Care of Roses Tiger Tip
Care Of Roses Upon Arrival
Our Roses come Bareroot with roots wrapped in moistened newspaper to minimize dehydration during shipping or sold in our store in five gallon containers in our custom rose mix.
Here’s how to get our bare-root roses off to a good start:
1: Unwrap the rose, shake packing material from the roots. Our roses are pruned prior to shipping and there is no need for additional pruning upon arrival unless a cane broke during shipping process. Place the rose into a bucket of water with a couple of ounces of Bonide’s Root Stimulator for transplant stress— the roots completely immersed — for a few hours.
While your rose soaks, dig a planting hole about 24″ wide and 18″ deep. Take the native earth you dug from the hole and mix a 50/50 blend of the native soil with a quality organic planting mix we recommend E.B. Stone’s Rose Planting Mix use this mixture as backfill for your rose.
2: Make a 10-inch-tall cone of soil in the middle of the hole, then center the rose on top of it, with roots spread down the sides of the cone. Pull backfill into the hole, firming it with your hand (never your foot) as you go.
3: When the hole is filled, water until the soil around the plant turns to mud. Rock the rose back and forth to settle it in and to allow air pockets to bubble up through the mud. This process is called “puddling in.”
When you’re done, the rose’s topmost roots should be barely below the soil surface, and the graft (the swollen part just above the crown), if the rose has one, should be well above the soil surface make sure you do not bury the grafted area on the rose. 4: After puddling, add enough backfill to level the soil. Make a 3-inch-high watering basin about 10 inches from the base of the plant. Use the water and root stimulator mixture you were soaking the rose in and give it one more watering, the root stimulator will help in generating feeder roots on the rose.