I got one of the same bags at HD last week, but since they had just came in I had to pay full price, Mine do have better looking roots and a little light green stem, I am hoping the one with the thicker stem is the Candida, as I already have 2 Jacks. I put them both in a pot with stones in the bottom for drainage, I have killed most of these bare root babies before by overwatering leading to root rot. The most important thing is to start good root growth going. So I used a mix of leaf mold (compost would work too), bone meal, slow release rose fertilizer, dried cow manure, some potting soil from my favorite nursery here that was salvaged when I repotted a couple of my new purchases, and regular garden soil. The I soaked the pot well and set it where it would drain the excess water. For the next watering I will use liguid root stimulator, diluted according to label directions.If I don't see any new growth in a month or so I will check to see how the roots are doing. There may be new stems that just haven't made it to the surface yet at best, or root rot at worst.I'm glad that HD has a guarantee on their plants, and I always keep my plant receipts. I don't think the mirace grow potting soil is the best medium for them. I think that there may be too much peat in the mix which would retain too much dampness, and the fertilizer in it is more of a general purpose kind with too much nitrogen. Rose or tomato fertilizer is better for clems. I have bought some clems from a nursery that uses pro-mix to pot their bare root plugs and have learned to repot them immediately if not sooner, because I have killed too many of their clems by overwatering ones that were left in their pots. They also used some sort of plastic plug over the main drainage hole in the bottom of the slightly less than gallon pot. In summary, I recommend you go out and buy $50 worth of supplies to keep your $.75 worth of clems alive. Just kidding, but it will cost more than what you paid for the plants, but can be used on any other clems you have, Or if these are your first and are successfully grown, you may be hooked into buying more. Many more. Marie

I agree with the above, but still go with what I said previously. To specify further, when I say to use Type-3 clematis to climb into a rose, the rose I'm envisioning is a rambler, not a "shrub", and certainly not a Hybrid Tea. If you want a clematis to scramble into something the size of, say, 'Abraham Darby' or 'Graham Thomas', look at some of the non-clinging herbaceous clematis -- which are also considered Type-3 with regards to pruning. Aim for the rose being about 50% bigger than the clematis if you want the latter to climb into the former. In late Winter or early Spring, the clematis would be cut back hard, and the rose pruned as usual. Then any of last year's clematis still on the rose can be pulled off after it's dried up. The alternative is something like what I did against a length of stockade fence -- I planted three roses ('Bleu Magenta', 'Bubble Bath', and 'Purple Skyliner') to climb against it, using three horizontal stretches of bungee cord for tying it in. Behind the cord is black plastic mesh "bird netting" which the Type-2 clematis use for support. The series goes clematis -- rose -- clematis -- clematis -- rose -- clematis -- clematis -- rose -- clematis -- clematis. There is some overlap near the top of the fence, but in Spring, I cut the clematis back so that it just barely -- if at all -- is actually on the roses. And the roses are also cut back to fit against the fence. The clematis bloom first, then the roses, with some overlap. After the roses are finished, I cut them and the clematis back just to neaten up. 'Bubble Bath', 'Purple Skyliner', and the clematis will bloom again in lighter flushes, but never as heavy as the first round. :-) ~Christopher

Rosylady… I just read that link, thank you, and I know you get it too... but can I be forgiven for wondering if the writer is perhaps in some way connected with any firm that produces this? because it sort of read that way to me, like an advertisement.. in fact I notice he used a photo from 'Mycorrhizal Applications' which supply the product... but I don't doubt what is said there, I'm just a suspicious type... They always show a picture of two plants, one with a great root system, MF treated and one without which looks poor... so I did my own experiment with this too.. I had 3 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' roses, grafted bare roots, I planted the 3 together, 1 with MF only, the other two without MF but with my own mix of soil amendment... proprietary potting mix, plus composted manure, and small amount of organic fertilizer... It says on the MF packet that after just 4 weeks the root system starts to develop secondary feeder roots, or words to that effect, so what I did was, I gave it 6 weeks and dug up 2 of the 3 roses,... the one with soil amendment had masses of little white roots forming in the potting mix surrounding the roots, like you see in a potted rose... the one with MF only.... zilch...nada... it was exactly the same as when I planted it, still with white specs residue from the MF... It was this that turned me off the product... and I was not prepared to purchase any more then on.. I also say to people over here, think about the past how many roses and other shrubs have been planted all down the centuries, all the roses in this country, no one ever grabbed a packet of MF along the way... yet in the last 10 years apparently it's now a ''must have'' …. …. they ain't foolin' me no more... agree about the Oak trees too, lots of good MF can be had from Oak tree mulch so I understand.. Here are my 2 'CR Mackintosh' roses that I kept, neither had MF, I removed the 3rd which did as it wasn't doing well, and both of these bloomed all summer during a very hot season for us... this photo from October 15.. and bedraggled with rain..

What size pot should I keep my unplanted clems in? I've tried to go ahead and repot all of the ladies in waiting, but based on this root system, I'm wondering if I need to put them in even larger pots. Like if you planned to simply keep a clem in a pot forever, what size would that be? Also, is it an issue for clems to be root-bound? As I plant the clems I loosen the soil around the roots and spread the roots out. I've been amazed at how so tightly bound some of the roots are. Like you could see the rectangle outline of the pot it was in before the nursery stuck it in a larger pot to sell at "larger pot" price. Most of them are managable, but one was outrageously bound tight. I got it loose, but I'm wondering how well clems to regardless if you loosen the roots first or not. Does anyone have experience with this? I ended up grabbing a few more clems at local nurseries last week/this week. I got a Roguchi and a Betty Corning which I'm super excited about! I planted the Betty Corning at the base of my Vitex tree. I thought the blue/purples would look pretty together, and you could see under the bells as they climb up the tree. Hopefully this combo works out. Roguchi might live in a pot for a bit. Here's my "final" clem list: Asao Belle de Woking Bees Jubilee Betty Corning Blue Light Crystal Fountain Diamantina Dr. Ruppel Elsa Spath Ernest Markham HF Young Henryi Hyde Hall Kakio/Pink Champagne Miss Bateman Niobe Roguchi The President Venosa Violacea Ville de Lyon So this is my first time growing clems and I don't know what I'm doing. Everytime I plant one in the ground I think to myself "I don't know what I'm doing." Is this how clem collecting started for you? I haven't gone overboard have I?