On Saturday, Nov. 5, 5:30 p.m. (in the Twin Cities area) an episode of Hometime on PBS highlighted Habitat for Humanity and the College of St. Catherine. The episode featuring the Centennial House is titled 100th Anniversary House, episode #1919. Check your local PBS listing for dates and time the show will rerun in your area. And who knows, if you were a volunteer on this very special project, you may see yourself on TV.

WINTERING INFORMATION

Created in honor of the College of St. Catherine Centennial and offered exclusively through the College, Rosa 'St. Catherine’ was developed by Twin Cities’ area Bailey Nurseries.

Many of you have one or more beautiful blooming St. Catherine rose bushes in your garden. A few have had beautiful foliage and extensive canes but no buds so far this year. We are aware of this issue of non-blooming roses and have high hopes for next year.

Perhaps the rose plant put too much energy into producing canes, so flowering was delayed. We recommend cutting all canes down to a foot tall and letting side shoots grow, but one advisor suggests we do not cut them back after early September.

For wintering Rosa 'St. Catherine', you should not need to do anything at all, as long as the roses have been planted by August. These are hardy shrub roses, so they will die back to either the snow line or ground, but their roots should send up new shoots next year.

Let the canes die back to the ground over the winter and leave them alone until they start to grow next spring. Then cut off the dead parts. If you are worried about a harsh winter, we recommend spreading straw or leaves around the base of the plants for protection and insulation.