Redsun: The trees need to drop their leaves before being dug. By the time they sort and grade the trees it's too late to ship to many areas in fall. Either the ground is frozen or the trees could freeze during shipment. It's easier and cheaper to ship all the trees in spring when they are not as busy with other things. They can't just pop a few out of the ground and ship the next day when they've still got thousands of trees that have to be dug and protected before freeze up. Freezing during shipment has been the main restraint I've been given by nurseries in WA, OR, NY, and PA. I can plant all winter but those northern nurseries don't want to risk shipping me a few trees before March.

Thank you. I received the two Signature in Jan and Pure Posh in Feb. Their pictures on HMF and J&P look beautiful and I cannot wait to see their blooms. Talking about rose vendors, I bought two roses from Heirloom (own root) and they look great too. I am sure will buy from them again if I need own root roses. I have been ordering most of my roses from Regan and pick them up locally. Their bare roots roses are very healthy too. Helen

I wish I could be of help ac91z6, but I'm rather clueless when it comes to this topic. The first rose Edmunds sent me a rep told me their horticulturist believed it to be crown gall and to destroy the plant. They shipped new plants, and the new rose had similar roots to the first, I sent them pictures of the new one, and this time their horticulturist called me and told me this was normal for Francis Meilland's roots, and to not worry about planting the rose. I am not a horticulturist, so I took his word at face value and planted the rose. I'm not entirely naive, and created a paper trail with them should I have a problem down the road given the conflicting information they gave me. Out of the 80+ roses I've planted in the past three years, FM is the only one with roots that looked like that. My advice would be to reach out to Regan, offer to send them pictures and see what they say.

Austin, I’m so happy to hear from you, and that you’’ll still be growing your cherished Dark Lady! I hope you have found a great place in Austin, TX close to your family with a nice yard for gardening. I think you’re doing all the right things to baby those late season bare roots. Mounding mulch or coarse soil over the base is so important to prevent dessication. Somtimes I’d cut out the bottom of a nursery pot, invert it over the base and fill it with fine mulch so that the mound would stay in place. When Winnie Edmunds owned Edmunds she recommended everyone to cut the canes to half the length even though it seemed barbaric (her word). I think it’s a good practice, but if you already have buds swelling then they are probably already doing fine. I remember when we were probably the only two from this forum actively posting from the DFW area. Well, I have moved too! I’ve relocated to near the Sacramento area, also to be closer to my family, especially my mother who is 85 (but still in great health). I was told I could bring roses to California if they were bare root…so my friend and I dug out about 80 of my roses, cut them all extremely short and the movers drove them to my new house. I’m very much looking forward to starting a new garden , everyone’s roses look great here, there’s not a trace of blackspot or RRD to be found! And no one in the neighborhood grows the dreaded Knock Out, they all have better things to grow!