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philipatx

How cold is too cold for bare root bagged roses?...

philipatx
3 months ago

Taking a discussion from FB and coming here for answers...

My local big box stores her in Central TX got their bagged roses from Certified a couple days before temps dropped to low/mid teens, and stayed below freezing for a few days. It was unseasonably brutal for our zone 8/9 region.

The standard practice here is for the big boxes to put bagged, bare root plants outside for customers, but the bags were frozen solid when I found out they had arrived, though they had already started budding out.

My assumption (based in part upon failures following a similar hard freeze when bags were outside) is that at a minimum, the new feeder roots these hacked, sacked and stacked plants would be trying to push out would be killed, and likely worse.

Many folks say, "roses are hardy. They can take it," but I am skeptical. Admittedly this would be no worse than a zn 7 freeze, but with roots essentially exposed...


What do you think? Are these bagged bargains compromised?


(I have no desire to deal with "returns" at my local Walmart -- a maddening proposition. The wait in that line is interminable, and they have no concept of "customer service" there.)

Thanks in advance!

Comments (12)

  • Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley
    3 months ago

    How cold are they when they are kept in cold storage? Is it near freezing? I don't know. I have had plants Free solid outside Very wetI brought the man in lady frosted and Sarajevo that was at 9° but again not dormant and not be rude. Bare roots

  • philipatx
    Original Author
    3 months ago

    So your vote is, "no problem"?

  • FrozeBudd_z3/4
    3 months ago
    last modified: 3 months ago

    I once had a blueberry plant sitting in a one gallon pot, didn't think much of it when the first frost of the season had arrived, BUT it plummeted down to -10 C / 14 F and by morning that plastic pot was rock solid bulging out! Later, had placed the thing in the cold storage room for winter and the damage was evident next spring with a good half of the top growth being dead. I would tend to think roses to be somewhat more resilient, though I wouldn't chance on purchasing those you mention of.

  • Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley
    3 months ago

    I don't even understand what was written! I swear I didn't write that. But I cannot change it.

  • sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
    3 months ago

    I have a "coffin rose" that survived in its "coffin" at 19F! I suspect its roots are grown way into the ground by now.

  • philipatx
    Original Author
    3 months ago

    Okay, okay!... I yield! I capitulated and purchased a couple of these froze roses. (They actually had Florentina at that price!) Hopefully I won't have to endure the dreaded customer service line at Wally World...

  • sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
    3 months ago

    Which big box store had Florentina? I hope one of ours has it. I could use another one!

  • Sunny Mississippi 8a
    3 months ago

    Our Walmart had Florentina in bags yesterday and lots of True Bloom roses

  • Sunny Mississippi 8a
    3 months ago
    last modified: 3 months ago

    The bagged roses were outside uncovered getting rained on. The bags were doing a great job of catching and holding the water. If the roses can survive a hard freeze in bags, I wonder if they can also survive a mild flooding.

  • philipatx
    Original Author
    3 months ago
    last modified: 3 months ago

    Ditto that. It was Walmart in Central TX carrying bareroot bagged Certified Roses (a TX company). ...Frozen and subsequently flooded. I decided if I was going to try any, I needed to commit before any surviving roots drowned after freezing.

    Lowes and HD carried heavily waxed Canadian coffin roses from Pan American. The wax creates little greenhouses on the stems and they stew in our sun here. (Not sure if they should be planted or burned as wax torches.) They also charge a few bucks more for the coffin.

    HEB is also carrying Certified roses. Theirs are #2 grade, and a little less likely to do well, imho, but had a few nice patented roses as well.

  • susan9santabarbara
    3 months ago

    Philipatx, the two coffins I bought the first week of January at HD were from Pan American. The tag said Windmill, but if you turned it over, it said Pan American from Canada. Both heavily waxed. Last year, I got two Gene Boerner coffins from HD from the same vendor the first week of Feb (getting late for us). They were also waxed, but by then, it was already falling off. The larger one survived, but the smaller one didn't. Anyway, with this batch, I very carefully used my garden knife to shave off wax and try to score the rest of it to encourage it to fall off as the stem enlarges. They're both leafing out well. It's been in the 60s for most of Jan, but today it hit mid-80s, so tomorrow I'll have a look at how the wax fared :-o