When I got my shipment of roses from Edmunds this year, unfortunately they were quite dessicated. They had used a smaller bag and only wrapped the roots rather than the whole plant. Because there were several roses in the package, there was quite a bit of airflow down to the roots. I was so sure that the Whimsy was dead that I emailed and asked if I could get a same-year replacement.
But I went ahead and soaked them for 24 hours as instructed and then potted them up and put them in the greenhouse. A week or so after potting I noticed a little sprout coming from the bottom of the Whimsy! However, three of the other roses were looking like the shoots were in danger of drying up. The Bull’s Eye had green stems but no discernable shoots, and in my experience that didn’t bode well for it surviving.
So I set the pots of those three roses down in these big white plastic bags, put some moist sphagnum moss around the canes, and tied up the bags. After just a few days all three of the roses had shoots. The Bull’s Eye’s shoots are small, but it should make it!
So maybe this method is old news to most of you, but I just wanted to share it in case some people, like me, weren’t aware of the importance of keeping things moist around the canes for awhile after planting.[flickr_photo src=http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7249/7152727239_d1d2ae5b23.jpg nsid=66449618@N07 id=7152727239]sweating[/flickr_photo]
Luckily Edmunds did not reply to my email…I’ll assume it’s in the digital trash can.
As you have shown, it’s actually pretty hard to KILL a rose. I’m glad you were able to resurrect them, however, WE are not the “average” rose buyer. From many years of experience, the “average” is going to cut a hole from the Bermuda grass in the yard, dig a hole just large enough to dump in the root ball and let the sprinklers take care of it. No retail mail order nursery has the right to send such inappropriately packed plants! I would expect that (and have received it) from someone who hadn’t done it before and honestly didn’t understand what is needed to keep them in good condition during shipment, but come on! Edmunds has sold enough roses and even the latest permutation has been in business long enough to know what is required and for their prices, should provide it.
When I was more actively installing landscape plantings, I used to have the installation crew mound up moist soil approx, 4-6" over the crown and they were instructed to keep that in place and moist for 2-4 weeks depending on what part of spring it was and what the immediate weather forecast was. I do not remember losing even one rose due to failure to break dormancy (due to drying out, of course) but more than once I did have to remind the crew to remove the mounds after 2-3 months. This did slow down growth, but it didn’t harm them noticeably. I don’t think this would work in very heavy or boggy clay soils, but we usually amended heavily and used John and Bob’s optimizer, which is a great planting amendment for poor soil and for poorly draining soils.
A few years ago I bought some bagged roses. I potted them up and could NOT get one to sprout. So I bought a package of large clear plastic bags, watered the potted rose and put it in the plastic bag in a shaded area. Within a few days, I noticed the buds swelling and with in a week they were sprouting. When they reached a sufficient size, I started opening the top a few hours a day, then all day, closing it at night. After awhile the bag came off and the rose bush did well. Others have tried this trick with success; so, a CLEAR bag and out of the direct sun. Sometimes they need to be bathed in high humidity to get them growing.
Jim P
