"Bear Drummer" wrote in message
ups.com...
Greetings from a newbie who wants to do it right...

I have inherited a few rootings (the rose rooted into the ground, and
Grandpa cut it from the plant, so I have at least a partial root
system), and since this is a "family" rose (it was brought here from
Georgia by my great grandma, who got a cutting from her mama... and now
I have a piece from my grandma).... so I want to do this rigt the first
time...

The facts"

I live in the mid/south Mississippi area 39406 zip...

We have a mostly sunny spot to plant it...

Good. As Henry said, roses like sun.

We live in a rather clay rich area at the bottom of the hills - we have
a plugged up ditch that almost never runs out of water, so there are
drainage issues.

Can you raise the planting bed? Either by mounding up the
soil or using paving stones or cut up landscape timbers.
We've had several major floods here since I put my rose
beds in (late 1998) and my raised beds did fine. I'm also
living in a heavy clay area. My raised beds are only
partial, BTW. I use three levels of landscape timbers
which raises the bed about 9" above ground level (and
dig down at least another 9").

The rooting has been sitting in the bucket for over a week now, while I
"discussed" a location to put it with my mother. - the location is at
the end of the driveway where it will have sun most of the day.

I've done some rose cuttings and what I usually do is
move the "baby" into a small pot with some good
potting soil (like Schultz Professional Grow Mix) and
then keep it damp (and usually in partial shade) until it
starts growing. Once it seems established I gradually
move it into full sun. Then I wait until it is well
established to plant it in the ground. In your case,
I probably wouldn't plant until fall. That would also
give you time to get the rose's final planting hole ready
and for the soil to settle (and earthworms to find it g).

I have no idea which of my ideas are correct and which aren't - I am
still enough of a newbie to realize I do not know everything.

Nobody does. I don't use rooting hormone, but rather
use seaweed, if you can find it locally. But others swear
by rooting hormone. Since yours already has some
roots it probably doesn't need it.

I would like advice as to how to plant this rose that my grandmother
calls a "Georgia Wild Rose", and keep it healthy.

Thanks...

Tony


If it's well established before going into the ground,
and you can work out the drainage, then it should do
ok. Those "wild roses" tend to be really hardy. I
have a pink rose that a co-worker's mother-in-law
tried to kill for years (obviously she never tried
Roundup) but it kept coming back. The co-worker
gave me a cutting. I treated it as mentioned above.
That was about 6 years ago. It's one of the healthiest
roses of my 150 roses, and I don't even know what
it is!

Good luck -
Gail
near San Antonio TX Zone 8