Growing Roses in Newfoundland and Labrador: Planting Dates, Varieties and Local Pests

Set potted roses out in early June, a week or so after the May 30 average last frost at the St. John’s airport weather station, and pick cold-hardy types such as rugosas and Canadian-bred Explorer roses. That date is a midpoint, not a promise, and wind and fog do as much damage as frost. Northern and upland districts run weeks later. Below: how to count the calendar back, which roses earn their space, and what to watch for.

When to plant Roses in Newfoundland and Labrador

The reference point here is St. John’s. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 1981-2010 climate normals for the ST JOHN’S A station give an average last spring frost of May 30, an average first fall frost of October 17, and 139 frost-free days on average. Those are means. In half of all springs the last frost lands after May 30, and in half of all falls the first one arrives before October 17. Treat May 30 as the middle of a window, never as a safe date. One more wrinkle for readers used to US sources: Canadian normals cover 1981-2010, while US figures on this site cover 1991-2020, so the baselines differ by a decade.

A province is not one climate. Gardens on the northern peninsula, in Labrador, or on high ground inland can run weeks behind the St. John’s numbers, and exposed headlands can feel colder than the thermometer says. If you garden outside the St. John’s area, shift every date below later and use the arithmetic in the section on ripening to redo it. For the general principles behind all of this, see How to Grow Roses: The Complete Guide.

Potted and bare-root roses

Most people buy roses rather than grow them from seed, and the calendar differs by form. Bare-root roses arrive dormant in spring and can go in as soon as the ground has thawed and drained, meaning a handful of soil crumbles instead of smearing. Dormant canes tolerate a frost; the soft new shoots that follow do not, so keep a bedsheet or row cover handy for the first few weeks.

Potted roses already in leaf are softer. Plant them around the average last frost date or, better, a week to ten days after it: roughly June 5 to 10 around St. John’s. Harden them off for 7 to 10 days first. Set the pots outside for a few hours in shade, then lengthen the stay and add wind and sun each day. Nursery plants raised under cover will scorch and shred in a Newfoundland breeze if you skip this step.

Starting roses from seed

Seed is the slow road, and it suits species roses such as Rosa rugosa rather than named hybrids, which rarely come true. The seed needs cold, moist stratification (commonly about 8 to 12 weeks in a refrigerator) before it germinates, and germination is erratic. Here is the count-back for a June 6 transplant:

• Harden off for 10 days: start May 27.
• Grow seedlings indoors for about 8 weeks: sow around April 1.
• Stratify for 8 to 12 weeks: start the seed in the refrigerator between early January and early February.

Expect most seedlings to skip blooming in their first summer. Patience is the price of the cheapest roses you will ever own.

Soil and site preparation

Roses want at least six hours of direct sun, and morning sun matters most. In a damp, foggy climate, early light dries the leaves and slows fungal disease. Wind is the second site factor. A south- or east-facing spot sheltered by a fence, wall or hedge, with the roses set a few feet back so air still moves, beats an open lawn. Coastal gardeners get a bonus: rugosa roses shrug off salt spray and sandy soil that would finish a hybrid tea.

Drainage decides more than fertility. Dig a hole about 12 inches deep, fill it with water, and let it drain. If water still stands the next morning, build a raised bed 10 to 12 inches high rather than trying to fix the subsoil. Then get a soil test. Roses prefer slightly acidic soil, roughly pH 6.0 to 6.5, and soils across much of the region lean acidic, so a test tells you whether lime is needed at all. Lime works slowly, which makes timing the point: apply it in fall, or at least a couple of months before planting, not on planting day.

Four to six weeks before planting, strip the sod, loosen the soil 12 to 18 inches deep, and fork in 2 to 4 inches of finished compost. Skip fresh manure, which can burn roots. Dig the hole wider than the root ball, about 18 inches across for most roses. Allow 3 feet between compact shrub roses, 4 to 6 feet for rugosas and hybrid teas, and 8 feet or more for climbers. Never put a new rose where an old one just died; the soil carries a replant problem that stunts the newcomer.

Varieties that suit Newfoundland and Labrador

Season length here is not the limit for roses, since they bloom on a schedule set by the plant, not by a frost-free count. The limits are winter dieback, wind, and the fungal diseases that love fog. So the traits worth shopping for are cold hardiness, disease resistance, and repeat bloom (a plant that flowers again after its first flush, rather than once). Own-root roses matter too. If a grafted rose freezes to the ground, what regrows is the rootstock, often a plain pink or white thing; an own-root rose regrows as itself.

Hybrid teas and many floribundas are the gamble. They are grafted, bloom beautifully in a good year, and often die back to the snow line in a bad one. If you want one anyway, plant it with the bud union (the knobby swelling where the canes meet the roots) 2 to 3 inches below soil level and mound it well for winter. Disease-resistant landscape roses like the Knock Out series are widely sold; confirm hardiness with the nursery before you buy, and expect to mulch the base. For a contrast with another cool, damp coast, see Growing Roses in Washington: Planting Dates, Varieties and Local Pests; for the hot end of the map, Growing Roses in Alabama: Planting Dates, Varieties and Local Pests.

What to plant alongside

The best neighbors do mechanical work. Hardy geraniums (the perennial cranesbill, not the pot plant) knit a ground cover over bare soil, shading roots and blocking weeds without crowding the canes. Catmint draws bees and hoverflies, and its mounding habit hides the leggy base of hybrid roses. Both tolerate a cool summer. Lavender gets recommended constantly, but it needs sharp drainage and sulks in wet maritime winters, so treat it as an experiment.

Some pairings rest on thinner evidence. Chives, garlic and other alliums are said to repel aphids; gardeners swear by it, but controlled trials are scarce, so plant them because they look good and bloom when the roses rest, not as pest control. French marigolds suppress certain root-attacking nematodes in vegetable soil, and that effect has not been shown to protect roses in the ground. Clematis scrambling through a climber is a real partnership (the roots get cool shade, the pair gets a second bloom season), but give the clematis its own planting hole 18 inches away so the two do not fight for water.

Keep away from some plants. Lilies are a poor match if the lily leaf beetle is in your area, because that beetle appears on University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s home-garden pest list and will strip them. Mature trees and thick lawn grass steal water and nutrients, so keep the rose bed clear of both. Other members of the rose family, including apples, cherries and hawthorn, share pests with roses, so a rose planted tight against a crabapple invites trouble. Rose beside rose is fine, but crowd them and you trap damp air, which is exactly what black spot wants.

Watering, feeding and support

Water deeply and rarely. An inch a week from rain and hose combined, delivered at the base in the morning, builds deep roots and keeps foliage dry. Frequent light sprinkles encourage shallow roots and wet leaves, which in a foggy climate is an invitation to fungus. Newly planted roses need the hose more often for their first month. After that, a dry spell of two weeks without rain is the signal to soak, not the calendar.

Mulch with 2 to 3 inches of shredded bark or compost once the soil has warmed, and keep it a hand’s width back from the canes. It holds moisture, moderates soil temperature, and suppresses weeds. Feed when the first new growth appears (June in most years), again after the first flush of flowers, and then stop. Counting back about eight weeks from the October 17 average first frost puts the last feeding in mid-August. Late nitrogen pushes soft growth that the first hard frost kills, and it takes the cane tips with it.

Support depends on the plant. Climbers need a sturdy trellis or wires, with canes tied loosely and trained as close to horizontal as they will bend, which produces more flowering shoots. Tall shrub roses in an exposed spot do better with a short stake for the first two seasons, since wind rock loosens young roots. Pruning comes in spring, not fall: wait until buds swell, then cut dead wood back to healthy canes showing white pith. On grafted roses, pull suckers (shoots from below the bud union with different, usually seven-leaflet foliage) off at the root instead of snipping them, or they come back.

Common problems

Reading the symptoms

Black spot shows up as dark circular blotches with fringed edges, then yellowing and leaf drop. Humid, foggy summers favor it. Water at the base, thin crowded canes for airflow, pick off affected leaves, and rake up fallen ones in autumn rather than composting them. Powdery mildew is a white coating on young leaves and buds, common where air is still. The same airflow fixes help, and resistant varieties do most of the work.

Buds that turn brown and refuse to open, a condition called balling, usually follow weeks of damp, cool weather; the outer petals rot before the bud can unfurl. Cut the buds off and wait for drier days. Blind shoots, which grow with no flower bud at the tip, point to low light or a cold snap during development. Yellowing between green veins often means the soil is too alkaline or too wet for iron uptake, another reason to test. Canes that blacken and die back from the tips are winter injury; cut to green wood and the plant often recovers.

Pests to know about

No Canadian province publishes a home-garden pest list the way US states do, so the best documentation nearby comes from University of Maine Cooperative Extension, covering a neighboring US state. The biology crosses the border; the calendar does not always. Its list includes browntail moth, winter moth, lily leaf beetle, spotted wing drosophila, emerald ash borer, and several vegetable pests (cabbage maggot, Colorado potato beetle, seedcorn maggot, squash vine borer, striped cucumber beetle) that are not rose problems at all. This page does not claim any of them dominates in Newfoundland and Labrador, or that any is absent.

Two of the list matter to a rose grower. Browntail moth caterpillars feed on rose-family plants and carry hairs that cause a rash on skin, so wear gloves and long sleeves if you find webbed nests. Winter moth caterpillars chew buds and leaves in spring. Aphids, which are not on that list but are the classic rose pest, can be knocked off with a hose blast. Bring any unfamiliar caterpillar or beetle to your provincial agriculture office for identification before spraying anything.

Ripening before the frost comes back

Roses do not ripen fruit the way tomatoes do, but two things must finish before frost: the hips, if you want them, and the wood itself. The arithmetic starts from 139 frost-free days at St. John’s, on average. Plant a potted rose on June 6 and about 133 days remain until the October 17 mean first frost (a number that is early in half of all years). A newly planted nursery rose typically needs six to eight weeks to reach its first bloom, which burns 42 to 56 of those days and lands the first flower between mid-July and early August.

Hips take roughly two to three months from pollination to full color. Count 90 days back from October 17 and you reach July 19: a flower opening after about mid-July is a gamble, and anything opening in mid-August will not ripen a hip at all. Established rugosas, which bloom in June, finish easily. A first-year hybrid planted in June may only deliver flowers, and that is fine. The canes matter more than the hips. They need several weeks of cooling weather to harden before winter, which is why feeding stops in mid-August.

To redo this for your own district, three steps do it:

• Subtract your planting date from your district’s first fall frost date to get days available.
• Subtract 42 to 56 days for first bloom on a new plant (none for an established one).
• Compare what is left with 60 to 90 days for hips. If it falls short, skip the hips and enjoy the flowers.

A hypothetical upland garden with only 100 frost-free days, planted at the start of that window, would have 44 to 58 days left after first bloom: enough to flower, not enough for hips. Extra weeks come from larger potted plants, a south-facing wall, a windbreak, a low tunnel of row cover in late May, and a sheet of black plastic laid over the bed for two weeks before planting to warm the soil (remove it before you plant).

Harvest and end of season

Cut flowers in the early morning, taking each stem just above a leaf with five leaflets so the plant branches again. Buds cut at the stage where color shows and the sepals have turned down will open in a vase, which rescues blooms ahead of a rainy forecast. Hips are ready when fully colored and slightly soft. Many foragers wait until after a light frost, though they do not need it. Dry them whole in a low oven or dehydrator, or freeze them, and use them for tea or jelly. Remove the seeds and irritating hairs inside first.

From early September, stop deadheading so the plant starts shutting down and sets hips. Keep fertilizer off. Around the average first frost date of October 17, with the knowledge that frost comes earlier in half of all falls, clear fallen leaves and bag diseased ones. Wait until the ground begins to freeze, not before, then mound 8 to 12 inches of soil or compost over the base of each rose. Mounding too early traps warmth and invites rot. A burlap windscreen on exposed sides protects canes from wind burn. Leave pruning until spring; fall cuts open wounds to freeze-thaw damage. Snow is the best blanket you will get, so don’t shovel it off the beds.

Local help

Dates and soil vary from one district to the next, so ask the provincial Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture for frost information in your area, soil testing options, and identification of unfamiliar pests. You will find more across the Newfoundland and Labrador guides on this site.

Common questions

Can roses survive winters in Newfoundland and Labrador?

Hardy types can. Rugosas, Explorer climbers and own-root shrub roses cope far better than grafted hybrid teas. Plant them in a sheltered spot, mound the base after the ground starts to freeze, and expect some tip dieback in hard winters. Confirm the hardiness zone for your district with a local nursery, since this page does not publish one.

Can I plant roses in May?

Bare-root roses, yes, once the soil is workable. Potted roses in leaf should wait until around the May 30 average last frost at St. John’s, or a week after it. Inland and northern gardens should wait longer.

What is the easiest rose for a windy coastal garden?

Rugosa types, such as Fru Dagmar Hastrup, handle salt spray, sandy soil and wind better than almost anything else sold as a rose. They also produce big hips.

Do I need to spray for pests?

Usually not. Hose off aphids, hand-pick caterpillars while wearing gloves, and rely on airflow and resistant varieties against fungus. Identify a pest before treating it; your provincial agriculture office can help.

Do the St. John’s dates apply to my garden?

Only if you garden near St. John’s. The 1981-2010 normals come from one airport station, and northern or upland gardens run weeks behind. Because the Canadian baseline is a decade older than the 1991-2020 figures used for US states, a modern garden may already run slightly off these numbers.