Hi all. This is my first time planting roses, and I'm a
little nervous. I live in Northern Virgina (Zone 7/6) and I ordered
three bushes and a climber (Joseph's Coat, Robert Clemens, Laura, and
Compassion) from www.heirloomroses.com, primarily because I am an
organic gardener, and I've been told that the own-root heirloom
varities do not require lots of synthetic sprays.
So I got my roses a week and change ago, and was amazed at how
small the plants seemed -- around half the size of roses I see at
nurseries and such. But I figured, okay, they're young. Then I note
the planting instructions. 2'x2'x2' holes? Good god! I am a no-till
vegetable gardener, and the thought of digging those enormous holes in
my clay-masquerading-as-soil daunted me. Then I actually dug a hole
and put the Robert Clemens in. I'm exhausted. It took me days to dig
the hole and then try and condition the soil and put the rocks in for
drainage and all the other instructions. Meanwhile, the other three
plants are still in their little tree seedling containers and I am
starting to get worried about them. Should I temporarily pot them?
If so, in what size pots? Do I really have to dig the other three
holes, or could I no-till them? Help?



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