Very pot bound standard roses

Posts

• Busy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043

  February 2021

  I think that, if possible, you should plant them in the ground. If one pot is severely cracked it will break eventually and now is a suitable time of year for planting roses. I would break the pots and dig the rose out as much as you can, keeping as much earth on as you can, then re-plant them. If you really want to save the uncracked pot then see how much root there is in the cracked pot first and if it looks a decent amount then cut the root of the other rose to release it. Whether you plant them in a pot or in the ground it sounds as though they need re-potting anyway. The pots should be about 60cms tall for a rose.
  
  Last year I gave some of my roses in pots to my daughter, in the winter. Some were difficult to get out of the pots and I cut some roots but they have all taken well in her garden in the ground.

  Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.

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• Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134

  February 2021

  Don't worry. Roses respond well to root pruning. First, prepare their new locations by adding organic material, bonemeal and some mycorrhizal granules. Then take them out of the old pots, before March if at all possible. Keeping as much of the rootball as you can, use secateurs to cut off the roots at the juncture with the soil; you may even be able to dig further down and remove more root that way. You'll need to balance the root loss at the bottom by pruning back some of the top growth, to minimise water loss when they get into growth, but February is a good time to do that anyway.
  
  Because they won't have had time to put on new root growth before the leaves come on, you will need to keep a watchful eye over them in their first season, and feed and water as necessary. In replanting, keep the soil at the level it was before, and make sure to firm in well and add a stake fastened at both the top and bottom of the standard stem and well hammered in, as the greatest risk will be wind rock.

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• Compostmania Posts: 31

  February 2021

  Thank you for your help!

  I could agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong...

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• JennyJ Posts: 10,576

  February 2021 edited February 2021

  Just one point to note - if you use the mycorrizal fungi (it's beneficial but not essential), it's meant to be put in contact with the rootball, in the bottom of the hole so that the roots sit directly on it, and dusted onto the sides before you backfill, not mixed into the soil that you fill in with.
  

  Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  

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