Visitors admiring the Arboretum’s stunning foliage this October may find themselves sidetracked by a curious operation taking place in the Palma J. Wilson Rose Garden. By November, visitors might be asking, where did the roses go?
Located across from the Annual Garden at the start of Three-Mile Drive, the Wilson Rose Garden is home to a vast collection of carefully maintained hybrid teas, floribundas, grandifloras and miniature roses. While beautiful, these delicate roses are not winter-hardy in Minnesota’s climate and thus rely on a late-season vanishing act to survive the winter.
Developed in Minnesota and inspired by a French horticultural practice used to protect tender fruits, the Minnesota tip method — which involves burying roses in a shallow trench for the winter — is employed at the Arboretum to protect tender roses from harsh winter conditions.
Every year in mid- to late-October, Arboretum horticulture staff and volunteers — including volunteers from the Minnesota Rose Society — spend two weekends preparing more than 450 roses for the winter ahead.
Horticulturist Ted Pew (left) and Gardener Ella Kyllo are assisted by a team of volunteers to tie and tip the hundreds of roses in the Wilson Rose Garden every October. Photo by Steve Van Natta
First, the rose canes are tied into a neat bundle, with a long length of twine remaining to lower the bundle into the waiting trench, and, to locate and recover the plant in the spring. Horticulturist Ted Pew, who manages the garden, prefers to use bright orange poly twine, which makes it easier to identify the top of the plant in the spring and prevents the team from digging up the roots by mistake.
Next, a trench is dug beside each rose plant. The soil between the plant and the waiting trench is then loosened to allow the plant to tip into the trench. Using a garden fork, the roots of the plant on the opposite side of the trench are gently teased up from the soil.
Once the roots are loosened from the soil, the plant is tipped into the trench, held down, covered with soil and watered. Roses are tipped in the same direction every year, making it easier to repeat the process year after year.
After the ground has frozen, a layer of straw mulch is added to blanket the plants throughout the winter. Once the weather warms in the spring, the process is reversed and the roses begin their seasonal show.
Watch horticulture staff and volunteers at work in the Wilson Rose Garden this fall! On Saturday, Oct. 26 the roses will be tied and on Monday, Nov. 4 the roses will be tipped.
Interested in getting involved? Existing Arboretum volunteers can sign up for this opportunity by logging into their MyImpact volunteer account. Visit the Minnesota Rose Society website to learn more about their organization.
Volunteer John Lazar, a member of the Minnesota Rose Society, demonstrates how to tie a rose for tipping to a group of volunteers. Photo by Steve Van Natta
Find detailed information about the Minnesota tip method online from the American Rose Society and the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. Arboretum visitors are invited to stop by the Andersen Horticultural Library for additional resources, including the comprehensive guide for Minnesota rose gardeners, “Growing Roses in Cold Climates,” by Richard Hass, Jerry Olson and John Whitman published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Cover photo by Lily Smith