I bought one of these too. Been too wet to plant just yet, constant rain. Am thinking of going back to get a Mirandy - getting interested in fragrant reds.

Well this was a complete chance purchase by me. I have 4 more roses coming in to add to my 48 or so I already had, plus I have to transplant some to give more space in my main bed because a few are too close together. This should be a fun weekend.

BTW, if you are getting into reds--Don Juan, Chrysler Imperial, Olympiad, Legends, In the mood, and Lasting love have all been great for me.

Although you said fragrant-Olympiad tends to be scentless.

This post was edited by KingCobb on Wed, Feb 5, 14 at 11:45

alameda, is it ok to leave mr lincoln in the cardboard pot for a while until the ground is workable? where are you going to leave it meanwhile - in the garage? Just curious.

I looked up Mirandy on HMF. wow. simply gorgeous. I've never heard of her before.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mirandy on HMF

No personal knowledge of Mirandy, but it rates well for everything except exhibition on everyrose.com

Hybrid Tea, Dark Red
Flowers: Double, Globular, Very Large, 45 Petals, Quite Fragrant: Damask
Flowering Habit:
Blooming Season: Repeat

Height: feet x , Habit: Upright-bushy
Foliage: Leathery Dark Green
Buds: Red Pointed
Hips:
Stems:
Thorns:

Cultivation: Vigorous
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Hardiness: In general, Hybrid Tea roses are hardy to Zone 6 with winter protection, some are more tender and a few are hardy as far as Zone 4 with protection.

USHybridizer: Lammerts - Introducer: ARM- Armstrong (California) 1945
Patent:
Parentage: Night x Charlotte Armstrong

ARS Colour: dr Dark Red ARS Rating: 5.9
Awards: All-American RS
Garden Rating Average: 8.2 / 10
Fragrance Rating Average: 2.9 / 3
Cut Flower Rating Average: 7.2 / 10
Exhibition Rating Average: 3.5 / 10

View, it should be no problem to leave ML in that pot for a while as long as you keep him watered.

We get these peat pots in here at HD, Lowes and Walmarts. They actually do better than the bagged roses for me. The roots are still hacked off but the pot seems to at least keep them moister. What ever you do when you go to plant it make sure you take off that pot. I know some of them say you can plant the pot but it takes decades for it to biodegrage and in the mean time your rose is choking.

great, I cut it up and poked a bunch of holes in the little cardboard pot before I planted it. Do I need to dig it up and remove the pot or do the wholes and cuts suffice?

Seil, the question is this: I'm planning a trip to Dallas Tx next week (zone 8). It's possible that I'll be able to find roses there in these peat pots. I'm wondering if I can buy roses in Dallas, somehow pack them & sneak them into my suitcase without DH seeing, then do something with them when I'm back in Brooklyn. A normal person living in zone 7 would just wait until April to buy roses locally.

With the ice storm here today I was a bit worried about my roses. DH asked if I had insurance on them, LOL.They're not that expensive to replace but the thought of all the TLC we put into our roses makes the idea of rose insurance interesting.

I hate to say it, King, but I'd dig them up and remove the pots completely. The rose will thank you for it.

View, I'm not condoning fooling your DH or trying to bring back potted roses...but it is doable. Are you driving or flying? I don't know how they'd do in a probably pretty freezing cargo hold. If your driving they'll be fine. Water them well before you pack them and again when you get them home. Hardest part will be where to put them until you can dig the soil in Brooklyn if they're already leafed out. Good luck!

Yeah, & if you're driving, check out H. E. B. grocery stores--a local chain that stocks old HTs this time of year. I saw Chrysler Imperial, Mr. Lincoln & Toro there the other day. Six bucks for the old HTs, ten for old garden roses--they stock 6 or so varieties of the ogrs.

Well I dug it up and took off the pot, the rootball basically fell apart, but I planted it and picked myself up a mirandy as well.

This post was edited by KingCobb on Thu, Feb 6, 14 at 17:01

Thanks for the great advice. I will be flying from Tx to NY so the roses would be in a cold cargo hold. If I find something really great I'll probably take the chance.

I did a store search for HEB & the closest location to my son's address in Dallas is in Waxahachie, TX (about 41 mi. away) so I won't be making that trip. Thanks anyway.

I just picked up the same sort of pot yesterday, JFK & Oklahoma. I wish we had a Mr. Lincoln too! The roots within the peat pot varieties seem to be worse than the body bags. The roots were quite smaller and broken, so I had a few to cut back even more. Did anyone else notice that?

I hope they make it!

I bought 5 roses in those pots. The instructions were to use a sharp knife to remove the top down to the soil line and then take out some of the bottom. My pots had been sitting, waiting to be planted for two months and they were starting to fall apart. I peeled away the lip with my fingers. got a little over zealous removing the pot material on PJPII and it fell apart as I was planting. With all the rain, whatever pot material is left will turn to mush.

view1ny,

I don't know when you are coming to Dallas, but on March 1 and 2nd you will have a pick of 200 roses at North Haven Garden's Rose Event. They have a publish list of those roses now... Search for North Haven Rose 2014.

You did the right thing, King. Even if the root ball fell apart there probably wasn't much damage. They'd already cut most of the roots off to get it into that pot. The rose will have to grow them back. At least now it will be free to do so in the soil and not that pot.

Steve, I know they say to plant those pots but from my own experience I know they don't really bio-degrade quickly at all. I take off ALL packaging from my roses, no matter what kind or where I got them from, before I plant them. For one thing, have you seen what they call "soil" in those pots, lol? I want my roses in better dirt than that!

Those little pots are actually worse than body bags. They chop off 90 percent of the root system, put them in sand and sawdust and force them in a greenhouse. If they are going to survive they will need good soil and a long time to rebuild their root systems. Plant them next to a body bag bare root and I guarantee that the body bag will do much better. And BTW, the same is true for any potted rose. A bare root will surpass them every time.

Wanted to give an Update. Both my roses are growing well. The mirandy is actually growing better then the two bare roots I got from Reagan at the same time. They are growing well as well, was just surprised at the Mirandy being a little better.

Except I am pretty certain it is either a JFK or a Pope John Paul, considering its first bloom is very beautiful, but very very white.

Despite me destroying its root ball when I dug it back up the Mr. Lincoln is growing well again. So far very pleased with both.

I also take my roses out of these so called plantable pots, am quite sure they would be bad for growing roses. I let mine get to the point where they are needing a bit of water, then just slip them out of the pot, that seems to keep the soil from falling off and protect the roots better. Then I keep them well watered and they seem to be doing fine. I enjoy planting a few of these......am not spending a huge amount of money, so if they don't make it, I am not out a fortune. I have a Coquette des Blanches that I got in a body bag years and years ago - it is still growing and doing great. Just bought a body bag Therese Bugnet the other day - bet it will do fine and am sure yours will too, King.

Judith

I planted 5 roses this year, all in the pots. I followed the planting instructions and they are all doing very well.
They are doing better at the same stage than the bare roots I planted last year.

When I was growing a lot of roses, I would frequently put bare root roses that I wasn't ready to plant in mache pots and then plant the pots later.

I think Weeks is using the pots for two reasons:
1. Some people are afraid of bare roots.
2. The roses can last longer in the nurseries.

I bought 5 roses in those pots this year. Couldn't pass up the price, $7 each plus my 10% discount (VA). I planted them in 7 1/2 gal nursery pots using a good (jungle growth) potting soil. They are just starting to break dormancy. I got, Peace, Perfume Delight, Olympiad, Granada and Anastasia. If they look good by mid spring I'll be putting them into a small garden I'm planting at our local News Paper office. I have 3 OGR's and 2 mini's that I rooted last year that are also going into that garden. Hey, if these peat pots work out, I may have struck gold. The President of North Georgia Technical College (where I work part time) loves roses but she doesn't have time for her own personal garden. She has always dreamed of a small cutting garden. Maybe 10 to 12 roses. I'll pick her brains and see what colors she likes this spring and summer. I'll get together with the Horticulture Department and see if we can surprise her with her special garden next spring.

I bought one of these in January. He's just bloomed for the first time. Wow -- huge, magnificent color, and the fragrance --??!!!
You won't be sorry.

Here's Honest Abe himself. He's 5 inches across. Exact same body bag (although maybe mine was Home Depot or OSH, rather than Lowe's).
If there's a more fragrant rose out there, I haven't met it yet.
Double Delight comes close, but the scent of Mister L. is just ... classier. I can't tell you what that means -- only my nose knows.
Sylvia

kingcobb, I was wondering if your ML has wax-coated canes. My local HD has wax-coated body bags which do not look healthy at all. I passed them up. A few years ago I bought a Chrysler Imperial with waxed canes at Lowes & it didn't do well.

Stephen Scanniello wrote that he never bought waxed bare-roots for the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Cranford Rose Garden in 'A Year of Roses.' I was wondering if anyone had a positive experience with these plants.

Yeah, both of the roses I bought had waxed canes. They aren't much of a hinderance to either of them. The wax comes off readily enough after you plant them. They looked healthy back at the beginning of Feb when I bought them and they were just put out, and they are growing in great.

I love Stephen Scanniello's book-A year of Roses, but the two of us opperate on an entirely different world of economics and time. So far both of the roses for me are doing well.

kingcobb, thanks for letting me know. Maybe if I see something I like I'll take a chance with waxed canes.

The only thing I know of with em is to make sure you buy them early in the season. Here in Texas you couldn't give me one of these right now.