Kewl.
Bands are great.

We pot up into 1-Gallon containers. The regular black nursery kind. We just use Supersoil. I've never used the sort with built-in time-release fertilizer -- but perhaps someone else can chime in.
In general,you don't want to feed these little guys.

I wouldn't spray them with anything right away. After that, you can spray them -- if you are spraying other things, but there really isn't much to them.

I never pinch back GROWTH. But yes ma'am, I actually do pinch off buds. That's hard to do, but it will make the plant put its energy into growing -- particularly roots -- rather than wasting its energy on blooming.

I generally let bands have a couple of days to acclimate after I unpack them. Then, I pot them, and let them spend their next few weeks in dappled shade. This may be different, in your climate -- so please heed the advice of those closer to you, if there is a conflict.

Jeri

First into a gallon, then in a month or two into a 2 gallon, then into the ground. Good quality potting mix.

Weak (very diluted) fish fertilizer every couple of weeks until they are in the ground.

Morning sun, afternoon shade.

I remove the flower buds (except maybe 1 to see if it is indeed the variety I purchased), I sure don't remove any new growth.

I would spray them, yeah.

Depends on what you bought. Some OR's struggle as really small plants, some leap fast. I make a value judgment based on how vigorously I expect them to grow. So a rambler or hybrid musk that wants to grow I might pot up into a 5 gallon if the band is big and lusty. But if it's a little twiglet the size of my little finger, it goes in a 5 inch pot for a few weeks. Potting up isn't stressful if you do it right. I pot up frequently, turning roses out of the pots to check their progress. If the weather is really hot and I'm worried about the pot drying out, I overpot. I never pinch back growth, but I've been known to disbud. It depends on the plant. If it's vigorous, I don't disbud.

I buy the best potting soil I can find. Brands should be local. I do not believe a good potting soil should have fertilizer added.

If it's hot, I take it easy on the ferts. I believe that my good potting soil should support adequate first growth in a young plant for the first 15 days that it takes to see a change. I prefer to see new growth before I fertilize, but it really depends on the season. In cool weather, I add time-release ferts to the potting soil in case I forget to fertilize them. My general rule is to fertilize the pots with water soluble, half strenghth or less twice a month. More people kill young roses by over fertilizing them than vice versa. Be conservative.

I keep mine in their mini containers for a week, set them in a baking pan with about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water, place in kitchen window which is filtered sunlight, take them in and out 3-4 times per day to stay in the sun about 30-45 minutes each time. Then after a week, I pot them up in 1-gallon containers, set them on the patio where they get morning sun and afternoon shade. Then when we have a rainy and/or cloudy day, after about 2-3 months, I put them in the ground, put a fence around them so cats and dogs will not step on them. Make sure they do not dry out. That's all, folks.

Thanks everyone.

What Jeri said lol. It holds true here as well. The only thing I do differently is I do spray mine when they arrive but with water only from a mist bottle after unpacking. I think it helps rehydrate the leaves purely unscientific on my part. But I swear I hear a sigh of relief from them when I do ; )

Annie

Most nurseries specializing in "bands" send care instructions admonishing rose growers not to fertilize (beyond the nutrients in a good organic potting soil). So no "Miracle-grow"(or other) potting mixes with added fertilizers.

And knowing some people just can't help themselves, advise, "if you must" feed, to use extremely dilute fish emulsion.

De-budding (not pinching back) is considered "good practice" but this is one good practice I often ignore. At least until I see a couple blooms. Then I de-bud. It is kind of nice to see what you've got.

Sprays...I won't go there. Except to say, if you don't spray you may well see if the rose is prone to disease before you plant it. If one is committed not to spray, this gives an opportunity to cull a rose before it leaves the "pot ghetto". And, if you don't spray and it stays "clean", you have an early advanced notice that other roses with similar backgrounds might do well for you, without needing spray.

Good luck with these!

Bill

but if you set them in a baking tray with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water, they will wick what they need and you will not need to spray them or water, jus t let them take what they can wick up.

That's sort of what I have them in now. I use these plastic pot liners when I bring my potted plants inside. Now that the pots are outside, they were sitting in the garage. So when we had some new plants that we couldn't plant yet, we filled up these plastic pot liners and put the pots in them. Right now I've got two baby clematis, two skyrocket junipers and these 4 bands in there soaking up the water. We started doing it when we went away for a few days and we put them in a corner of the deck that doesn't get much sun. We have a hose on the deck to fill up the trays.

I think when I pot them up I'll keep them there too. Out of the full sun and away from the other roses so they can't get black spot.

Now you have to wait like I do for two years! Ha ha. I've gotten three or so orders from CA for the past 2-3 years and man I'm kinda over bands. I'm glad my garden is almost finished. Now, what did I order this spring, bands!!!
I just pot them up in a not too much larger pot and graduate pot sizes.

Carla

I have planted lots of bands and have no time to baby them in pots but rather plant them directly in the ground after letting them acclimating in their band for a few days. Northland Rosarium has very good instruction on how to plant the bands. I would prepare a hole about 1x1 ft of garden soil mixed with some compost and bone meal or super phosphate. While the twig is still in the band container, I place the container in the hole and fill soil around it to the same level of soil inside the container. Then the container is lifted off leaving an indentation or a mold in the spot. Now I carefully remove the twig with root ball from the container and press the root ball into the mold. A thin layer of mulch is placed on top of the soil to complete the planting. I water it well and then extend a dripper from irrigation system to the rose and voila, in drought or not, a new rose settles in and starts growing. Only diluted fertilizer is used during the first year.

I have not lost a band as this planting method is very safe for band. The root ball is not disturbed at all. Once placed in the soil, the roots will start growing out in all directions into the surrounding garden soil. There is no period of set back for the plant, they will take off in no time, and I save of a lot of time from watering them in pot if they were to be potted. If you donÂt have yet the garden space for a while or just want them in pot, then potting them would be the way to go. Folks in colder climates also need to pot the bands until they grow more roots to survive winter, but below the Dixie line where you are, the bands are tough enough for direct planting in the garden any time.

Some bands can be put out right away but not others. I have seen some bands where I had to find the microscope to see if I had really gotten anything. I have gotten some that were as large as a 1-gallon potted; having said all that, there is a problem with bunnies, voles, etc., that just love the size of bands, like a petit four.

LOL Patricia. I would return it and demand for something better or feel cheated. I notice in my garden, voles avoid newly digged soil and prefer huge bushes where they can sink their teeth into. Ah about the bunnies, and the petit four, the grande dame and the burly two-footed bushman, a few of bamboo sticks surround the twig will keep it safe :-) Â depending on my circumstances. But donÂt feel bad if you must pot it. Nothing wrong with that.

I don't think I have voles, can't dig through the cement, I mean clay probably. But my cat did bring in a dead rat this morning.

These bands are just slightly smaller than potted roses I received from Chamblees. Most of those did OK this year, but I did lose one, LD Braithwait. But since it was the wrong color anyway, I don't care:)

i planted mine middle of april. direct in the ground. if they are albas and tiny pot them. if tiny gallicas or damasks they are very vigorous. leave them in soil they are in and if u r to pot i'd use same soil as they will b in ground.A lot depends on rose.

I bought these bands most for DH. He saw Barrone Provost at Biltmore and wanted it. The only place I found it was Heirloom. So now I have bands. He keeps bugging me about them and is a bit bummed that they may take 2 years to get to a decent size. I've been keeping them in partial shade in the plastic trays full of water, as was recommended.

So on Sunday, I go outside on the deck and there are the 3 Barrone bands (plus the one Rose de Resht that I bought for me!) out in the full hot sun on the deck rail.

WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING? I asked.

He thought they needed some sun and needed to 'dry out a bit'.

Of course if they dried out and died or fell off the deck, it would be my fault.

i planted 2 bands of baronne prevost middle of april right into ground, full sun. they are doing just fine and bloom back and forth competing with the isaac madam pierre's.
nobody told me any different

lol. im through for this year.

I'm in West Tennessee zone 7, and as y'all know, the heat wave is on . . Well, this is my first experience with bands, and what I did is pretty close to what jerijen said to do. Here's the story:

I moved 12 tea roses to another location in my yard at the beginning of July (eeek!), after researching how to do it safely, and now they are full of leaves and flowering out.
That's a story for transplanting established roses in the middle of the summer forum.

Then, my friend and neighbor, who is a plant rookie, bought us both an Eden climbing rose. She said she had lived there ove 20 years, and SHE WANTED HER YARD TO LOOK NICE. She then said we needed to go in together on a rose order of English roses.

HAH! She said ten roses each. I ended up getting 24 roses in all, and I'm now the official baby rose nurse until they get planted when the weather cools off. I didn't know that it was going to get over 104 degrees during the time when they were supposed to arrive.

NOT TO WORRY. My husband, the ever present plant genius, told me how to keep them from frying. I took them into my bathroom, unwrapped them, and watered them with cool water from the shower. Then I potted them up to 1 gallon pots (they were only band sized rooted cuttings), watering the soil before putting it around their sensitive roots.

THEN, I prepared a bed in partial shade in the back of some evergreen bushes on the shady cool side of my house, by using 4x4 timbers stacked two high, and filled that with damp peat moss. (All this in 104 degree weather)

Then I BURIED the pots up to their rims in the peat moss bed.
Every day I misted them 5 times a day. Every one is living and only had maybe one yellow leaf, and one is even putting out flowers (actually one flower, but it IS a beautiful one)

The main thing with pots is that the roots get overheated, and the damp peat moss takes care of that. You could bury the pots directly in the dirt, but in 104 degree weather you might heat stroke out yourself digging all those holes!!! The peat moss is pretty expensive, but you can use it elsewhere when you don't need it any more.

The second batch of roses (six bands) came yesterday in the mail, and it was so hot I was afraid to even put them in the peat moss bed. So, again my genius husband told me to just set them on the porch, and bring them inside the house when it got hot. And when the weather cooled down to the 90's, THEN put them in the peat moss bed. (He really is a genius. He's the one that designed all the flower beds in our yard)

What I'm wondering is . . . at the end of the summer do they go into the ground for the winter (some are 6-8" tall, and some are 10" to 1 foot tall) or what?

I think I've lost my mind ordering roses during a heat wave, but we wanted roses, and didn't want to wait till next year.
(grin) jjarcher