Any rose experts?

Lilysmom1 · ‎11-08-2020

We had a beautiful day here Tuesday. Mild, sunny. Spring fever hit and I bought two rose bushes packed in peat.

The peat is moist so I plan to store in the heated but cool garage until planting time in April. I know I have to soak before planting.

Do you do anything special besides compost and good earth when planting? What do you use for fertilizer?

TIA.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

With a dormant, bare-root rose bush you can pretty much plant it anytime the soil isn't frozen or too wet. I've planted them in February here with no ill effects. Bare root roses want a unique planting technique. You'll want a big hole (around two feet in diameter) with a mound of soil in the middle, then carefully spread the roots over and around the mound of soil. Then cover the roots with soil. Prune back any damaged roots.

The planting depth is largely controlled by the bud union (assuming they're grafted and most roses are) and the local climate. In colder parts of the world, you typically want to bury the bud union an inch or so deep to protect it. In warmer parts of the world, you want it an inch above the soil. Putting it above the soil line helps to ensure that any new growth is coming from the graft and not the rootstock which while great for roots, isn't so great for flowers. If you bury the graft, you have to be a bit more vigilant in figuring out where the new growth is coming from, but you also give more protection to the grafted part.

As to fertilizer, I typically used an all-in-one fertilizer/systemic insecticide combination made for roses. The old kill two birds with one stone approach. The systemic insecticide largely controls anything that will munch on the plants saving you from having to spray or monitor them all that closely. And pretty much everything in the insect world likes to nibble on roses. You don't want to use a systemic insecticide too near any edible crop though. Most pet-like animals tend not to bother roses, but if you have lots of hungry deer nearby you may opt for a less toxic option. (Assuming you like the deer. You may like them less if they eat all of your rose bushes.)

Roses want good air circulation around them and want at least a gallon of water a week while actively growing, so planting them near a hose where it's less of a chore to haul a gallon of water to each rose bush can be wise. (Really big roses want more water.) Most people get skimpy on the watering and fail to deliver enough to roses.

Way, way, way back in my much younger days, a university professor gave two identical roses to each of his students and gave them all the same instructions on how to care for them, but for one rose he gave them a top-secret, rose growing pill they were to add to a gallon jug of water each week when they watered them. The roses that got the top-secret pill thrived while the rest did okay or flopped. What was in the pill? An inert substance. He just wanted to ensure that at least one rose got the full gallon of water each week. The students typically shortchanged the other rose of the full gallon. Don't shortchange your roses on their needed water.

Roses are fun plants, but pretty much everything will try to eat them. Most of the disease issues can be foiled by ensuring they have good air circulation. They've been around for centuries so they're not an especially delicate plant. They just have issues with being too tasty.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

Lilysmom1 · ‎11-08-2020

@gardenman Thank you for such detailed instructions. I was hoping you would chime in. I will take your watering advice to heart. I will bury the bud onion and be sure to spread the roots out.

I planted three small knockout roses last year and they were really beautiful. The beavers ate one. I thought the thorns would keep them safe but, nope. I caged the remaining two and they did very well.

I will be April before these get in the ground here.

River Song · ‎03-15-2010

A month ago I purchased bareroot roses (well, roots packed in peat) as a lark at Costco.

I planted them in pots in a mixture of commercial potting soil, Miracle Grow rose garden soil (this is compost with added bonemeal), perlite, and rose & bloom fertilizer.

I'm no rose expert but I must've done something right because they are leafing out and have flower buds after one month. I'm in Florida and so far, no critters have eaten them nor do I see any insects or fungus attacking the plants.

Lilysmom1 · ‎11-08-2020

@River Song Sounds like you made a good job of p,anting!

Lilysmom1 · ‎11-08-2020

@gardenman , it has started to leaf out. I wonder, should I pot is now and move to the garden in a month or so or is it ok to leave it? TIA.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

@Lilysmom1 wrote:
@gardenman , it has started to leaf out. I wonder, should I pot is now and move to the garden in a month or so or is it ok to leave it? TIA.

It's okay to leave it, but you have to remember it will dry out more now that it has leaves. You'll want to monitor the moisture level of the peat pretty closely.

You were talking about planting it outdoors in April, so if that was early April, holding it in leaf for two or three more weeks won't hurt it as long as you make sure it doesn't dry out. If you were looking at late April, more or less six weeks away, I might opt to pot it up just to make keeping an eye on the moisture level easier.

Bare root roses typically come to you with a waxy coating to prevent moisture loss while in the bare root state. Once they start leafing out, the waxy coating doesn't grow with the new leaves/stems and the risk of them drying out becomes larger. If a bare root rose dries out completely, it's pretty much a goner. If you don't mind monitoring the moisture level of the peat and adding moisture as needed, you can hold it for a fair amount of time.

If you have a planting location in mind that's dry enough to put it in the ground now without compacting the soil, that's the ideal option. Potting it up is an option, but it won't have time to fill the pot with roots before you're ready to plant it out in the spring (April-ish) and you're apt to damage the new roots it's formed when you go to plant it. And a rose would want a pretty big pot. If you don't mind keeping it in the pot for an extended time (say until June/July/August) to let it become somewhat pot-bound, and then planting it in the garden would be an option also. Transplanting it once its roots had filled the pot and were holding the soil would minimize root damage while transplanting.

Roses are very tough little plants. As long as you don't let it get totally dried out, it should survive. Once the foliage starts to form, drying out becomes more of an issue. The wax coating gets broken and lots of surface area for evaporation develops. It's typically fine for a few weeks to a month, but longer than that things can get a bit tricky. Roses can be grown hydroponically, so as long as you can keep the moss damp-ish, the rose should be fine.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!