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Bare root roses

SuesynSuesyn Posts: 664
in Plants
I recently bought 2 roses from my local garden centre, one in October 2017, which had been on order since May, and the other at the end of January . When the first one didn't arrive until the end of summer I said to the lovely young man at the garden centre that I expect it will be bare rooted now and was told that they don't have bare rooted, that they are all container grown. However when I planted it it really wasn't,  it was a bare rooted in a pot and all the soil fell off. I  planted it out and it has done very well so I am not unhappy with it. The one I purchased in January was a David Austin ,they had new stock in at the garden centre and the roses were all priced at  £25. Imagine my surprise when this one also lost all the soil from around it's roots when I took it out of the pot. Is this normal practice or are they pulling a fast one. 
I have got another rose on order, this time bare rooted direct from David Austen,at least I know what to expect. 

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    If it has been pot grown , I would expect some sign of roots at the bottom. And the soil to be a bit firmer than if it had just been planted bare root.It sounds to me as if you've been cheated.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    This has happened to me in the past, and that was over ten years ago. Not sure whether this is David Austin or the garden centre. Very clearly not pot grown for one year, just roots planted into compost. 
  • MarlorenaMarlorena Posts: 8,705
    They should explain this to customers with adequate labelling, it may be on the label somewhere, I can't remember... but all these roses bought potted at this time of year from garden centres, will have been newly potted earlier this winter, usually in November.
    ...they should not be planted out in your garden until at least mid to late May, otherwise all the compost will fall away from the roots...   it's not a disaster but for newer gardeners it can make them panic a bit.. and it sets the rose back somewhat..


    Sometimes you can buy container roses that have been hanging around since last year, although these are usually sold off at a discount... they will be pot bound..



    East Anglia, England
  • Guernsey Donkey2Guernsey Donkey2 Posts: 6,713
    When I bought my David Austin rose there were two prices, one was £17.00 for bare root, or £21.00 for potted.  If your GC is trying to make a few pounds by potting up a bare root rose they should be ashamed of themselves.  If you can prove this then please report them to the David Austin Company.
  • SlumSlum Posts: 385
    My local GC buys in bare root roses (not DA roses) to sell when the bare root season starts. Any that don't sell then get potted up and sold in the coming months. I would assume this is standard practice to avoid waste, costs and higher prices. 
  • SuesynSuesyn Posts: 664
    As it happens both of the roses were bought with a discount, the first when the garden club went for a discount shopping evening, which is always  at the end of May and the second when they were offering 50% off until end January. They offer 2 year guarantee on all herbaceous plants so I don't think there was much risk involved but I would have been a bit cross if I had paid full price for them especially as the David Austin that I have just ordered works out at  £19.25 with delivery after the end of season discount  (thanks for the code,  Marlorena).
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