I always soak my bare-roots over night, then right before planting I add 1 oz of bleach per gallon of water and make sure the whole bush is covered with water for a couple minutes, take out shake off and then plant. This kills any fungal spores on the plants. Takes away the chance of bringing downy, or other nasty fungal problems into your garden. Been doing it for years, no problems....

That's interesting. I wrote the info down and will do that this spring. Thanks!!

Carol

...I think Austin's here recommend an immersion for 24 hours and to submerge the canes to about a third...

...I don't do that... mine get maybe 1 hour soak... 10 minutes if I'm in a hurry, and they get plonked in....well watered... some rose food and mulch....then it's up to them I'm afraid...

This is my way of doing bare root roses when they come in. I have a 55 gal plastic barrel I cut in half. I fill the drum with about 15 gals of water, toss in all the roses making sure everything is submerged. Then I take 2 or 3 shovels full of the soil that they will be planted in and sprinkle it over everything. I let them soak over night and plant them the next day. After planting, I give the canes a quick spray of water to clean them up and cover everything with pine needles. I've never had a problem with anything breaking dormancy. For me, if it ain't broke, why try to fix it.

I soak the whole plant, usually overnight. I forget sometimes and they stay in water a day longer with no problems.

Plant it and skip the soaking, which just leaches nutrients out of the plant.

While you don't have to soak the plants, it does help if they've been in transit and are dried out. I have also left them soaking for weeks with no harm done.

I do appreciate you all letting me know what you do, thanks.

There are several factors that decide this question for me. When I have ordered from J&P in the past, the plants would come in with long vigorous root systems and long canes covered in the native soil from whence they came. I would soak those roses for an hour or two while I prepared my pots and dirt. I had a 95% success rate with those. When I have ordered from lesser reputable sources and the roses arrived with sparse, often brittle, roots/canes I would take the time to soak them for 24-48 hours in a concoction of tap water, fish emulsion, Super Thrive, and sometimes alfalfa pellets. I had an average of an 80% success rate with that strategy. With body bag roses that have been sitting in a store for half as long as they probably sat in freezers, I take the bags off and soak the entire rose plant (paper wrapping and mulch attached) in the aforementioned concoction for 3+ days. If the "soup" begins to ferment too quickly, I drain the bucket and fill it up again with tap water. This has garnered a 75% success rate.

Ultimately, the roses original state when it arrives to me often trumps any soaking strategy, but I do agree that soaking helps. Those body bag roses would take weeks to come up for me if it were not for the soaking (I've tested this theory firsthand).

I soaked my bareroot roses overnight in a clean 32 gallon trash container in declorinated water or rainwater if I have it and plant them the next day or the day after if I ran out of time. The roses seemed to be happy even those I bought late in the season.

I just ordered 12 Julia Child tree roses and was wondering about how to soak them. Should I stay below the graft on the standard or does it matter.

Can I soak bareroot roses overnight in water with bleach (I sprayed Chlorox into the water bucket)? Thanks in advance for your info!

You may damage or kill your roses by adding bleach to the water.

Why the bleach? I would get them out, rinse thoroughly and get them back in clear water ASAP!