On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 11:24:45 -0400 (EDT), "Shiva"
wrote:

NANCY wrote this about Simply Marvelous:

I purchased a bare root also and its a tad slower than the other three
but its been so wet here its hard to judge if its the rose or its
environment.
nancy


Hi Nancy!

Thanks for letting me know. You must be fairly close by. We are soaked
here, too. I am beginning to see some new canker on some of my plants.
Maybe bare roots really can get too much moisture--or perhaps a
combination of that and too little sun can slow them down.

What else did you get bare root?

Did you mound your bare roots?

I was thinking just the other day how one has to be careful "following
instructions" because sometimes you've just got to be flexible (not
saying that this is the case in your case, but I'm curious).

You see, when I bought my Belamis, I did the Edmunds approved mounding
method that I've talked about in the past. Normally, at this time of
the year, it's essential, because it can get so hot and windy at the
same time - two ingredients for disaster with a new bare root.
Usually, it's a good month before you can safely uncover them (and
stuff starts peeking through the mulch).

Well, I got them in the ground when I got back from DC, which would
have been around the 28th of May. Conventional wisdom says, leave them
covered until probably the very end of June or so.

Anyway, about two weeks ago (only a week after planting), some animal
decided to uncover part of one. Since the weather was so rainy and
overcast and predicted to be that way for a few days, I decided to
leave it uncovered (at least the top half). Well, with all of the rain
we've had (not quite as much as you in the past few weeks, I'll
admit), some of the mulch on the other plants needed to be replaced on
the top, but since we've had mostly cloudy days, I took a chance and
started uncovering them a little each day. After about 3 days, I had
them almost completely uncovered. I had at least one or two pretty
good sized stems that were still bleached out a little and I was
afraid that I'd lose them. However, they've gradually darkened and
will probably be OK. I*did* lose a couple of very small growths, but
nothing major. Today is the first day in almost a week where we're
probably going to have more than just peek-a-boo sun, so we'll see if
it's going to cause trouble.

Anyway, I was thinking that with all of the rain you had, you might
have been able to get away with mounding only for a week or two just
to stabilize them, since you've had plenty of mousture and not much
sun. If you didn't mound, then just ignore what I've written chuckle

Well, don't ignore it because I think it's a good reminder that
sometimes we have to take our cues from Mother Nature instead of out
of a book.

Here's a pic of the little babies, only three weeks after planting:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ddweil...miPlanting.jpg

And, here are the dreaded bleached stems:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ddweil...miBleached.jpg

Looks like they're darkening up nicely.

Here's the Don Juan tree planting:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/DonJuan1.jpg

You can see the string that I mounted to the left and that big cane in
the right plant is actually a long cut Aloha fishing pole cane being
used for support.

And finally, speaking of Aloha, here's the cutting again from today,
with a yardstick for reference:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/AlohaCutting1.jpg

I had a hard time getting the whole plant to stay in focus, so I just
gave up...