corner wall one side has the dryer vent and the other side has the heat from the back of the sunroom. So the air around that area was probably 15- 20 degrees higher through the winter.

I was not concerned as much that the Carpet Rose and the Drift rose would do good but I was more concerned with Mr Lincoln and the 2 pots of Pinata roses.

So here go. I know they are nothing special but I so enjoyed them on the patio last year I wanted to create the same design this year. A couple of cheap nothing special roses work for this situation.

Drift rose and carpet rose



Mr. Lincoln not sure.



Pinata Looks good. Pushing out a lot of new growth.

Back for an update. I hate to ask a question and get such great helpful input and do not return and report the results.

So from what I see it looks pretty good. What I did was. Removed them from the large brick planters and put them in nursery pots. The pots were then put in styrofoam coolers and packed with pieces of styrofoam around the pots inside the coolers. I then used the lids from the coolers to build a higher container so the limbs were protected from the wind. On top of the pots was pine needles. Lots and lots of pine needles. I gather about 30 bags in my yard in a month.

I placed these against the sunroom wall outside. They ended up looking like outdoor porta potties. The area is a corner wall one side has the dryer vent and the other side has the heat from the back of the sunroom. So the air around that area was probably 15- 20 degrees higher through the winter.

I was not concerned as much that the Carpet Rose and the Drift rose would do good but I was more concerned with Mr Lincoln and the 2 pots of Pinata roses.

So here go. I know they are nothing special but I so enjoyed them on the patio last year I wanted to create the same design this year. A couple of cheap nothing special roses work for this situation.

Drift rose and carpet rose



Mr. Lincoln not sure.



Pinata Looks good. Pushing out a lot of new growth.

It looks to me as if you did a good thing! I bet they all recover their last year's glory in no time.

It worked! They all look fine, even Mister Lincoln. Just cut away the dead wood.

Zuzu I hope you are right. I really wanted M. Lincoln to survive. It has the most fragrance.

Shout out to all who helped with your suggestions and cheering me on.

So glad to hear of your success!

Your work paid off! They look wonderful.
When is your last average freeze date? Do you get sporadic freezes in late March and into April?
How often did you have to water them? I might try this next winter with my Red Intuition, which seems to be a very very tender rose.
Cindi

Cindi I did not bring them inside. They got what every rain/snow that fell. The protection was the styrofoam coolers and the lids for height. Think of a tall styrofoam box without a top. I used duck tap to build the tops up.

I was attempting to create a outdoor warmer environment. I tried that with blocking the wind and insulation via styrofoam (received them from from Omaha Steaks shipment of frozen steaks) and the pine needles/fall leaf collection.

We use to have severe winters but it has been maybe 10 yrs since we have had long hard winters. My last frost date is suppose to be after Mother's day. Recent yrs it has been April vs May.