So I potted up my 4 bare root plants. So far so good. One is losing some leaves from underneath, turning yellow and falling off. This one is Brandy, and seemed like the most vigorous one with a jillion budeyes. Well, maybe a billion. The rest of the plant seems okay with the top growth nice and fresh and green so I am not sweating it too much. My Peace leaves looked a little funny, but I think I read on a different thread that their leaves sometimes have a "puckered" look to them at first, so I think she is okay, too. Time will tell for both of them, I guess. My question: I think I know where I want to have them planted in the ground. They have been growing in the pots since March 28th, when I last checked this thread. If I now plant them in the ground, would I be risking stressing them or their roots (which I am hooping are growing!). I am pretty good at getting stuff in the ground w/o disturbing roots too much if need be. Do I have to wait till fall? Or, since we have had such a cool, mild spring and just had a good rain, is it possible that I could transplant them now? I know nursery plants in pots start as bare root, but I am not sure how much of a root system they would have in comparison to my non-greenhouse grown potted bare roots. I'm sure mine have fewer roots, so would I be doing a bad thing to try and put them in the ground now?

I am near Jax (NE FL) I just planted two bare roots into pots a few weeks ago. They just went through two frosts at 26F and had no problem. They are leafing out nicely. ~SJN

Dingo, I have studied the Edmunds and Austin catalogs, but the own root, bare root rose availability, though seen by me, did not register. I believe the deep rooted assumption, since I have been growing roses for just short of 50 years, that bare root roses are always grafted roses, kicked in. Own root container grown roses are still a wonder to me, yet alone own root, bare root roses! Thank you for reinforcing a new concept to me. Rifis, thank you for bringing this to my attention, I did read that and thought it was possibly a misprint. Since the bareroots are primarily grafted on vigorous rootstocks, I thought own root roses were not husky enough to take the fall harvesting, cleaning, and winter cold storage as a, say multiflora rootstock rose can, and be sold as bare root roses, just like grafted roses. Now my question is, "Do they perform as well as container grown roses?"

I used to keep them in the basement. It's a walkout basement, so moving them in and out wasn't an issue, and the basement is cool and damp. Instead of cones and mulch, I covered them with wet towels, so it did help to keep them somewhere the towels didn't dry out immediately. I do see a problem with the cones and mulch in that you can't easily check to see if they are leafing out, and you may damage the new growth in the great uncovering. Just thinking out loud here, since I vastly prefer planting bareroots at the proper, late winter time, so they don't need any covering here.