Hey Jane.

That's a relative question of course contingent upon your climate and the rose itself. For example I bought a couple of bands I think in July namely Benjamin Britten and a Cl. Iceberg. They both have taken off like crazy, especially BB. My personal preference having started bands in spring, late summer and fall is to get them in the spring. Give them the whole season to do their stuff and normally (with Heirloom bands anyway) they take off very nicely. The only exceptions so far have been the Viking Queen and this years Betty Harkness. Viking Queen has just been existing all summer, maybe from insufficient sun. Betty Harkness was ordered during one of Heirlooms late summer sales and after just sitting in its pot for about a month finally has begun to put on a small amount of new growth. Overall though I think bands are great. Are you planning to get them from Heirloom?

Kate

How fast anything grows, including band sized roses, depends on your climate and soil and how much care you give them. Here in WA I have short cool summers and lean gravelly dry soil, and rose bands are slow to grow. Slow enough that I keep them in a pot the first year until they put some growth on, and only then plant them out in the garden. They need a couple of years to really look like something. But they grow a much better root system when they're planted as bands, even with an extra year in a 1g pot, especially since I try to fill the pot with soil from where the rose is going to go so there's no textural difference between the root ball and the garden soil. Not something I do for plants that are going to stay in a pot! use potting soil for that.

If you have decently rich soil, and warm summers, and mild winters, and feed and water regularly, they can grow pretty fast.

In my climate, earliest planting date is late May - early June and first hard frost will be in Oct. (fairly short season). If I can get bands in early, they will be very good sized by end of their second year. Some that I rooted in Fall of 2006 and planted Spring of 2007 are easily 4-5' tall this year. Some of the bigger shrubs still look somewhat lanky, and will do a lot of filling in next year. Some of the smaller shrubs look full and mature. I do not push growth with feed - always mean to feed them better but usually all they get is coffee grounds and some manure in Spring.

I am sure they would grow even faster with a better feeding routine.

I have had band plants which, in my relatively cool climate, were still
in a 1-G a year later.

I have had band plants that grew to 8 ft in their first year.

Jeri

This Spring I purchased my first bands and I wish that I had bought them earlier in the season. I think mine arrived in mid-late May. I wish I had purchased them in very late March or early April and potted them up in 1 gallon containers to bring inside when the nighttime temps dipped down.

By purchasing too late, I had to wait a longer while for the roots to fill in their 1 gallons and I ended up planting them in the middle of the hot Summer. That was not ideal and they didn't start to grow in earnest until later in the season. Still, once I planted them in the ground, they took off and I will see if they make it through the winter.

Jane, most roses grow so fast it really doesn't make much difference whether they are band,gallon,2 gallon or even a 5 gallon. if they aren't flowering when you get them, they will the first year unless they are once bloomers. some roses do seem to take forever to get established, but that would be the case whatever size you initially buy them. gallicas and damasks seem to be rather slow in establishing for me, but rugosas, bourbons,ramblers,hybrid musks and some ht's really seem to take off. i have a francesca hm i planted this spring that is over 5' so far. ht's are all over the map.

Len, gallicas and damasks take off like crazy for me. :-) My Marianne band is probably 3x3 now and it was planted in late June. I wonder if it's soil, climate, or ????