I like to add some manure to top dress. You will need to prunexpected your roses. They will thank you. The

Christopher that was a wonderful, informative, educational and just a lovely explanation. You would be fantastic teacher, instructor or coach with a communication style like that! Thank you for explaining that so eloquently. :)

Thanks so much you two!

Christopher thanks so much for the detailed info. I haven't fed them anything yet but will start in the next few weeks when I start feeding them all for the new growing season. I will def leave the baby canes alone until the others get a good size. We've had a very warm winter so they've done pretty good so far. I can't wait to,see how they perform. I know I'm going to love them.

Thanks again, Judy

Very informative, Christopher, about the behavior of the cuttings. When one purchases a grafted BR rose, are its thick canes original budwood that has matured (and thickened), or is the budwood typically pruned away prior to sale? Is budwood also taken from the tips of canes?

What Christopher said.

Also, when holding a band sized rose in your hand, it is very difficult to imagine that rose as a full sized plant. Teas aren't pruned much and they can grow to immense proportions in a few years. Planting bands on six foot centers looks ridiculous and it's hard to force yourself to do that. The big 'uns like Mrs BR Cant and Mons Tillier would prefer even more space. What you really need with baby tea roses is filler perennials (Wlaker's Low nepeta, Rozanne geranium, etc) to fill out the bed.

What are the names of the tea roses you got? Some of them grow slightly differently from others - it would be helpful to know their names.

The most important thing to do, is to read Christopher's post over and over again. Tea roses will grow just fine without being pruned at all, at least for the first 3-4 years. Then you can figure out their growth habits, and see if they need shaping. They NEVER need the "hard pruning" that many modern (mostly hybrid tea) roses need every Spring.

Jackie

rifis -- when you're looking at a bare-root rose on rootstock, the canes you see are what has emerged from the bud union further down, and grew and matured for a year or two before being cut back and dug up for cold-storage before being shipped. Budwood is just the term for sections of canes with dormant growth buds available for budding onto rootstock. They don't put the original canes onto the rootstock -- that would be grafting, as opposed to budding. See the page below for more detailed information on budding.

http://scvrs.homestead.com/BuddingUltimate.html

To produce bareroot roses for sale, the rootstock would be grown out in a field for a year or two. Then someone comes around and inserts buds into the rootstock out in the field. When those inserted buds make enough growth, they cut the top growth off the rootstock, and leave the plant to grow further. When canes from the inserted buds reach market size, the rose is pruned back and dug out while dormant, and kept in cold storage until sale.

And that's why those roses look so much more robust than own-root bands and gallons -- the roots are at least two (or probably three) years older, and the canes are at least one year (or probably two years) older.

:-)

~Christopher