hi I have a yellow shrub rose that I mulched with chicken manue/sawdust from the fall cleaning of the chicken coop and covered with a five gal bucket during the winter. It hasn't budded out yet and the canes are soft and bendable and a dark red color. Did I kill this rose, do you think it is just slow and will grow eventually? I have another rose that didn't get covered, it was too big and I just put the chicken stuff over the crown and it is budding out. thanks for your help
You can take a knife a gently scrape a little bark off and see if it is green underneath. Roses like banana peels, and rotten bananas.
posting your zone or where you are from would help folks to give an answer. Here in Michigan some of my roses are just showing the first signs of life. The very fact that the canes can bend and not snap tells me that there must be life in there. Dead cane breaks right off. If I am not mistaken, shrub roses tend to "come to life" a bit later than other roses.
sorry, I am in north central Iowa, usda zone 4.5.... most things need winter protection around here because we get high winds and temps around zero with little snow cover in the winter. The roses are in a flower bed near the house on the south side, underneeth the dinning room window. Thanks for your help
