Ohiofem: Thank you for your response. I appreciate the information. I have kept a pretty close eye on it and there are no pests. I have been watering regularly for the last week but as I mentioned in my first post it was clear that there were issues within the first 24hrs. I wasn't sure whether to treat this like I would like other repots and keep it partially shaded. Perhaps it was a poor choice but I opted to take it into full light. Josh: I realize that the gritty mix is effectively nutritionally bare but I had decided not to fertilize immediately after the repot in order to give the boug some recovery time. Now - two weeks on and bare of leaves - it probably would not be a good idea to give any nitrogen. Do you think a transplant fertilizer at this point would be helpful? What you've described with regards to the drainage layer is precisely what I've encountered. I repotted a ficus about 5 days ago and it also is drying unevenly. Considering that the ficus was healthy and its roots were minimally disturbed I opted to pull it and repot it sans pumice drainage layer. We'll see how it fares. Thanks again for your response. Al (tapla): Thanks for the information. I will try the wedge technique in the future. Just a couple of questions: 1) Is the Wedge technique for root reduction solely, or do you use this graduated approach for removing old soil as well (i.e. do you always bare root directly or do you go in segments when dealing with fibrous root systems)? 2) Regarding Watering: my Ficus has a relatively flat root system. The surface is drying quickly and the bottom of the pot stays moist. I am hoping that the removal of the drainage layer will help. When you are dealing with a shallow root system after repot you water more frequently, but does that mean you water less deeply (i.e. to avoid contributing to the slower draining soil at the base of the pot)? Thanks again to everyone who has responded so far. Regards, - JW

If (?) this is the zip code (42223) the roses are planted in it's coming up zone 7a on two different hardiness maps. I'm in zone 5b-6a right on the line so conditions are different here. You could contact a Rose Society in your area and ask them how deep to plant the bud union in your exact area. I can only guess... This post was edited by jim1961 on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 20:49

@Bigmario I think I answered your post about the large pots in another thread. @Mksmith & Redshirt: I hope your trees recover. My experience follows the bell-curve. The largest majority just languish after bare-rooting (not discussing root-pruning here) only drop a few leaves if any, but do not thrive until the next growing season. A minor amount will act like nothing happen and flush out very soon (if appropriate season) and the other end of the spectrum, a minor few will drop many, many leaves and I think it will croak, but it doesn't. It keeps a small set of them and the next growing season does great. It still pains me greatly to watch that happen, though. I'm lucky on my larger trees I've barerooted they were not at the bad end of the curve. The only healthy tree I've lost prior was when I root-pruned at the same time. I also lost two that were destined to die from frozen roots during winter. Unfortunately, I have no way of seeing the pattern (yet) as to which will do well or not. I just finished putting a smaller sized 3yr old Kinnow (that had tons of leaves on it) into an 18gal container with gritty mix and I thought it went beautifully. I saw little to no root loss and was quite proud. As of today, it is still on the decline, having lost over half its leaves. I was ticked and saddened at such an unexpected decline. I thought I'd have to come here and say "I lost my first tree doing a repot". However, semi-good news for me. It turns out the holes in the bottom of my Kinnow container were just slightly too small (used the wrong size drill bit) or the fiberglass insect screen mesh was too fine. A few days ago I was suspicious, b/c the leaves looked exactly like over-watering damage, so I bore it out with larger bit and sure enough, perhaps a pint or two of water came out the bottom. I went around to my other recent repots and found one other with the same problem and same amount of water. That other container was with the 4-1 mix of CHC/peat (recommended by Millet) and it hasn't lost one leaf and looks great (the far end of my bell curve). Interesting...

Good question. I have big groups of them, but I always transplant mine in the spring when I can see them, with the leaves of course sticking above the ground. I just went out and poked around gently where I know they are, and couldn't find any sign of them (I didn't go more than half an inch deep) but I know they have a root kind of like a carrot. I think I would spit the difference, and plant the crowns aboout an inch deep. You could try some at ground level and some deeper, see what happens. They are wildflowers, they may just pull themselves where they need to be.