Planting Bare Root Roses
When you receive your bare root roses, late March or early April in Cincinnati, soak the roots for three hours in a tub of water. Then begin preparing the planting hole. Dig a large hole and if soil is poor replace it with peat, sand, soil mixture, equal parts of each. Build a small mound of soil and place one handful of superphospate in bottom of hole. After rose has soaked for at least three hours (but not more than 24hrs.), prune small damaged roots, and the tips of large roots. Place the bush in the hole so that the grafted area or bud union is a little higher than the ground level. Spread the roots over the mound in the hole . Fill in with the replacement soil. Soak well and let the water drain down. Fill again with water after water has soaked down.
Do not fertilize at this time! Cover the canes with soil or mulch, up to twelve inches, until the ground warms up, mid-May usually. In mid May, uncover rose to ground level and prune all small canes to bud union at base of plant, and prune back the large canes to the area where the inside of the cane is white. When pruning, assure that a bud-eye, the site that the leaf will come out, is 1/2 inch below the last cut you have made, and that the bud-eye is on the outside aspect of the cane. Apply Elmers carpenter glue, nail polish or shellac to the top of the cut area to prevent insects from entering the canes. In early June, in Cincinnati, blooms begin to open, however a newly planted rose is usually a bit slower.
