Overwintering Potted Roses - Ask Extension
I just started gardening outdoors this year, and I’ve already built a decent collection of roses of all types (climbing, shrub, hybrid tea, miniatur...
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Overwintering Potted Roses #944280
Asked September 04, 2026, 2:48 PM EDT
I just started gardening outdoors this year, and I’ve already built a decent collection of roses of all types (climbing, shrub, hybrid tea, miniature, etc.). I’m a renter, though, so all will need to remain in pots for the foreseeable future. How would you suggest I go about overwintering potted roses in Minnesota? Most of the information I’ve found through research only applies to in-ground roses. Please note, I unfortunately do not have much space to overwinter any plants indoors.
Hennepin County Minnesota
Expert Response
Hybrid tea and minature roses will not survive outdoor winter temperatures even if protected. They must come indoors. The climbing and shrub roses can be protected outdoors, depending on the variety.
Is there a corner or protected from the wind area where you can place the pots close together next to the walls, pile straw over them or put straw bales around them and over the top with something to protect the stems from being crushed?
Or dig holes in the ground and countersink the roses pots down to ground level. Put mulch, straw or construction blankets on top of them. Placing the pots on their sides and covering them in a form of the Minnesota tip method that is described in the last reference.
The idea with winter hardy plants is for them to freeze and to stay frozen until spring. It is the freeze thaw, freeze thaw cycle that will kill the plants. Water in the cell walls will freeze, expand, break the cell walls and kill the cell.
See these web pages.
https://mnhardy.umn.edu/roses
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/columns/dakota-gardener/dakota-gardener-winter-protection-for-tender-roses/
https://bachmans.com/information/resource-hub/minnesota-tip-method-winterizing-tender-roses
Good luck
Is there a corner or protected from the wind area where you can place the pots close together next to the walls, pile straw over them or put straw bales around them and over the top with something to protect the stems from being crushed?
Or dig holes in the ground and countersink the roses pots down to ground level. Put mulch, straw or construction blankets on top of them. Placing the pots on their sides and covering them in a form of the Minnesota tip method that is described in the last reference.
The idea with winter hardy plants is for them to freeze and to stay frozen until spring. It is the freeze thaw, freeze thaw cycle that will kill the plants. Water in the cell walls will freeze, expand, break the cell walls and kill the cell.
See these web pages.
https://mnhardy.umn.edu/roses
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/columns/dakota-gardener/dakota-gardener-winter-protection-for-tender-roses/
https://bachmans.com/information/resource-hub/minnesota-tip-method-winterizing-tender-roses
Good luck
