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11-01-2006, 02:21 PM posted to rec.gardens.roses

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:32:18 -0500, (William
Barger) wrote:

Thanks Tim for the great information. I am a novice rose grower, and
kinda worried about mail order roses. My concern is planting bare root
roses. The ones I have were purchased in 5 gallon containers with
foliage. Thanks again.
Bill

You shouldn't have any problems with bare root as long as you:

Soak the roots for a day before you plant.

Dig a big enough hole and put a mound of soil in the middle of the
hole to drape the roots over. IF the bottom of the hole hits clay,
then dig at least 6 inches deeper (preferably a foot) and put a layer
of topsoil and compost in. This is the same as if you planted a rooted
plant.

Sprinkle a little bone meal and compost in the bottom. NO FERTILIZER!

Make sure that the hole is dug so that the bud union is roughly flush
with the ground when it's placed on the mound. If you prefer to bury
your bud union, then dig it THAT deep. If you prefer the union to be
above ground, then adjust the mound accordingly.

Fill with dirt. Water well, let it settle and fill with more dirt and
repeat the watering. Make sure that the soil is well compacted. This
is the same as when you plant any rooted plant.

Mound up mulch until the canes are completely covered. Keep the mound
uniformly damp in the coming weeks. With normal early spring rains,
this usually only means watering maybe once or twice for the month. If
it's drier than normal, then water once or twice a week.

In about a month, you'll see new growth coming through the mulch. At
that point, CAREFULLY pull the mulch back from the rose over the next
couple of days (I like to do it in stages, but you can do it all at
once if you like). When you get close to the canes, you can use a very
light stream of water to wash away the remaining mulch, but be careful
about the water pressure. If you DO break a bit of new growth, don't
freak out. Also, don't be surprised if the new growth looks pale and
albinoesque. That's normal. It hasn't seen the sun yet. In those first
couple of days, the new growth will be a bit fragile so try to avoid
futzing around the canes and don't hit them with strong streams of
water. But after a couple of days of sun, they'll start to toughen and
green up.

At this point, you now have a very vigorously growing bush that's
already been mulched. At this point, simply do the normal
fertilization routine, but remember to fertilize BELOW the mulch at
ground level. Now's the time for more bone meal and blood meal, epson
salts and fish emulsion (if desired). The epson salts is the one thing
that I wouldn't forgo though. It is supposed to encourage basal
breaks.

The one advantage to bare root roses is that they have a better
"foundation" in terms of canes (often times thicker and more robust).
If you can overcome the fear of procedure, I think you'll find that
some of your best roses over time will be bare root. And once you get
the knack of the planting procedure, you'll wonder why you ever
worried about it.

Oh yeah, the perfect time to plant is a couple of weeks before the
last frost date in your locale. The mulch will protect the plant from
last minute frosts and you'll uncover the plant before the sun really
gets strong and the new growth won't be as shocked when it finally
sees the sun. However, you can certainly plant well into the season if
you'd like. I'd say Memorial Day + one week is about as late as you'd
like to plant bare roots because of the strength of the sun at that
point.