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Buying Roses
Rob Lockwood
Posts: 380
in Plants
Hi all
I'm looking to buy a couple of roses and jwondered whether it were possible to buy more mature plants - a quick read around suggests most roses are sold at the same stage of maturity either bare-root in autumn or potted the rest of the year. Alternatively if anyone can tell me how long a bare-root plant bought in November will take to reach its mature size of 4ft high/wide, at leat I'll know how long I have to wait!
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Posts
It all depends on the position they will grow in and the species of roses purchased. There will be someone on here who may be able to help you further but you could also contact the big rose growers eg David Austin or Beales and they will definitely be able to offer advice.
In my experience most roses are fairly prolific growers, so I'd expect even a bare root to achieve close to that height in its first year but certainly by the second.
The established roses from David Austin are well worth the extra fiver, mine arrived 3 weeks ago 4 foot high and ready to flower- it's now flowering. For what it's worth it was a rambling rose so may be be taller than the average non-climbing potted rose.
You may be able to buy larger plants if you are able to visit a nursery. Most mail order plants willl be sent out small to keep down the cost of delivery. You tend to get more plant fo your money buying bareroot because of this, compost is heavy!
I bought a mature pot grown shrub rose a couple of months ago from a garden centre that specializes in roses. The longest stem is now about 3ft high and I've had a couple of flowers and there's about half a dozen buds. It cost me just under £20.
The cheaper ones tend to be bare root that have been potted up by the GC and will take much longer to grow. I wouldn't expect much for at least a year while it's developing roots.
A bare root plant can take up to two years before it does anything interesting.
i've bought 6 in the last three weeks from Rumwood Nurseries/ britishroses.co.uk (same company) online, i bought 5 climbers and 1 rambler, they cost £11.50 each and you can buy, i think one costs £6.50 delivery or up to five for £8.99, they are in 4 litre pots of compost and the roots are really secure in the compost and the plants were around 3ft tall at least, they were all in bud and really healthy, all are now in flower except the rambler which has tons of buds on it, very happy with their communication and customer service.
Last edited: 23 June 2016 00:26:56
Thanks all - will check out the recommendations!