When you think about it, bare roots are traditionally harvested in Wasco in late December, perhaps very early January, depending upon the weather that year. They are stored in coolers, processed and sent out to whomever purchases them. I know Otto & Sons one year bought bare root Icebergs from J&P as late as early April as they ran through their entire stock of the variety and J&P still had 'dormant' plants in their coolers. That means those plants can be stored for three, four, perhaps more, months before actually being put into soil. They are 'dormant', but that does not mean they are not using resources...stored nutrients and water. It's at a significantly reduced rate, but their cells continue processing those nutrients to remain alive. The best storage is as close to, but above freezing, as possible with high humidity to prevent the plants from either being triggered into growth or drying out. Compare that to sitting on a store's shelf in body bags of drying out saw dust, under bright lights; or, as I have seen many times, sitting on tables under shade cloth in warm sun; warm, dry wind, being handled, scraped and bumped until either dumped or "rescued". By that time, many have leafed out and some even attempted to flower. Once they are exposed to warmer temps and bright light, the auxins and hormones begin to form, stimulating them to increase their cellular activity, grow leaves, use resources faster, trying to grow. I'm sure many of us have experienced cuttings exploding into growth, leaves and even flowering, only to collapse because they have no roots. The same thing happens to bare roots very easily. Warm and bright generates leaves and flowers. Cool, damp and dark stimulates root growth. I'm more surprised as many bare roots are planted the way many are and they GROW, instead of dying back or outright failing. Heeling them in or giving them a good soak to replace the water they have used, or lost from being held in too dry conditions is obviously the best procedure to follow. Mounding the canes after planting to reduce the amount of green canes exposed to warm, dry air and bright, hot sun until there are leaves being pushed; keeping the bud union damp, dark and cool until the plant is actively growing, produces some of the finest results. Now, add those which hate being dried out such as Peace, Angel Face, Sterling Silver and many others with strong Foetida back grounds. Is there much wonder why so many of those types are such rotten plants? Kim

They're probably just fine, GrowOrganic.com is a reputable company and probably packages their trees very well. Open the box and check the roots as soon as they arrive to make sure they are still moist, then keep them moist not soggy until you are ready to plant. If they are somewhat dry when you receive them you could soak them for an hour in a bucket of water or spritz them with a spray bottle. I've kept bare root trees in the garage for several weeks healed into moist potting soil or even still in the box with damp peat around the roots and they turned out just fine. However, if they start pushing out leaves you'll want to get them planted right away but only if there is no danger of a hard freeze. Otherwise you might plant them in pots and bring them in the garage or shed at night.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I love all of your gardens, they have inspired me, and made me believe I could do this, they are just wonderful. That was my first shade bed, down in my Gully, I have several more beds now, but the first one that had any plants of decent size. hopefully this year I will have better pics. The White Rock, is manmade, I made it using old blocks, pieces of concrete I needed to get rid of anyway, so I wanted a rock, my husband is sick & cannot help me, so I looked online, got some ideals, and I built it, it looks better in person than in pics for some reason, you really can not tell I made it, I made one more to help hold a bank, I will find that pic, this is all a work in progress, and has taken a lot longer than I ever imagined. Since I made the rock, I found huge rock over in another gully so I have just been moving them around with my husband's truck and a crow bar, but I have dug enough rock up off this hill to rock my dry stream that is used when we get lots of rain. The great thing I have found about working down in the gully is the shade is there all day. lol

No, not the peat or paper degradable pots thought I wish I could find those locally. They are in typical planter pots between 2 and 3 gallon sized, with the bigger roses in the bigger pots. There are 2 Harlow Carr that were shipped bareroot with bigger but trimmed roots so nothing to hold the soil yet. The Spring Hill Rainbow sale collection of 5, again shipped bareroot and no little roots yet- Pumpkin Patch Ch-Ching Cupid's Kiss Violet's Pride Take it Easy. The remaining ones were body bags I picked up on clearance and those had longer more developed roots with little white rootlets staring, enough to hold on to the body bag material quite well, which I soaked off gently. Those are: Cl America Therese Bugnet CL Don Juan 2 Knockouts. I used a mixture of potting soils: MG and Dr Earth Organic. Normally I would mix in some native soil when putting in a pot to eventually go in the ground, but I'm on red clay soil now and when it's wet one can forget working with it in any way, shape, or form. I have gardened in clay and shale before so at least that is nothing new. Anyway, I'm afraid if I try to plant them too soon there will be no/not enough little roots to hold any root ball and the stress might be too much for them. Moses, do you mind if I ask what general area of PA you are? Though I'm not from PA originally, I recently moved from Western PA. Thankfully I was able to pot up a good amount of plants, roses, and fruit trees to bring down with me. It's been quite an adjustment to gardening down here but my Zephy Drouhins were so happy they stayed green and in leaf all winter, however now I need to be mindful of the heat and humidity all summer long. Up there I felt comfortable potting something in late April or May and putting it in the ground in July, but here I'm just not sure. Thank you Seil, it's comforting to know that if there is good root development they will handle the heat ok at the time of planting.