Dormant bareroots are planted in LATE WINTER. They are not planted in SPRING.

Anything over at least 25F should not be a problem. We used to say that if bareroots weren't snowed on at least once, they were planted too late. Planting too late is a serious problem since then the plants can dry out.

Thanks! Glad I don’t need to worry about that.

I cover my newly planted bareroots with peat moss up to the tips right after planting this early. Then I slowly and carefully remove the peat moss as the temperatures get more evenly warm. We're supposed to be in the single digits over night this weekend!!!

I was instructed that you want to keep them covered with top soil or peat moss until the buds are pushing out. For potted ones, you’ll need to keep them in the green house or home environment until the temperature stabilized.

Generally, you are not covering them to keep them warm, but to keep them moist. So it is much more important to do this when planting late, and the roses may hit a warm spell before the roots are established.

Dormant roses from a freezer shouldn't be much more tender than dormant roses that have been in your garden over the winter.

If drying out is the primary concern then I’m in great shape. We had 10 straight days of heavy rain so the ground is still very saturated.

i was a little anxious because a couple have small bits of new growth already.

We will see some overnight temps well below freezing next week.

Is the consensus that the new bare roots will still be fine?

Last year I covered them with old towels and sheets but I don’t want to do that if it’s unnecessary.

I’m nervous I’ll make a rookie mistake and kill them before the last frost.

Mad_Gallica. You're in a much colder zone than I am....Easter LI here. Re: the whole dry out of grafted topics.

Been hemming and hawing at this . Would I just be pouring money down the drain on rose trees since the graft if 3 feet up ? There seems to be 2 camps. Once that says not worth the effort to try and the latter that say it's hearty for 7A.

I do winter protect my shrubs here and there (burlap, leaves, etc) for winter. Not the entire garden as it will be eyesore, but just the ones I can't do as loss-leaders

A1an, I don't understand the question. Are you asking if tree roses are hardy where you are, or asking how the top grafts are kept moist until the rose has successfully broken dormancy, and established feeder roots? They don't have much to do with each other.

The ones I planted 10 days ago should be fine, correct?

Omg jc, that temp forecast looks like heaven!! Really showing the Zone 6/7 difference here. We aren’t due to get above freezing up here in Columbus until Saturday...

mad, I think she's asking about the top graft on standards. I have no idea how they would do in Z7. Generally, I wouldn't think you'd have to worry about it with most roses, but with the "trees" I've often read people pull them over and cover them in cold climates. Maybe just wrapping with burlap and leaves? I also wouldn't think you'd need to protect any of your roses in Z7 as it could lead to more problems than not. Perhaps some evergreen boughs placed lightly on top if you don't get snow cover. We'll see how that has worked out for me this year! I personally like the look of everything put to bed for winter, but we don't require that here in Z6 in general.

Eeek! Just got a notification from Gurneys that my bareroot Koko Loco shipped today via FedEx! I can’t even dig into the ground here, especially after this arctic blast. I’m assuming I need to pot it up for a month or so in the garage. Stupid question though: am I supposed to water it when I put it in the pot?

If you put it in a pot water it as normal. Is your soil still frozen? I'm sure we're having Arctic weather here but I could definitely dig a hole if I want it. Perhaps you could just keep it dormant and moist until next week and plant it then.

Mine are already planted and there's no way the ground is frozen yet.

Slightly worried about the grafts because they are right at surface level.

Rachel - How cold is it about where you're at. Us Northeasters are getting a hint of January weather but regardless, the soil is workable . Maybe the upper top is hard but will a foot heave in with the shovel ~break ground~. Should be normalizing back this weekend.

We are currently at 11. The highest so far this week has been 20, we are supposed to break 32 by Saturday. Definitely colder than “usual”. In addition the the frost/ice layer being a problem, I honestly just don’t WANT to go out and do anything in this nastiness. My roses that have stayed green in my virtual Zone 7 site are turning black now. Ah well. Not going to stress. What’s done is done, and when it gets 32 or above I will go back out and start digging up some holes. I take it all as a learning experience.

Rachel. Just because it's below 32 or borderline around that #, I'm just saying the soil is workable if you don't mind whatever the ambient temp of the day is.

I've been prepping my beds already as I'm trying to get this done before the rains come in. Last year, I felt like it rained forever before spring really started - I sorta remember this as we kept on juggling the schedule for our roofing contractor

That’s great, A1an. Like I said, I’m not going out and digging in 11 degrees. I’ll get to it.

That’s great, A1an. Like I said, I’m not going out and digging in 11 degrees. I’ll get to it.

Heh. If the weather pattern was different last year, I myself would not have been prepping the beds this smigen early as well. It's just so fresh in my memory, on saying to myself, I cannot believe it's raining again and it's not spring yet....it was a extremely rainy pre-spring pattern last year, so I'm just trying to skirt that issue if it's the same again

Rachel -

Going to bite my tounge on this one. It's warming up next week and it's supposed to rain tomorrow sometime. Just got home and tried to remove the some mounds of winter mulch on some shrubs. No Bueno. The snowmelt and ambient temp has made the mulch still ice hard.

Going to give it another try tomorrow before the rains come in. And or before I break out the propane burner ;-)

Please excuse my lack of knowledge..but what is 5b and 6b?

You have the knowledge, my phrasing was unusual.

I meant roses XYZ were hardy to zone 5b and roses ABC were hardy to zone 6b.

Actually, all of them came out of the 3 days we had with overnights temps in the teens, just fine.

They all have new growth, even if it is teeny tiny.

zone map 5a= -20 to -15F, 5b= -15F to -10F; 6a=-1- to -5F, 6b= -5 to 0F.

vapor, aren't planting zone 5 hardy roses as grafted bare roots different than planting zone 5 hardy bands?

I've never really understood the differences. Unless bare roots are supposed to be planted while dormant and bands should be planted much later because they are not dormant.

With grafted plants it's important to protect the graft which is sensitive to cold. It doesn't matter what the grafted rose is in this case as if the graft fails, the desired plant dies and either the entire rose dies or the rootstock takes over as an own-root. With an OR plant you may lose the top growth, but the rose will regenerate from its roots just like any perennial. I try to zone up so everything is tip hardy, especially climbers or they'll never climb. I bought a few things OR Z6 and they did die back, but rebounded as they're vigorous varieties. The rose whose graft I forgot to bury died. : ((

Some people plant their bands right away, but I pot mine up until they about 2-3 gallons. They grow faster for me in pots at that size and have a better chance to make it through winter. When I planted ones too small, they barely lived. However, you're in 7a, so I don't see winter dieback on most roses being as much of a problem.

Oh jc Thanku !!

And I think u r just fine with ur temps!! They were bare roots , supposed to be planted in late winter isn’t it??

Thanks for commenting everyone, I know it seems like an obvious question, but this is only my second spring with roses.

Sometimes I think I read too* much and just confuse myself more.