Like someone else mentioned, persimmons often start really slowly. I think it is mostly because of the tap root. I bought a Garretson persimmon as a bare root and it barely survived. It just sat there and didn't really grow. The leaves were small and I told the nursery ( One Green World ) that I thought it had a virus. They said, "No, that's just the way they grow from bare root." It also looked as if it were doing nothing the next year. This year (3rd year), it finally has full-sized leaves and it fruited! They were right! The tree looks healthy and is doing great! I bought an Early Golden in a pot and it didn't have this transition. I planted it last fall and it is already fruiting. It was a large holdover on sale, and I got a screaming deal. It has about 7 fruits on it. I think the bare rooted one will, over time, be healthier, more drought resistant and have more minerals and flavor because it is drawing its nutrition from deeper in the soil base. It does take a bit longer to grow though. JOhn S PDX OR

I have about four or five that I planted last year that I just dug a hole deep enough for the root ball to fit. An inch of soil covering it should be plenty enough. I gotta tell you, these things REALLY LOVE the shade! I wound up moving them all to complete shade last year because the ones I already had in the shade were out performing the ones in part sun. They create nice foliage and the one that was in complete shade is already about 14 inches wide and 10 inches tall (without the flowers..no flowers on it yet).

I've taken an interest in learning about Florida gardening because I plan to move down there eventually. What I've read again and again about discouraging nematodes is to maintain a heavy layer of organic mulch. This will eventually break down and improve your soil. Some people mix in cheap clay kitty litter to make their soil heavier. Another possibility is to heavily underplant roses with Marigolds. There is one seed strain of French Marigolds in particular which tested as being very effective at deterring root-knot nematodes -- Tagetes patula 'Ground Control' (aka 'Single Gold'). The one caveat is that the effects won't be seen until the following year, and to maintain the effect, you'll want to replant them every year. As far as planting too deep -- I think many here would say I am guilty of this, but there hasn't been any negative effect which I can see. When I was putting this garden together, I planted my roses (own-root bands that were grown-on in pots for a few months) directly into the native soil in late Summer 2013. Prior to planting them, I had laid down sheets of cardboard to smother weeds and grass, and covered that with trimmings from a tree I was cutting back. This accumulated to about three inches, but it was a very "airy" three inches. Over all that, I put down an additional 6-8" of "proper" mulch (partially composted shredded wood chips). At first, I made concave "dishes" around each rose to allow water to be directed towards their roots and keep mulch away from the canes as I kept reading I was supposed to do, but after the first Winter, the beds were pretty much leveled out. In Spring, I worked an additional 2" of composted manure into that layer of mulch. This meant that what was once the border between canes and roots was now about 8-10" below the surface. Why did I do this? I wanted to give the roses an "early start" on having deep roots for getting water, and anticipated that canes buried beneath the mulch line would eventually root further up, allowing for easier access to fertilizer applied at the surface. Companion perennials were planted directly into this "mulch/compost" layer in Spring 2014, and they grew like gangbusters in their first year. Last Autumn, I wanted to continue adding organic matter to the beds, so I "harvested" fallen tree leaves and spread them to a "fluffy" three inches thick. I also started collecting used coffee grounds from Starbucks -- one 13gal kitchen garbage can-full per day -- and spread this about 2-3" over the leaves. It took about three months to complete. Winter snow has packed this down a bit, and the previous year's additions have started breaking down, so where I'm at now is about where I was after the first layer of mulch -- about 6-8" above the original soil line. This week, I started some early pruning. While there is some snow still remaining in half of the garden, where it is gone there was already life in the top layer of coffee grounds and leaves -- various soil critters are waking up and finding lots of food waiting for them. I've noticed some freeze damage (naturally) on some rose canes, but nothing soft and mushy which would indicate "cane rot". True, this could emerge later in the season, but I also never saw it last Spring when the roses' canes were also buried to about the same level. Why is this not harming my roses? Perhaps because what's covering the canes is actively being broken down by the various organisms in the soil, and that process is different than simply being a blanket of "wet" around the rose canes. Worms and critters keep moving the material around, and fungi digesting the material are sopping up the extra moisture. I don't know for sure -- all I can say is that I don't see any negative effects. :-) ~Christopher

Not in your zone 5. In a much hotter zone it could be chancy, but not in zone 5. As long as the rose comes through from Park's in good shape with as short white candle shoots emerging as possible it should do fine. It would be unlikely to come through in a completely dormant state at this time of the year. The longer the white candle shoots it has the more TLC it will need. Beware of getting leftover culls. The rose should look robust and vigorous with long fresh looking roots, and thick canes. Plant it like you did your others, but give it shade by propping a piece of plywood blocking the sun until the new growth can handle the sun. Moses