30.12.25 End of the year

 Visited my test field once more before the new year holidays; I do not know when I will be able to be there again, our weather forecast looks very “frosty”. Probably, I will have to wait a couple of weeks.

Snow cover was very thin, not too much protection for roses.

This brings again to mind, how we define the winter hardiness of our roses. In some northern regions with a lot of snow they may say a rose was definitely very hardy. However, they do not consider a snow cover which might be be even 1-2 m strong. And this cover lasts for months. Now, bring this “very hardy” rose to my conditions, where it is warmer, like plus 2-3 climatic zones, and this rose will freeze to death. We just do not have this snow cover, never mind the spring freeze, when we get about +20 C for two weeks, and then we get a frosty night, just one night (-5 C), but it is certainly enough to destroy all the new growth.

So… After all, I still have conifers which are more resilient. Here are a couple of color changing ‘evergreens’, they look very good against snow: Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’, Pinus mugo ‘Carsten’s Wintergold’.






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