@celcius_kkw The paper bag has a polythene bag inside with the bareroots rubber banded together in a bundle. The recommendation is to store the paper bag unopened somewhere frost free and cool, like a shed, or garage, if you have something like that?
@celcius_kkw Saturday is perfectly fine. I received my roses six or seven days ago and they have been in a bucket for two or three days now. I hoped to plant them today but they will need to wait two more days. They can take a lot as long as they are somewhere cold.
@Omori Yes I have a spare unheated bedroom that I intend to keep it in.. so you suggest just leave the original packaging as it is until I am ready to plant them?
@edhelka it’s ok to leave them soaked in water for so long? If that’s the case I might soak them overnight on Friday when I come back from work and then plant them the next day.
Yes @celcius_kkw This is from DA: Bare root plants will keep for up to three weeks tightly sealed in the paper sack and polythene bag without a problem.
@celcius_kkw The advice varies between 1 and 24 hours, some even longer. I know about people who forgot about them for a week or two (or even more!) and roses were fine. I think I'll take them and put them in the bag again, and then back to the bucket before planting just to be safe.
2 quick q re floribunda roses -- I have seen some bare root collections (3-5 roses) advertised for basically the price of a single DA bare root. It's possible these will be younger bare roots than DA , but I was wondering if anyone here had experience of ( eg) yougarden / jparker / etc and whether they are broadly decent quality products ( understanding that obviously no supplier can be held responsible for ( apologies if this question breaches forum rules re specific retailers- , in which case please answer more generally). The collection in question is a mix of small ( 2ftx2ft) and medium ( 3ft x3ft) roses. @Nollie helpfully suggested minimum size contaner for a patio or small shrub rose to be 40x40 (ish) -- but is it in principle possible to have eg a Julia Child rose in a smaller pot ( ie more like 20-25cm wide and 25-30 cm deep ) --for the first couple years and then "pot up"? or do roses not like being lifted into sequentially bigger pots every couple years?
Is leaf mould good for roses? the leaves i collected last year to make leaf mould look quite decomposed. I am wondering whether to mulch roses with it or not.
@londondesi100, I don’t personally have any experience of those suppliers, they won’t necessarily be ‘younger’ but may be a lower grade. If the varieties aren’t named, you are never sure of what you get and even when they are named sometimes they turn out to be something different entirely! DA spend many years and a lot of time and money developing their roses and that is reflected in the price. There is currently a 15% discount on their bare root roses (think the code I received was JAMES). In saying that, many reputable specialist rose suppliers sell excellent quality DA roses cheaper than DA, once they are out of patent, so let us know which ones you are interested in. Harkness also does some lovely floribundas.
Yes you can start off roses in smaller pots then pot them on, many of us do, they don’t mind. You can prune the long bare roots back to fit. A 20-25cm x 25x30 pot would last you a year, I think, but hopefully others will chip in with their experience. I and others have Julia Child, it is one of the more vigorous floribundas, a fabulous, incredibly floriferous rose and deserving of a bigger pot. @Tack, I think you have JC in a pot, what size is yours?
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
@newbie77, leaf mould doesn’t have much nutritional value, being the cast off husks of trees that have done their job of photosynthesis for the tree. A mulch of compost or well-rotted manure will feed your roses better. Leaf mould is great as a soil improver to mix in with heavy soil and to incorporate into potting mixes, but I am sure will be fine as a mulch so long as you don’t expect it to add much to the party, so to speak!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
Bare root plants will keep for up to three weeks tightly sealed in the paper sack and polythene bag without a problem.
https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/products/william-and-catherine?utm_source=David+Austin+Roses+UK+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5592544c21-UK_Autumn20MS_BRopening_emily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_473e1e0c16-5592544c21-22855192
Yes you can start off roses in smaller pots then pot them on, many of us do, they don’t mind. You can prune the long bare roots back to fit. A 20-25cm x 25x30 pot would last you a year, I think, but hopefully others will chip in with their experience. I and others have Julia Child, it is one of the more vigorous floribundas, a fabulous, incredibly floriferous rose and deserving of a bigger pot. @Tack, I think you have JC in a pot, what size is yours?