Mmmmm, new roses! (drool) Quite impressive roots on those babies! I had a similar experience with Pickering last year.

What size pot will you put those in to give them plenty of room?

Also, what did you order? Tell us! Tell us! :)

Connie, what fun! I did not know bare root roses could be planted this late in the year in 'our' zone.

So yes please tell us what you got. As soon as I saw the title of your post I was curious.

Kate

Yes, Connie,
Please tell us what did you order and how are you going to plant your new babies.
I was amazed at the condition of Palatine roses last year when I received my order. They are superb!!!
Marina

PS. I will probably get mine today or tomorrow, too. HHRD

I have never really seen a picture of a bareroot before, only a depiction in a book. Thanks for showing it. BTW, how do you know if you have received a bad/dead bareroot, never having seen one in person before?

Wow, those are very impressive looking. That's an advertisement for great looking roses if the bareroots are anything to go by. I will be looking forward to your rose pics next summer of these.

Kate, curious, where are you in No CA?? General area if you don't want to say specific.
Leslie

Hey Leslie.

No problem. I live in the town of Quincy, CA in Plumas County. We are in Plumas National Forest. You know Connie's post has really got me thinking. Do you all plant bare roots in the fall? I have only ever tried it as early as possible in springtime.

Thanks.

Kate

Oops, I guess I did forget to tell you what I got. Sorry about that.

I was going to to order Cinderella Fairy Tale and Laguna . . . but I ended up getting all ten Fairy Tales: Cinderella FT, Sister's FT, Petticoat FT, Lyon's FT, Kosmos, Brothers Grim FT, Golden FT, Floral FT, Elegant FT, and Caramel FT. Most of my current roses are, or will be, pretty large, so I figured the Fairy Tales, if they stay under 4-feet-ish or less like they say, will be great front-of-the-bed roses.

I will mix up some potting soil and plant them in whatever size pot I have on hand that will hold these roots. I figure that I'm just holding them over in the best condition possible until I can plant them out in the spring, so I don't think I have to really allow for much growth. I'm not gonna cram them in too-small of a pot, but I'm not gonna give them much room to spread out either. I use grow lights in my attached garage to hold plants over the winter. It's cold so they'll stay dormant, but it isn't overly cold or windy so they'll do fine. These new guys will keep company with some bands that I've been growing that I don't feel comfortable putting out in the weather yet.

redsox, these are the most incredible bare roots I've ever seen. I'm still amazed. What I'm used to getting from J&P grafted to Dr. Huey is a lot smaller than these. There's usually 3 or more large canes coming from the graft point, a foot or more long, and about a foot or so of roots -- large roots, not the finer ones I have here. Sometimes I can't tell if I have a bad bare-root rose until I plant it and it fails to grow (like the one I got from Edmunds last year). Sometimes, the plants are all dried out and it's pretty obvious that they're toast. Roses are pretty resilient, however. You figure the body bag roses have a foot or less on two or three piddly canes, and less than a foot of hacked off roots and they still do pretty well, all things considered.

Photos, of course, will be forthcoming as all of my roses get planted and grow. I know how much we all like pictures. :)

Connie

redsox, in the photo, see those green canes? Those are what you are looking for, nice fresh, long, green canes. If the whole thing is brown/black, soft or mushy, or if the roots are cut very short, or if the canes are thin (and it isn't a usual characteristic of that variety), those are not good bareroots. Black/brown means dead. Brown spots on the canes are usually canker, very uncool. See the link below for info on bareroot rose structure, it will help at planting time.

Palatine sends huge plants. I had to pot one of mine up in a 16" pot. It has outgrown it, I don't know whether to move it now or wait until spring (rooted through the pot). It is so exciting to see such excellent quality in plants! You just want to take them to other bareroot vendors and say "HERE! WHY CAN'T YOU SEND PLANTS LIKE THIS?!?"

Here is a link that might be useful: The Anatomy of Pruning a Bareroot Rose

Nice plants!!

Kate, yes, I've planted in Nov and in Jan. Both times luck was against me last year and we got freezes. I ended up having to bag them in Nov. for a week. In Jan I had just put them in to soak when I found out about the freeze, this was the one that lasted 3 weeks. They soaked that long too, I put them in the house every night at 11 when the heat went off and put them out every morning at 7 before I turned the heat on. I didn't go ahead and plant until after the freeze because they broke dormancy in the pail. I ended up planting them as soon as we got above freezing and bagged them every night it got below again. All the roses however came through just fine. Would I do this again? Yes, I just planted 4 minis.
Leslie

That's so interesting. Great, now I don't have to limit my bare root purchases to spring. I'm not sure that is necessarily a good thing. That was one of the few controls on my compulsive rose shopping behavior.

Kate

Great looking bareroots Connie. Can't wait to see them next year.

Carla

Yep those are some excellent bareroots! Last yr's were equally as nice. I just got a notice mine should arrive by the 19th. I'm a cheap sucker... I didn't want to pay the extra for second-day or whatever the quicker delivery is. I've never had any problems with them coming in transit a week. Also got a notification one of my Hortico orders is due to arrive the 20th! Holy cow! I wonder what exactly will be coming from them.... I have about 38 roses total on order over three orders. Plus the 5 coming from Palatine!! I love it! Let the rose planting begin!!!!

Impressive bareroots you've got there. And so many canes! I don't think mine has that many canes - maybe 2-3 per rose.

Roses do grow very fast. I've wasted lots of money on these 45cm pots, and looks like I'll need to repot them again.

Have you thought of making your own pots using woods? I think it's cheaper that way. I should have thought of this earlier. That way if I ever want to plant mine in the ground, all I need to do is chainsaw the pot and pop the rose in the ground.

Congratulations, Connie! Both to you and the company. I felt the same way last year when my Palatine order arrived. And I am sure I will be just as happy this year.

I remember that I could not fit them into 5-gallon pots: I needed to get 7- gallon pots but fortunately most of them could be planted in a week in the ground.

Do you also have drought? Is this the reason why you do not plant them in the ground?

Ceterum, what zone are you in? Could you please tell how are you going to plant your Palatine roses.
I potted mine last year and had to move them back and forth to he garage and out. I am really not looking forward to this again this year.
Marina

Ceterum, thank you so very much for your detailed answer. To make things worse, I recall that I also have roses from Hortico for late November shipping. OMG...
I swore to myself that I never ever order roses for fall and here I am again.

Mariana, all are coming right now or you have time to call the nurseries and ask them to postpone shipping till spring?
If they are not assembled yet and ready to go, at least you can try to talk to these nurseries and ask if you can change the delivery date.

The only problem with February shipping is, in my experience, id Canada experience extremely cold weather. In this case the nurseries do not risk damaging the roses during ground shipping but call you (or email you) offering the option either to delay with a week or upgrade to air shipping. If the postponement means a few days or max a week, I usually opt for postponement. If it means a much later delivery, I opt for air shipping. In ha past the difference was not so dramatic; however, due to high gasoline prices this year it could mean a much higher shipping cost. I thought I must add this note not to misled you. But if you plant in March anyway, I don't think that you should worry about air freight.

Ceterum,
Yes, my Hortico order is ready for shipping (if not shipped already). I've got a call from them letting me know that a few are on the back order but the rest are packed and waiting in the barn for shipment.
What do you think about planting roses in the ground and mounding them with soil all the way up?
What I am afraid of is that these bareroots break dormancy and then will be hit by freezing temperatures. May be these mounds of soil will help in keeping them dormant?
Thank you again for your help.
Marina

What comes next is all based on my experience and the advice of a well-trusted rose friend (ARS CR and all-around great guy).

I originally had my shipment scheduled for delivery in early March, thinking that our zone 7 winter would be too much for new bare roots. While we were talking about something else one day, my friend mentioned Pallatine Roses. I told him that I had a shipment from them for March delivery. He asked why I didn't have them delivered in November. "November?", I asked, naively. He told me to pot them and keep them in my garage, knowing that I have been keeping potted roses for 3 years now. The cold garage will keep them dormant, but will protect them from the drying winds. I trusted his advice, and I changed my shipment date.

Marina, to keep potted roses over the winter, you don't have to shuffle them in and out of the garage. Keep them in the garage and check on them every once in a while. Just make sure they don't go completely dry, but don't water them too much either. The idea is to keep them dormant. They won't need lots of sunlight because they're not growing. A bit of in and out will be necessary in the spring to harden them to outside conditions, but it's not as much as it would be if they were being held in a warmer space (like a greenhouse).

As to planting them and mounding them, I don't think it's cold enough here for that yet. Don't you winter-protect roses like that after things have frozen? We've had frost a couple of nights here in Stafford, but no hard freeze yet.

I went to HD this morning to get the ingredients to make up a few batches of potting mix (scotts garden soil, perlite, and spaghnum moss). I'll go down to the garage in a little while and put the not-so-little guys into their pots.

Connie

P.S. These aren't the only roses I'll be keeping in the garage. I have some bands from Rogue Valley coming soon. They'll be re-potted, and kept in the garage under lights along with some of my well-rooted cuttings. Winter is for rose gardening in the garage. :)

Connie,
I am sorry for hijacking your post.
Could you please tell me if lights are crucial? My garage is very much stuffed with our belongings (we moved to this house recently) and there is not much room for potted plants.
What do you think if I pot my roses and put them under the deck (we have it 'latticed' all the way around and the space under the deck has pretty high ceiling - about 5').
Marina

No apology necessary. It's not hijacking, it's a diversion.

What a small world. We moved recently, and our garage is also stuffed with worldly possessions. For my roses, I have cleared off the ugly work bench at the back of the garage for the roses. There's a small path through the possessions to reach this area, and that's about all. I'm hoping it's enough room.

If it was just the bare roots, I wouldn't worry about lights. I'm using them mainly for my rooted cuttings. I figure it won't hurt the bands either. The friend I spoke of puts his pots either in his shed or his crawl space. He has a fall bare-root order from Pallatine, too. I'll ask him where he's keeping his pots . . . and about putting yours under the deck, too. Another rose friend banks her pots beside her shed, surrounds them with bales of straw, and fills in the middle with loose straw. That seems a bit messy for me. It's a shame we don't have snow cover to rely on to keep our roses cold and protected.

I'll get back to you.

Connie

Connie,
I have done fall planting of bareroots from Pickering for many years and plant them directly in the ground upon arrival. I mound some mulch on the canes but you don't have to completely cover them. It is much easier than overwintering in pots where the pots have to be protected and watered. I have had few failures this way, only tender varieties like tea-bourbons. The roses will be establishing their roots in November/December and then going dormant and not sending new shoots up that could be damaged until spring unless there is freaky warm weather in Jan/Feb.

Bought roses from Karl Palek for 0ver 15 years with excellent results. About 5 yrs ago he sold his business to Palatine and I've bought from him . These bare root roses are excellent. Only problem is he doesn't ship out of Canada and you have to pick them up at his operation. Crossing the border may present a problem. I understand a VISA may be required.

Baccus, no trip to Canada is necessary, Palatine does ship to the USA, as you could see from the first post in this thread.

Marina, I would plant most of the roses in the ground if I were you. My guess is that you ordered quite a number of Austins. None of the Austins I planted in the fall had any problems with over wintering. If they are in pots you have to protect the roots even more than the canes and that is quite a job.
Mounding them is a possibility - till (or, if) we get a lot of rain. Wet bark or any mounding material can cause canker in my experience.

Connie is right: the main issue to keep them dormant. However, if the outside temperature is high, the garage will be even warmer.

I knew I had this picture on my computer, it just took a little while to track it down.

Here's what is in those body bag roses, if you take off the bag:
{{gwi:340235}}

Big difference, huh?

Connie