Hi, everyone. Thank you for all of your help. Hope we have provided all info. below: The plants were purchased back in February of this year and planted into the ground in March. Both varieties, I think one is Misty, is supposed to be good for this area. After scratching the bark of the main stem it is still green inside but other branches have shriveled. Just tested PH and it was at 7 surprisingly. No, the leaves were nice on the bare root when we first purchased them. Had started to leaf out. Still good once planted into the ground outside. Then, all of a sudden one day, the leaves from the tip started to dry up, then redness on the stem between the leaf and the branch, discoloration, etc. Soil mix consisted equal parts of spaghnum peat moss and soil... ???

It's been many yrs since I've seen "honest to goodness" bareroot roses. About 18yrs ago one of the local nurseries had raised beds with bareroots in some sort of soil medium. I never saw any I wanted. The newest nursery in town around 6-7yrs ago had them in wine barrels full of a light soil medium. They sold them for several dollars less as actual bareroots, and then potted them up around February in the pulp pots and sold them for more. They only did that once. Now they just pot them up like most of the nurseries do anymore. Our biggest and best nursery here pots them in 5gal plastic cans, but the problem with theirs is, they fertilize with sulfate of ammonia. The plants gets big and beautiful, but you buy them and take them home, and by the end of our hot summer, they die. They used to use Osmocote, but I imagine that's just too expensive. I won't buy from them anymore. The bareroot bagged roses are coming in all over. Some people like to call them "body bags" but I don't like to. I have better luck with the bagged bareroots than with some of the potted roses. I notice that all the places that sell the bagged bareroots are carrying a LOT less that usual. Lowe's used to have tons of the baggies, and quite a lot of the peat-potted bagged ones from Certified Roses. This yr, they have maybe half the baggie ones, and only about 2 dozen peat-potted ones, and very little selection. HD only got in about 10% of their usual selection, and nothing at all exciting. I also saw some at the Rite Aid pharmacy outside on tables. They seemed to have a lot, but they were the same ones Lowe's had. Boring-boring-boring!! Now I just have to wait til the Grocery Outlet gets in the giant boxes of the baggies. One yr they had some very unusual varieties. But most of the time, they just have the same old standbys.

If I understand the situation correctly, there are a few different avenues you could take... You could pull them from their pots, brush off any excess soil, wrap them loosely in a paper product... like newspaper or brown paper... and store them in a dry, cool, dark area of your home for a forced dormancy... some basements would fit the description... or you could store them in a dedicated refrigerator that didn't get too cold, taking care to keep them away from the walls, perhaps by placing the wrapped bulbs in cardboard shoe boxes. The point is to keep the bulbs cool, dry, and dark... but not freezing. The bulbs must not freeze or they will die. After an appropriate number of weeks, the dormancy can be broken, and the bulbs re-potted and placed in a well lighted, warm area... at which time you'd resume watering. You could take those bulbs that show fresh growth and bring them inside, placing them in a well lighted window area, and begin treating them as you would any other type of houseplant... watering and feeding as needed... allowing them to grow and bloom on their natural schedule. This "evergreen" treatment normally produces scapes sometime in spring or early summer, and bulbs treated this way tend to slow growth in autumn and rest during winter. You would adjust watering and feeding, slowing down while they rest. (This is how I grow most of my bulbs.) Or, you could leave them in their pots, let them dry again, and store the pots in a cool, dry, dark space... a space that doesn't freeze... like your garage, or basement... some people tip the pots on their sides so they remember not to water, that those particular plants are in dormancy. Some bulbs will resume growth when they have rested enough, or you can bring them out of dormancy after the appropriate number of weeks have passed. Information on forcing dormancy should be available within the FAQ posted at the top of this forum... or, you can use google or your favorite search engine to locate any information available through the internet. I would suggest, however, that bulbs grown in a peat-based, bagged potting soil consisting of a fine particulate be re-potted into fresh medium every year... which allows you to check for dead roots and any other dead plant matter, removing anything that might hinder healthy root growth... it also helps to restore somewhat of a more aerated environment, important for healthy root growth. The method in which you choose to grow your bulbs is entirely up to you. I find it easier to allow my bulbs to grow, bloom, and rest as they see fit... but forcing dormancy is also an option, depending on when you want to schedule blooming.

I wouldn't try to "hold" them for a month at this point, but I'm very surprised that you would get bare root hostas in wood shavings this time of year. Had they been recently dug or are the completely dormant, as if they were dug a year ago? The problem is that if they were dug a year ago they will want to start growing as soon as you plant them, thinking it is spring. They will try to put down some roots while it is warm, then when you do get cold there they will start that cycle to go dormant. If you wait a month and plant them you are risking a greater shock if the weather is colder then. They will use a lot of energy to try and grow which will make them weaker when winter comes. As I see it the best thing is to put them in the ground, 2nd best would be to pot them up in some well-draining potting soil, and 3rd option would be to just do the hail Mary and leave them in the basement for another month in their wood shavings, and hope for the best. Hopefully they were cheap enough that if they don't grow it won't be a big deal.