- Cynthia here with "Modern Gardener."

And by the time I'm done with you today, you are gonna have all the confidence in the world of how to plant a bare root rose.

You're gonna walk the walk, talk the talk, and plant the plant.

So we are gonna talk all about what is a bare root rose and how is this stick gonna produce some beautiful rosebush this summer?

Plus, the pros and cons of why you wanna plant bare root or why you would wanna plant a potted plant.

And I'm gonna give you all the confidence to make sure you know what to do and what you're looking for in a bare root plant.

What is a bare root rose?

Bare root rose is just this, it's a plant that's in dormancy.

You have the roots, you don't have leaves on it per se.

I do have a few little buds coming out.

But it's essentially a dormant plant.

The beauty of a dormant plant is it's much easier to plant, in my opinion, than having a big pot.

I'll show you how.

And it's not something that requires a ton of attention right away.

It's very simple, even though it looks kind of scary.

Ah.

Ah.

Ah.

(laughing) Okay, I wanna make sure you have some context here.

It's middle of February in Zone 7b in northern Utah.

(upbeat music) When you get your bare root rose it may have been journeying, traveling along, who knows where it came from?

Sometimes I've received bare roots two weeks after.

What you wanna do is give this guy a good soak.

I've been soaking this for about now 48 hours.

Honestly, between two hours, bare minimum, to... (laughing) Bare minimum, did you get it?

Two hours to ideally up to 24 hours is the sweet spot.

Even up to 48 hours is a great time.

You don't want to soak the canes.

All you're trying to get is the roots.

You're just giving it that little bit of water that it needs so that it's ready to go in the ground.

It's kind of weird because with trees or with other plants, you're really concerned that you're over-burying, over-burying the root.

Here you are not over-burying the root.

You are getting all the way up here.

Okay?

So this whole stem, which doesn't feel like you should, is going to be planted in the ground.

Some say you want a two-by-two-foot circle for a rose.

Honestly, it's kind of like wherever you can get it in the ground and make sure it's a happy plant, then I'm a happy gardener.

(upbeat music) So when I'm looking at my rose, I'm gonna look at the canes.

Some people, they will only prune the rose after they plant it, like right after.

I'm one of those that I just like to like spin it around.

And I'm gonna prune it right now, right here, right now, with you.

And what you're looking for, again, I'm just gonna choose, because this has so many canes, I'll probably choose three canes that I think look really strong and healthy.

Kind of like planting a tree or pruning a tree, I'm gonna have it more of an open vase area.

And then on top of that, I'm gonna look for any branches that might be dead, looking diseased, or rubbing against other branches.

Now, I'm just gonna plug my video while I'm here.

If you are also into pruning fruit trees or planting fruit trees, guess what I got?

I got a video about planting bare root fruit trees and I got a video all about pruning fruit trees.

Even though I love this one, I'm gonna get rid of it.

(straining) Maybe.

Aw, okay.

One, two, three, four.

I could leave that.

Then I'm gonna just cut the tops, honestly.

Gonna give it a little snip at the top.

Give it another little snip at the top.

Kind of looking to make it all even so you don't have just one wompy branch that comes out here and one little short branch over here.

So one of the big reasons why I prune for an open center is air flow.

It helps the plant grow and develop because it also needs air to make it grow and be happy just like us.

(upbeat music) Okay, so I have my rose pruned and beautiful.

Now I'm gonna look at my root system.

It looks strong and healthy.

You really kind of wanna be careful with rose roots, but if you have anything that's like broken, like this guy right here, wompy, wompy, I'm gonna take it out.

Snip.

All right, now we're gonna dig our hole.

Some people like to throw some amendment in.

I honestly have already put some nice compost on in the fall, so I'm just gonna keep my soil as is.

I highly recommend doing a soil test before you do anything in your garden because sometimes you may be doing an amendment that is not gonna amend anything, it's gonna hurt.

Anytime I'm planting anything bare root is I like to go around the sides so that you're not creating just a cement bowl, you're making the earth soft around for those roots to stretch.

Now if I had a lot of roots, I'd just roll 'em up in here.

I still need to get down more for this bud grafting, so I'm gonna dig a little bit more.

Nice, so honestly, where I'm putting this rose is not gonna be my favorite location.

But when you are planting your bare root rose, you gotta think about what kind of rose you have.

If it's a climber, where is it gonna climb on?

How big the rose can get.

Also, roses love sun.

They actually prefer morning sun, if you only have a part-shaded area, it's better to make sure that they have that morning sun and the afternoon shade, if that's what your garden is.

But you definitely need to have some sun, at least six hours a day.

Let's see, are we there?

(upbeat music) I think we've made it.

And if you're smarter than me, wear gloves.

Okay, now I'm just gonna put it in.

Bury it nice and deep.

I'm not gonna really compact the soil, but I am gonna make sure that this rose is standing straight.

It's so lovely, buried, making sure that I have that bud union deep in the ground.

And my soil is pretty moist, but I'm still going to give it a nice little drink with that extra water, and let it soak in.

So there is a little bit of a nuance to watering.

Roses do like water, but in the summer, especially when they get established, they're not gonna need as much.

I like... This is a reason why I like bare root roses, especially in my climate because we do get a lot of spring moisture from snow and from rain, and you don't wanna over-water it.

If you do, the roots will start rotting.

So what I recommend is, if you stick your finger in, I don't wanna stick it in here now 'cause I know it's gonna be a muddy mess, but if you stick it in and it's feeling wet when it comes out and you have dirt that's wet on your finger, about two inches down, you're good to go.

If it comes out dry, give it a drink.

So a few things that you're gonna wanna watch for, I highly recommend doing drip irrigation.

You don't wanna have overhead sprinklers, especially in Utah, we are so prone to powdery mildew and so are your roses.

So if you get powdery mildew, not the end of the world.

There's many things that you can do, a copper fungicide to prevent it.

But definitely keeping the water down at the base of where the soil is is going to help prevent you from getting other diseases, like black spot, all the wonderful things that roses will and bring to your garden.

So we do have this with some buds right now, if you plant it in March, April, May, that's the best time to plant a bare root rose, depending on when you get it in the ground.

If you get it in March, you're gonna have these blooms coming out of it.

Well, blooms will probably be in June, but you're gonna have a lot of beautiful growth and leafiness.

But it will bloom this year.

So if you plant it in March, you're gonna get blooms probably in June.

If you plant it in April, you probably have it still in June.

If you plant it in May, you're probably gonna have your blooms in August.

All right, you better have all the confidence in planting this rose.

And if you don't, leave us a comment down below, we would be happy to help you, make sure that you gain this, soon-to-be this, in your garden.

'Til next time, make sure you like and subscribe, and we'll see you soon.