Has anyone tried planting a rootball only?

18 years ago

I know this is a weird question, but I'm wondering if I should try planting the rootballs of 2 clematis that seem to be dead, but the rootball still looks like it's alive. I purchased 4 clematis from Bluestone during their sale a few months ago when they were less than $5 each. They came in 2 inch pots, so obviously didn't have very developed roots.

Of the 4 little clematis, one of them is fine and still has some growth on it, and 3 died a couple of months back after I'd repotted them to larger pots. Even so, I couldn't bring myself to stop watering their pots. One of them (a duchess of albany) sprouted some new growth after a couple of weeks of looking dead, but then died again (I think my cat dug in that pot) and the rootball isn't even left, so that one is a goner for sure. I decided to double check that the other 2 were also dead for sure, but surprisingly I still found what appears to be living rootballs for the other 2 (a princess diana and a claire de lune).

I hate to totally give up on them if there's still hope of them coming back, but I also don't want to spend a lot of time digging holes for rootballs that don't have much of a shot at sprouting some life. So I'm curious whether anyone has ever tried planting little rootballs where there was no top growth at all, and if so, what were the results? Or should I just keep them in pots inside over the winter and see how they do rather than try to plant them outside now?

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

eden_in_me
18 years ago
I have. I've sunk pots of what seem to have live rather than rotten rootballs together in a "nursery" place & covered around the pots with soil.Then when the ground has frozen I cover the spot with leaves & cardboard boxes and hope for the best.

I wish I could remember if any came back to life though. I do have a few pots on the nursery table that were treated this way, did not put up new growth, but at the last peek there seemed to be a little life in the roots attached to the crown. If there is room, they will get buried again, but are a lower priority than getting the growing ones settled in for Winter.

Marie in ME
nckvilledudes
18 years ago
I would pot them up into one gallon sized containers and either put them in a spot where they would get some protection over the winter or sink the pots in the ground. Clematis often recover from apparent death like a phoenix rising from its ashes.
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tracyvine
18 years ago
I have experienced exactly what you describe with my Multi Blue Clematis. I received it in a trade here on GW. The plant came to me with a very nice root system, very healthy green foliage. It had been cut back by the sender and repotted and allowed to grow out the roots before they had sent it on to me. Once I received it (in June) I planted it deeply in the ground. After a few weeks the vines seem to have died back to the ground. I left it and took care of it as I normally would the rest of the clems. 1 month later I noticed some beautiful healthy growth coming up from the ground. We had a very hot dry summer here. I watered faithfully. I believe it came back with 3 stems where as before it only had 2. Very much the phoenix rising from the ashes! An excellent analogy!

I think it will be well worth your effort to go ahead and plant them. I am guessing that the roots appear larger than when you first potted them up?
paulingy
18 years ago
At this stage in the season(assuming you are in the Northern Hemisphere) the plant will be entering dormancy. I would recommend keeping the plant in a cool dry area (frost free) and potting up early in the new year. If the plant is viable it will develop basal shoots over the winter period.
An ideal temperature to overwinter the plant at is 2 deg C/ 36f but it can withstand variations around this.

We plant such rootballs as part of our production process in a commercial operation - Overwintering the plant in a refrigerator and potting early in the new season.
We find plants potted in January soon overtake those potted the previous October.
eastautumn
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for all the advise. I decided to go ahead and plant the little root balls and hope for the best. I hadn't thought of putting them in the fridge over the winter and didn't see that advice 'til I checked this thread today, so last Sunday I just found homes for them and planted them straight in the ground. I didn't notice any growth of the root ball since I'd potted them up over the summer, but I did noticed that each one had 2 tiny green dots at the top of the root ball, which looked like the very beginning of new stems. So I'm hopeful that they at least stand a chance at surviving. I'll try to remember to post again in the spring if they rise from the ashes like a phoenix :) Thanks again for the advice!