One other thing I do when I plant bare roots or replant band pots to grow from the summer is to include a tablespoon or so of moisture crystals (like Soil Moist) to hold water in between regular watering. It turns into nuggets of gelatin type material when wet and doesn't provide any artificial fertilizer that would not be recommended for new plantings.

I plant a lot of roses so I buy this bulk from Watersorb online (great company and very reliable) but if you only have a few roses most any garden store will stock soil moist. You can also buy the moisture control Miracle Gro potting soil but that has fertilizer in it and I prefer to know how much moisture crystal is in a given pot.

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia!
I have read quite a few negative reviews about Miracle Gro potting soil ( from Costco). Do you have any experience using it? I’m not really sure whether to believe the reviews because I did have good results with some flowers that I grew but not roses.

Also how much moisture crystals would you recommend for a 20 gallon pot?

With an inexpensive digital kitchen thermometer, you can check soil temperatures to make sure it's not spiking too high on hot days. Hopefully your shadecloth will do the trick.

I have used the Miracle Gro potting soil (regular, not with the crystals) because it's pretty hard to find a local source of decent potting soil of other sorts. I don't grow roses to keep in pots other than temporarily so I don't have an opinion about it long term. In the short term it can be fine, but you're not supposed to fertilize new bare roots for 6-12 months so I try to avoid the ones with fertilizer built in when I can. Having said this, the ones I potted up temporarily last year did as well as the ones I planted in potting mix without fertilizer, but it's not generally recommended to have that fertilizer for new bare roots.

For amounts, I put a tablespoon or so into a 5-gallon bucket temporarily so you might use a couple in a 20 gallon bucket. There are some controversial posts about Soil Moist and potted roses (Quest-Rison is one that comes to mind), but there's a variety of opinions about anything else involving roses too. There are different results of planting with Soil Moist in the ground vs. in pots, and the pots are the ones more likely to benefit from the extra moisture. I'm sure people in your zone may have more opinions about this, but in my zone and yard it hasn't had any adverse effect that I can tell and has absolutely helped roses survive my summer with scant rain.

Cynthia

My roses will be in pots temporarily as well, just for this year. I’ll just use Miracle Gro as well.

I really appreciate all the information, thank you so much!

I'm in 9B- hot dry Arizona. I've had great success with bands and bare roots grown out the first year ( if received during the summer or late Spring) using Patio Plus. It drains really well so if it's over 100 I might deep water twice a day. Also easy to find at big box stores and does not burn roots ( in my experience ) I never use a meter- just tilt the pot to see how heavy it is- if it's light- needs water!

I think the most import thing you can do is to keep the bud union and lower part of the canes covered with loose soil or mulch, that’s where the dessication is most likely. Make a collar (out of cardboard, or a small pot with bottom cut out) , put it around the bud union, put soil in it. I have bought many bare roots in late spring or early summer in hot climates and got them through this way.

I usually cut the canes short too. It seems barbaric, but it’s relatively less above ground growth for those dormant roots to support.

Thanks Ben and Desertsilver!

Ben, this is the dissection point, right? Making sure I understood what you said correctly. - So this is the section I need to cover using the method you said?

Yes, that’s the bud union that should be covered loosely with soil or mulch.

Apologies for bombarding you with questions:
Is it necessary for the soil mulch to remain dry? I mean I should still water a little away from the stems, right? Or do I need to make sure that this part also gets some water?

*soil / mulch