Advice please on bare root roses
Hi all,
I am not very knowledable in regards to gardening put I am helping my mother tidy up her garden.
Bought from bare root roses from poundland today and am deciding whether to put them straight into the soil or whether to pot them for a month or 6 weeks before putting them into soil. I have 15cm pots so was going to use these.
- the roses are small
- I am in Manchester UK. The soil is terrible condition. Its heavy clay and not been dug for a long time. There were lot of weeds so I sprayed glyphosate over them all around 2 weeks ago and now most of the weeds have died. I am planning on running a rotorvator to break up the soil and make it a better consistency, its very hard and flat/cracked right now.
I have put the bare root roses in a bucket of water to cover the roots for the last couple of hours. So should I pot them tomorrow? Or should I put them straight into the soil once its been tilled? I cant put them into the soil until saturday, if if that would be the best option would they be ok with the roots sitting in the bucket of water (would be sat for around 3.5 days total).
Here are the roses now sat in my conservatory:
And this is the garden, the borders will be getting tilled on friday:
Any help is appreciated.
Last edited: 26 April 2017 18:37:58
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I always pot new roses in good, loam based compost - John Innes no 2 or 3 - so they can develop a good strong root system before they have to face life in the hurly burly of my borders. As long as they are watered regularly and fed in spring and early summer, they can very happily live in a decent pot for a whole year or more.
I suggest you do the same and that will give you time to do something about that soil. It needs a through forking over to loosen it and clear away stones, rubble and any other crud and weeds. Then you can condition the soil with some bought in multi-purpose compost, well rotted manure and any other soil conditioners you can find to improve the structure and nutrient content.
Yours look like they've had no light at all and need to be introduced gently to the great outdoors or the wind and sun and cold will be too much of a shock.
My first reaction, having just planted a bare root rose last week, was to suggest that yours should be planted asap. But looking at the soil in the pic, and taking account of your description of it, I think I would be tempted to pot them up - making sure that the pots are large enough not to compromise the roots, and making sure that they were kept out of intense, direct sunlight, and were kept well watered. I wouldn't keep them in a conservatory; they are outdoor plants, and the over-heating that can occur in a conservatory will not help them a bit. Outdoors (sheltered) would be preferable, I think.
When to plant into the ground I am less sure; perhaps it would be best to wait until the plants become dormant (autumn) rather than risk them in the forthcoming summer. But there will be others better able to comment than I can. And, of course, the soil structure will be benefit from some medium that improves it - such as well rotted manure.
So - maybe not a lot of help, but I hope a bit of a guide in relation to difficult growing conditions that you face. At least you have done the right thing by getting the roots into water in the short term, rather than risking them drying out! And glyphosate does not affect the soil - it is a plant-contact weed killer, so the soil will not have been compromised by your using it, I believe.
Don't put them in ground that has recently had glyphosate on it. Get "your gardener" or whoever to dig a lot of soil improver and farm manure to get the soil ready for their planting.
It looks as if its been in the dark for a while, those white shoots will be very soft and they do need the light.
Give the bare roots a good overnight soak before doing anything with it. I would buy in some really good planting compost and stick each rose in its own pot for the time being so you can give it some TLC. Keep it watered but do check it is growing and the shoots are greening up.
I would also get some mycorrhizal fungi there are lots of brands "Rootgrow" if the sprinkle that over the roots before planting it should help them get started.
Do let us know how they are doing.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
Thankyou all, this is really excellent advice. I feel much more comfortable potting them I think as do are so small and fragile looking. As said I would be wise to spend some time improving the soil as I did plan on putting some annuals in around a month or so and didn't think that soil would be good enough.
Getting back to the roses, which pot size would be suitable for them? Would the 15cm ones I have be too small for a few months, I could post them up once they get a bit bigger, but not sure if they would take well to being potted twice.
Or shoukd I go for a bigger pot right away?
The roots shouldn't be too squished and bent.
When you buy them in pots from rose nurseries they generally come in square pots at least 10"/25cms deep and 6"/15cms wide. Try and find something that deep and wider if necessary. Make sure the garft union - where the rose is grafted to the rootstock - is between one and two inches below soil level.
Thanks, got some pots today from b&m bargains just 99p each, they are approx 30cm deep and 25cm wide so I will use these. Hope to keep you updated on the progress!
On another note, I also bought some Rhododendron in 3l pots from Home Bargains to go in my own garden (not mothers as above). The soil is decent in my garden so I dont have the problems as above, other than I will probably enrich it a bit with compost when planting the Rhododendrons. I wont be able to plant them for about a week as im working away... are they ok sat in the pots in the corner of my garden? I watered them today when I brough them back... it will be around 9 days from bringing home to planting out... just wondering if thats ok, I googled but couldnt find an answer.
Here are the plants squashed into my passenger footwell :-)
For your Rhododendrons, you'll need to dig in plenty of ericaceous (acidic) compost when preparing the soil prior to planting them.
Dunk each pot in a bucket of water till no further air bubbles appear and then remove and set in a sheltered corner. They should be fine unless you get a heat wave and even then they'll recover with another dunking in a bucket.
Do this before planting them out too and do follow MowT's advice about ericaceous soil conditioner.