I've had pretty good luck getting those bargain baggie roses up and
running. And I don't get the first ones off the truck, either. I
"rescue" the last refugees still on the rack just to see if I can keep
them alive. I usually can, no matter how bad they are when I get
them.

The usual caveats apply though: you didn't really buy a pair of
Double Delights and a QE climber. You only bought labels that say
those things, and those labels are wrong something like 15% of the
time. Maybe more often than that. You won't know until your "Double
Delight" blooms yellow and the "Queen Elizabeth" makes a compact
little shrub with red flowers.

The best tip I'd give anyone trying their hand at the cheap bagged
stuff is to cut off the first flush of blooms immediately. These poor
roses had their roots hacked to virtually nothing when they were cut
out of the ground. They're two year old plants with the root stock of
a first season seedling. Until the roots have time to really get
going again, the effort required to support the blooms might kill the
entire plant. Cut those blooms off and let the plant put its energy
into growing instead.





On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 15:49:59 GMT, "ed" wrote:

Is it silly to have purchased three roses from home despot at a "bargain" of
5 bucks a rose? When I go on these wintertime jaunts to find the first rose
of the winter, I look for the healthiest appearing rose as opposed to a
specific type. Anybody else do this kind of insanity?

The roses are double delight(two) and a queen elizabeth climber I don't have
room for. Currently they are still in their original cheap packages awaiting
a reasonably tepid day for their owner to release them from their bondage
and put them into pots where they will stay, inside a shed on cold days and
nights, and come out when temps are above freezing. They will stay this way
until about April 1 as my rose garden is in a little hollow and frosts and
freezes aggravate me to no end. Then they will go in the ground with the 150
or so other roses.

COME ON SPRING!!!!
ed