Question
Dear Ms. Payne,

In June of this year (2009) I was given a very beautiful rose topiary as a gift from my husband and sons.  I have misplaced the care card so I am unable to give you the plants name but I can tell you that it produced lots of blooms that were often nearly star-shaped but not fragrant through most of the summer.  Some of the more recent blooms have a fuller/rounder shape.  Despite the fact that I have only the most basic knowledge of gardening in general and no knowledge of how to care for a rose topiary in particular, the tree did very well.  Now that fall temperatures have arrived in NJ I am worried about the best way to overwinter the topiary.    

Because I live in a development in which "common area" surrounds my home, getting the topiary/tree planted would be a long-winded and arduous task of gaining approval.

Therefore, I was considering overwintering the plant in my home, either in the basement or in an un-used bathroom upstairs.  Since I live in NJ I thought this might be the best way to protect the roots from freezing and dying.  The basement would offer a mostly dark but relatively moist environment.  The bathroom receives bright morning sun and is very cool in the winter as two of the walls are exterior walls and our insulation is at least 25 years old and of questionable quality.  (I have a Easter cactus and pothos (sp?) plant in there year-round that seem very happy.)    

Could you please tell me how to properly prepare the plant to be moved indoors and how to care for it during the winter?  Does it need to be cut back?  Should it be fertilized since I did not fertilize it this summer?  What kind of fertilizer?  How much and how often should it be watered during the winter?  How much light/dark does it need?  Please feel free to share anything else a novice might need to know to possibly succeed in this endeavor.  

Thank you for your time and advice! :)

Answer
Roses in your area, will normally drop their leaves and start to go dormant by drawing down the sap in their canes, when the first nasty frosts take place. A couple of these hard frosts and the rose will be completely dormant. That is the best time to take your rose tree inside. Wait until all the leaves have fallen off and then bring it inside. After a rose has gone dormant it doesn't need any light as it is only the leaves that need the light. From your description, the basement, if it is insulated, is the best place for the rose. During the winter just make sure the soil is not left dried out for periods longer than a week. If you place a rose indoors in a spot where the sun will shine on it and make the canes warm, it will activate the rose into lots of thin, frail growth and you want the rose to stay dormant like it would outside. It is the cold that keeps the plant dormant and therefore the sun won't effect it outside. Inside it like a greenhouse and the rose will grow even when it is 40C.  Don't keep the soil wet, just barely damp as you don't want to encourage any mold. In the spring when the weather starts to warm up, but there are still frosts, bring it out of the basement and cut the top back by about a third. Then place it in the upstairs bathroom. When there is no chance of a nasty frost, place it outside. Sprinkle some Osmocote 14-14-14 slow release fertilizer all around the base and you won't have to fertilizer it again until the next spring. Osmocote is what the professionals use in the nurseries and it is a slow release type of food which just means every time you water it releases a small amount of food to the rose. During the spring and summer, roses prefer to have a big gulp of water and then let their soil go dry for a few days. Also because it is in a pot, don't place it in full sun. Roses like about 6 to 8 hours of full sun only, preferably no hot midday sun. They also like their roots cool and because the roots are above ground in a container, full sun on the container can make the roots hot which is the main reason many roses don't do well in pots.