torgo wrote in message . ..
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.

I totally agree with the above advice if you must buy bagged roses,
which are generally a bad lot, particularly if you get them at a mass
merchandiser who neither knows nor cares about roses. I find in my
harsh climate, that no bagged rose ever lives to its second year
probably because the spindly roots can't support the plant, but if you
want to look at a year's worth of blossoms for $5, it's cheaper than
buying a dozen at the florists. Still, best to indulge your spring
impulses buying packs of seed in January and wait until the potted
roses come in in a few months.

That said, however, I had two bagged Peace roses that were given to me
given to me go wild, and whatever came up from the two root stocks are
now about seven feet tall and covered with several hundred pink single
blossoms from mid-June to freeze-up. It's one of the few times the
rootstock turned out better than the graft (although not being a
hybrid tea fan, the bar is set quite low.) I stuck an arbour around
them, planted some clematis and it's a showpiece. So you never know.