I think it is largely personal choice, in that the plants will grow and flower without the initial disbudding. But if you are interested in disbudding, it probably does help the plants focus on developing its roots--but again, it will develop roots regardless (unless there is serious damage to the roots or some unordinary condition like that).

I'm not sure you all the roses you refer to are considered "bands." Bands are usually small, dinky little things. Most roses (that are not bareroot) are sent in containers--but that does not make them "bands. " Off the top of my head, I think ARE sends potted roses, but not bands--but you should probably double-check since I'm not sure.

If I got one of those dinky little bands, I might do all sorts of things to baby them--because they are babies, but to tell you the truth, I would never order a band. Don't like having to baby a rose.

I get about half my roses bareroot and the other half as potted plants. I don't remember the sizes of the potted plants, but the plants will be a foot or two high, developing well along, and probably already in bloom--just waiting to be plopped in the ground--well, maybe give them a couple days to adjust to outdoor sunshine since they probably have been growing in a greenhouse. Those roses don't need to be babied.

If you get roses small enough that you think they need to be babied, what I would do is let ONE bud burst into bloom--partly to satisfy your curiosity and partly to determine they sent you the correct rose. The only problem with that plan, however, is that sometimes the first set of blooms on a new rose don't always come out true to color, so you still might not know until the plant has multiple blooms. You could let each bud bloom briefly and then disbud it--but purists who think it is a sin to view a bloom the first year of the rose won't approve of my methods. But I just cannot wait a year to see what a rose will look like. None of my roses have objected so far and I've been gardening for over 30 years. : )

I'm sure other posters will have advice for you also.

Kate

I don't think this is an exact science, but with wimpy bands it makes sense to let them put their energy into more important things than flowers. On the other hand, my band of White Pet was a strong grower and put out lots of buds so for a while I let them bloom. Now there is no new growth so if I see a new bud I'll go back to disbudding just to let it get larger. If a rose is vigorous and has lots of buds I wouldn't worry about it overly much. I do think letting one bud develop as a flower is a good idea, as long as you're aware that it will probably be a pale imitation of the flowers you'll be getting from that plant when it's more mature. There, have I confused you even more?

Ingrid

Kate- I try to stick to more mature container plants as well, but it seems like a good time to start supporting the remaining rose nurseries out there. I never got a chance to order from Vintage since I have only really become interested in roses during the last year or so. I really regret that.

Plus the selection is so much broader at Rogue Valley, ARE, Roses Unlimited and the like -as regards strange, interesting, and antique roses- than at local nurseries on the Westside of LA. I can rarely get out to Otto and Sons or other larger nurseries in the surrounding counties that take a planned trip to visit. I will be looking at bare root roses for the first time this year at local nurseries. I was only reviving what was here and not yet looking to expand during bare root season this year. But I'm quite afflicted with rose fever.

The plants from ARE were indeed potted, but maybe 6-8" tall and closer to a band than the potted roses I have purchased. I'm not worried about disbudding for the most part. They all seem to be doing very well on the whole except for an excusable amount of mildew out of Adam.

I'll pot up the bands before putting them in the ground. As regards that, can anyone recommend a soil mix for potting bands?

Jay

I'm a faithful fan of disbudding young plants after seeing a 50% improvement at least in winter survival of the smaller bands I plant. Unlike Kate, a vast majority of the roses I plant tend to be bands, and it's those roses that particularly appreciate the disbudding. Your roses from ARE are larger plants, but the Rogue Valley plants will indeed be the smaller bands (but well-established ones).

In zone 10, you don't have to worry about winter survival of your bands, but I presume summer survival is at least as much of an issue, particularly in drought conditions. You also want to see good root growth before your harsh conditions kick in, and it's good to be planting them now in the milder season to let them have some growth to build on before it gets hotter and dryer.

My rule of thumb is that I keep disbudding a rose until it's above knee-high and well branched, except for climbers that I tend to disbud all of the first year regardless of height. In zone 10, that might not be very long, unless your roses put on height at the expense of root development. If you have a one-cane wonder, I'd consider keeping disbudding and adding some alfalfa to encourage it to branch out before letting it bloom at will. In your climate, roses might have the potential to bloom themselves to exhaustion without any significant down time, so a little precaution ahead of time makes sense.

Allowing one bud to bloom is always a good idea to check the correct cultivar and scratch the "new rose" itch, and if you have to pinch a bud as it is thinking about opening you can always bring those blooms inside to enjoy. Kim is right that letting some blooms slip by isn't going to particularly hamper the rose if you miss some, but it only makes sense that the rose has just so much energy to spend and root development is your first priority in the first year. Don't use high-nitrogen fertilizers much on bands at first - Kim recommends no more than "weakly weekly" - and alfalfa is always a good source of energy that the plant will take advantage of when it's ready to do so.

Hope this helps!
Cynthia

My season is short and I'm too impatient and want to see the blooms. I never disbud and my roses still grow just fine. Do they take longer to mature because I let them bloom? Who knows but it hasn't seemed to hurt them any.

Normally, I do disbud, but the 'Alice Hamilton' we recently rec'd from Vintage was such a horse, IN a bad, that I did not. We potted her up to a 1-G -- but in addition to blooming, she is setting new buds, AND has tripled in size.

So, there are no absolutes. It varies from plant to plant.

Jeri

I got a lot of bands in Spring 2013. Some took off far more vigorously than others. I started by letting the first bud from each open, then removing them all (except for the once-blooming OGRs, which I knew wouldn't be blooming again anyway). The bands which took off like gangbusters I stopped disbudding. Those which grew at moderate levels I disbudded all but one flower per flush. Those which really inched along were "not allowed" to bloom again at all until Autumn, by which time I just let everything do their own things.

Don't be afraid of bands. I don't know if you'd call it "babying" but I did pot mine up into 1- or 2-gallon containers with a rich potting mix. Here along the Atlantic, we get lots of rain, which certainly helped things along -- I didn't have to water them at all until early July. They stayed in their containers as I got the beds prepared, then got moved around a few times before I settled on their final planting spots.

Really, all the "babying" I did was in their potting-up when they arrived, and letting them grow without root competition for a few months before putting them in the ground. Some put forth remarkable growth -- 'Jaune Desprez' has a cane reaching 6' into a tree, with others hugging the trunk -- while others (mostly some of those in my small collection of HTs) grew more modestly. I posted a few threads about my new garden and how the "baby bands" took off in only a few months. If you look through the pics in the threads below, keep in mind that only four didn't come this year -- 'Cardinal de Richelieu', 'Charles de Mills', "Darlow's Enigma" and 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau' arrived as bands in 2012, and remained in their 2-gallon containers until being planted this Summer. The potting process I used was described in the first thread, as well as on "My Page" before listing my current inventory.

Some before and after showing growth so far:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg0611414417374.html

It's been a busy Summer in my yard...
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg0914445024222.html

Mulch!!!
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rosesant/msg102101521863.html?33

:-)

~Christopher

This post was edited by AquaEyes on Tue, Dec 3, 13 at 14:29