Tell me about deep watering the roses, is it because we haven't had much in the way of rain and need to keep the roots moist before we finally go into freezing weather? Do you cut them back to nubs like they do at the Hot Spring park here, or just cut the hips off?
Just put my hoses away for the winter yesterday and put the little Styrofoam caps on the water faucets outside, but I could break out one to give them one last drink.
The roses aren't dormant yet, so they still need some water. One still had blooms day before yesterday, though they're probably the last of the year. As long as roses are green, I water them once every week or so. Don't want to give them too much, but don't want them to dry up, either. No, I don't cut them back to nubs. That practice encourages a lot of weak growth in the spring that will need to be pruned back. Given our harsh winters, I generally wait to prune roses until spring when I can see what is dead and what has survived. Deadwood is cut out and the remainder shaped up then. Most of my roses are hardy for Zones 2-4, but I have a couple of Zone 5. One of them dies back to the crown every year, I cut it back the the crown, and by the end of the season, it's as tall as many of the other roses.
