You want the basals to come in the spring. If they come out now or in the fall, they may be too tender to survive the winter. But you can start planning now. First thing to do is amend the soil. Add compost, or buy composted manure or mushroom compost and put it around the base of the soil. You can do that in late winter/early spring. Then cut off any dead growth around the graft (the bulge at the base where the root stock is connected to the flower stock). Don't cut off the only remaining cane, but I see the remnants of a dead cane still there, cut that as close to the base as possible. Sometimes cutting into the graft spurs it to put out new growth. Then fertilize with alfalfa pellets, or tea or use a good commercial organic fertilizer. You should see some new basal growth in a few weeks. Also, make sure the roses are getting enough sun. I had a bush that wasn't getting enough and it became a one cane wonder. I moved it and it almost immediately began putting out new growth.

Post this on the computer forum, they are really quick to get you answers. They help me often with my computer woes.

Hi anneliese, I agree with Ken that pictures of your situation would help us understand it better. "...we had the digging for 14 piers to stabilize a shifting slab house." Your local building code and the builder of the house are responsible for preventing a shifting or cracking slab. The concrete slab should have enough reinforcing steel bars in it to prevent cracking and the slab should be "floating" on a bed of sand to isolate it from shifts in the subsoil and/or rock formations on your site. If your house is relatively new, it might have been covered by a warranty against such foundation problems. "It will be month before all will settle and I would like to camouflage it without slowing down the settling." I'm not sure whether you mean it will take months to settle, or just one month. If just one month, seeding the open earth won't take effect soon enough to help. If you meant it will take months to settle, then filling the soil with a root structure might interfere with good settling of the earth. Just out of curiosity, does your house have guttering to prevent rain runoff from the roof from falling on the open earth? And was there a foundation planting of shrubs, perennials and things in the foundation area that got excavated? If so, do you plan on making a new foundation planting? Maybe you should consider just raking the earth level and re-raking it to keep it level as settling occurs. Did the contractor who did the pier work have any suggestions as to how you should treat the disturbed earth? Seeding the disturbed earth with a fast growing groundcover might conceal the earth, but could just create a nuisance in your landscaping plans. Pictures could help. ZM

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