I soak for a minimum of 24 hours, then plant in a deep pot so the bud union is covered. I grow mine in a pot until I find a place to plant them outside. When planting outside, I make sure the bud union is 6" below the soil surface.
I planted 5 potted bare root roses two days ago that were in full bloom. The plants were received in early April.

I found that soaking them, even up to a week beforehand, really helped to keep them moist after planting. I also do a root trim before I plant them and take off anything that will not fit in the hole, or looks dead.

All of the above, except I pot mine up first, plus I place them outside my misting houses so they are get misted with overspray until they leaf out. Expecially important as it went from 48 degrees here Friday, to 90 degrees today.

I just soak them overnight and make sure they have a properly prepared planting spot and they usually do fine. Depending on what time of year or stage of growth I may shade them for a bit when newly planted.

I soak a MINIMUM of 24 hours, then pot them up. They go on the North side of the house until I am ready to place them in the garden. The planting hole is well prepared and I make sure the graft is a minimum of 4 inches under the surface. When they are in the pots I don't worry about the graft being beneath the ground. Be sure to dig the $100.00 hole!

They do best when planted early, daffodil time. June is iffy because the plants have been in cold storage since November. They can have trouble breaking dormancy and getting roots out to absorb moisture. I'd remove any sprouts and either spray the canes with an anti-transpirant such as Wilt Pruf or mound soil over the canes until growth breaks through.

I don't think there is any benefit to potting-up unless the soil is frozen or soupy. I try to prepare the soil (if that is needed) in fall and plant newly arrived plants in the garden after soaking for 24 hours.

I soak my bareroots for a while. It can be as short as a day or as long as a month. Then I plant them in a deep hole so the bud union is about 4 inches under the surface. I don't do any amending or fertilizing. I don't remove the growth on them but I've found most of it will get sunburned and die off anyway. I do cut off any blackened canes or dead areas when I plant. Here we get enough rain in the spring that I don't need to water other than a good soaking after planting and I don't usually bother to mound the plant either.

I soak in water all the way up as high as it will go in a 5 gallon bucket of water with a few drops of Superthrive in it for at least a day (and I'm ashamed to admit that it's gone as long as a week when I couldn't get back to them) before planting. No chemical fertilizer but I do use some fish emulsion on them. Most of mine go into pots but I still plant the unions below the potting soil level. Anything dead or black gets cut off immediately. As well as any of the sickly white growth that you sometimes get from shipping. Later on after they've leafed out I go back and re-prune any new dead tips. I've planted as late as July 4th but you have to be extra careful that they stay well watered and if it gets very hot shade them during the hottest part of the day until they've started to put on some size.

I hear you, Mike, YIKES it was hot today! But last week I was griping about the darn frost warnings, lol!

Thanks for the info guys. I usually soaked the bare roots and just planted them, but it's helpful to hear of some other strategies and tips here and there to keep them going....especially this time of year.