Why Bare Root Roses Are A Stand Out Choice

by Glenn Cutforth

Bare root roses are not very pretty when they arrive at your door. They're dormant stock and brown roots, but since there's no chance of transplant shock, they're a great choice for beginning your rose garden. They're grown in fields, dug out in the fall, put into cold storage, then shipped to you. You can then plant them in early spring in virtually any part of the country.

One advantage of choosing bare root roses is the selection. You have a much wider range of choices then in a standard nursery. Depending on where you live, you can plant as early as February, which allows the root system to become well established earlier. You usually get better first year growth, as well as better quality roses.

When your bare root roses arrive, their very survival depends on you doing a few things. First, plant them as soon as possible, or store them in moist soil. You definitely don't want them to dry out! The heeling in process, as it's called, is just laying the roses on their sides, and gently heaping loose soil over the roots. Be sure to keep the soil moist until you plant them. Before that however, you'll want to inspect the roses immediately. Any damaged roots or canes should be snipped off with clean, sharp pruning shears. You don't want disease or rot spreading, specifically root and crown galls, so act quickly.

Additionally, you should soak the roots overnight in either willow water, or add a little rooting activator to the bucket of water. This contains a synthetic Vitamin B1. This will aid in dehydrating the roots. Save the water for later planting use. Next prepare the hole for planting. It should be one and a half times as deep and one and a half times as wide as the root system is long. You'll want to support the rose's root crown by mounding some soil around the hole.

If you've properly prepared your soil, enhancing it isn't necessary. If your soil lacks nutrients, add a little bone meal or ground phosphate rock to the hole bottom. You can try adding a touch of kelp powder into the hole too for added health. Plant according to your hardiness zone. In all cases you'll want to spread the roots down, and over the top of the mounded soil, into the holes bottom. Equally distribute the roots around the mound. Never wrap roots around the rose. Remember, placing them properly will ensure good growth.

There are five types of bare root roses available in the United States. These include the Hybrid Tea-large flowers, about 30-50 petals per stem, one bloom per stem; Grandiflora have large blooms in clusters on the stem; The Floribunda have continually blooming, compact clusters of blooms on each stem; The Climbers include the types above except they climb and spread; and finally there are shrub type roses, which grow to be 5 to 15 feet tall and wide. They're self-cleaning so you don't need to deadhead them. David Austin's unique group of hybridized roses (typically called English Roses) belong to this class.

Adding bare root roses to your landscape has, not only the outlined benefits, but they add interest to your garden with their many types and colours. Bring some into your life, and you won't ever want them to stay forever -- and they almost do.

About the Author
Glenn Cutforth is a writer, graphic designer and publisher of quality eBooks at Maxx Publishing http://www.MaxxPublishing.com. If you're interested in getting started with your own Garden, visit his website Lawn and Garden Magic at http://www.LawnandGardenMagic.com, where you'll find a wealth of information, tips and resources.

The Beauty Of Roses

by Tango Pang

Roses are probably one of the most prized flowers in a garden. There are so many types of roses that one could plant acres and acres of them and each rosebush could bear a different type of flower. The beauty and the fragrance of roses have been celebrated for many centuries, and they still hold a high stature in flower gardening today.

You have several choices to make if you are considering planting and growing roses. Firstly , you want to consider the climate in the area where you live. Roses grow the best in climates where temperatures never get too extreme either way, and they prefer soil that drains well.

Rosebushes are thirsty plants too, and she welcomes fairly long rainy seasons. If you live in an area which is hot and dry most of the time, try to find roses that have been bred to better withstand this type of dry climate. Rose breeders are constantly doing research to create hardier plants; roses that can withstand very cold or very hot climates.

Once you've found the type of rose that grows best in your area, then you will want to decide on color, scent, size, etc. There are some roses that have been bred with a focus on beauty, and they may not have strong scent as some others roses. Other types of roses give off such a strong scent that they can saturate your entire yard with their sweet rose fragrance. It is just a matter of preference, but most rose gardeners try to find something somewhere in the middle.

The beauty of roses is that you have so many colors from which to choose from that you are guaranteed to find exactly what you are looking for. The right choice of rose will accentuate your yard and home in a beautiful way that one can only imagine.

About the Author
TangoPang runs an several informational website dedicated to providing unbiased information on Home and Gardening Improvement topics. For more gardening tips, please see http://www.howto-lawncare.com