Hey there. Glad your plants arrived. I transplanted mine into one gallon pots, maybe with one exception which took a three gallon. They are now on my asphalt driveway in a sunny spot. I will leave them there until temperatures drop below freezing consistently and then move them against the south side of my brick house, clustered together and mulched. I bought roses hardy to zone 5.

I have never buried in the ground, but that should work fine. Maybe add some mulch. Probably others on the forum have used that method and one will respond. I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks Deborah! On further reflection, I think I'm NOT going to re-pot them; just bury them in their band pots (well, bury them to the top of the band and a little over). We're supposed to have a week of warm-ish weather, and it probably won't get really cold til the end of Nov. or even early Dec., and the last thing I want to do is encourage new growth! Which re-potting might do. Hopefully if I leave them as is, they'll go dormant, and then when I dig them out in spring I can repot. Good luck to us both!

I think you should repot in 1 or 2 gallon pots with good rose potting mix, Frances, so the new rose babies can grow roots over the winter. This really worked on my rose babies received 11/15/2016 from RP. This really helped them strengthen over the winter. They did not put a growth spurt on until Spring. My recent rose babies that arrived 8/22/18 did put on a growth spurt and are blooming now, but your later arrivals should rest and grow roots like my 2016 plants

OK, y'all have convinced me to repot! Of course I am in a colder areas than Claire or Sheila, but Deborah is my zone and anyway your reasoning is very sensible. Thank you all SO MUCH!!

Didn’t somebody post once about putting the pots in their window wells?

Yes, someone used to keep pots in a window well, and lots of cold frames are excavated to have a pit inside...the earth is warmer the lower you go, and of course houses leak warmth too..the other thing about potting on bands is that they often are kind of root bound when they arrive, so letting the them grow on in bigger pots might make for less root trauma when planting out in the spring. I never hurry to get young roses in the ground.

cheerio. Claire

Last year I successfully overwintered container roses, including several teas, in window wells. This year I have about a dozen in pots. The most tender and/or small will go in the window wells, with the remainder clustered against the south side of the house.