"Orchid" wrote in message
...
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.

I'm 99.875% organic and I have all manner
of modern and antique roses, grafted and
own root that do just fine. (Local weather
conditions might help that a lot...) My advice is:
try something you like, if it thrives, great. If it
doesn't, try something else.

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.

Yep. Sometimes those do really well. But be
patient. It might take time for them to grow.

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.

If your clay is anything like my clay, that hole size
is pretty much a minimum. Roses need good
drainage.

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.

Rocks? I've never done that but I probably
don't have your exact soil conditions. I found
out the hard way the best way to deal with fine
(heavy) clay is with a garden fork - 4 flat tongs
or tines that go into the soil relatively easily and
can even be counted on to excavate a lot of
the soil. I have bent the tines on so many garden
forks I now buy Craftsman (Sears) garden forks
exclusively, since they'll replace the damaged ones
for free. The fiberglass handles are really nice,
and generally lighter in weight but tough.

Re amending holes: There are lots of different
opinions. I buy a local "rose soil" that consists of
fine shredded mulch, compost, and orange
sand. I usually mix some of the clay back into
the hole but don't go to any lengths to mix it up well.
Roses are pretty forgiving of soil conditions so I
wouldn't get too obsessive about one set of
instructions from one nursery. Sometimes you do
everything *exactly right* and the stupid rose
dies anyway. Then you throw a $2.00 Wal-Mart
"rescue" into a poorly prepared hole and the rose
is the best rose you have! Frustrating but fun,
not unlike golf at times.

Go to www.ars.org
Do a site search on planting roses and start
reading.

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?

Sure. I usually do that with young roses rather than
put them in the ground immediately. Then you can
plant them in the fall or even next spring, assuming
you protect them from winter cold. But don't go by
my advice; I live in a much warmer climate. Check
out those American Rose Society articles instead.
Or better yet, ask a local nursery that specializes
in roses, or a botanical garden.

If so, in what size pots? Do I really have to dig the
other three
holes, or could I no-till them? Help?

One gallon pots should be sufficient for the shrub
roses; maybe 2 gallons for the climber, since they
tend to grow faster. You can use the black plastic
straight sided nursery pots. They make it easier to
transplant later on than the sloping sided pots
(experience speaking).

I don't know what no-tilling means, but will
repeat the advice about digging a good hole.
I have gotten away with an 18" deep hole, and
I've also used raised beds (9" above ground),
meaning I only have to dig down about 9".

Good luck.

Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8