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New England Gardening

bare-root shrubs

15 years ago

We just ordered many bare-root mock orange and bridal veil plants to use as shrubs. I knew they would be mere sticks when they arrived, but now looking at them i fear it may take years to actually have shrubs. We don't need anything huge, just a little privacy with our low living room windows. What we planted are literally sticks. They had nice little roots, and the bridal veil had small buds on the branches. Most were under 2ft tall. how long until these turn into something pretty, even something with leaves!?

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Comments (3)

diggingthedirt
15 years ago
When I get bare root shrubs, I generally pot them up and grow them on for a while, but I've never gotten them in summer. In early spring, I can give them more attention (water!) and better starting soil by keeping them in pots, plus it gives me time to get the planting bed into good condition.

The plants you list are both pretty fast growing, however I know mockorange can take several years to bloom. Just keep them well-watered until winter (without drowning them!) and you should have something resembling shrubs next spring.
ponce418
15 years ago
I agree w/ digging's recommendation.

I received two VERY teeny tiny shrubs from Bluestone Perennials in the spring. I considering potting them up for a time but instead opted to plant them directly in the garden beds. It took less than a month for them to die.

Aside for roses, I don't think I'll direct plant small shrubs that soon again.
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Your bare root shrubs will see foliage emergence at different times; this depends on the species, condition of each plant at planting and their previous established strength (carbohydrate reserves in the roots). Some may pop right out in a couple or three weeks, others may take longer. Wait until all new growth is obvious and trim any dead tips off. "Bare root" is a great way to save money because the nursery that produces them doesn't have to pay for the shipment (weight) of the soil in a container or the weight of a balled in burlap shrub. It usually means a year longer for good establishment but saves mucho bucks in initial cost.
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how low at night ... leafed or not?? either .. dampen some potting media.. and jam them all in one pot .... and put them in shade .. or the basement .. to keep them cool ... to hold them for a few days or just plant them ... shouldnt it being snowing in a week .. lol key for me .. natives ... most are run it over with the truck plants.. one of the reasons they are native.. lol .. a bit circuitous there ... if its in the 50's at night.. should be plenty of time for them to recover overnight ... if you could shade them a bit.. even better ... to lazy to look it up.. but arent they all deciduous ??? .. if so.. so what if they get hot and lose the leaves .. that are supposed to fall off in a week or two anyway??? eh?? ken
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Some time ago, I was working for a landscape company in Fargo, ND and we were approached by an apartment complex that had somehow neglected to realize that the expansion they were building was required to have a certain amount of landscaping installed by the end of the year. We were contacted by this company in something of a panic the week of Thanksgiving. We wound up planting about 450 trees of various species, mostly Malus, Acer, and Fraxinus (at the time EAB was years away), and we planted them bareroot. The plants were shipped in reefers from the nursery and dropped at the site, and if the ambient temperature wasn't above freezing, we didn't open the doors. Also, there was an extra thick layer of mulch put on, and everything got staked. And everything lived. To make a long story short, if you can put a shovel in the ground, you can plant. If you are dealing with bare root, protect the fine root hairs from freezing in the open air. The later you go in the season, the more important it is to mulch heavily, which actually isn't a bad idea for container stock, esp. smaller sizes and perennials. There are certain plants I'd only attempt in the spring from bare root. These would be those difficult to sprout varieties, most of which are trees (certain Quercus for example), but there are some shrubs in this category. Clethra and Itea come immediately to mind. If they are hard to break bud, they will be listed as such and the place selling should be citing them as prime candidates for sweating. Anyone ever have any experience with a method of handling bare root plants referred to as the Missouri sand bed? I know one place in MN that raved about it, but few seem to have ever tried it.
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terrene
15 years ago
Over the past 2 Springs, I purchased 130 bare-root seedlings from the New Hampshire State nursery. They were 1-2 year old seedlings approx. 1 foot tall. A few were bigger. They're all native shrubs and small trees that provide berries for the birds.

I planted all of them straight into the ground, except for about 25-30 which were potted and given away. They are doing extremely well, although a few of the Viburnum have been nibbled on a bit. I can't believe how much some of them have grown - many of the Grey Dogwoods planted in Spring 07 are about 3-4 feet tall, and the Elderberry planted this SPring are about the same size. That grows very fast!

I've only planted out a few, most of them are still in holding beds. This fall I'm going to work on developing shrub borders and getting more planted out, because they are starting to outgrow the space they have now.

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