Good evening,

Yesterday I planted a bare root hybrid tea rose (cherry parfait) in the ground (I purchased it 2 weeks ago from Home Depot). The existing leaves on the rose stems looked healthy when I planted it, but this morning I noticed that the leaves on the tops, especially the new growth (reddish ones) all wilted. I searched online, it says it could be lack of water or too much water or poor drained soil or transplant stress. Too many possibilities. What can I do to save it from dying? Please advise, thank you.

It's probably just the shock of being transplanted. You might want to cut off the parts that are wilting. The rose needs to work on it's roots right now, and can't support the new growth -one thing at a time,lol!

It looks fine to me; just make sure that you give the roots a good soaking. I wouldn't trim any leaves off; they'll bounce back.

@Bartung .....

When roses are harvested from the fields, they are jerked out by a machine and thrown onto a flatbed truck to be taken to the processing shed. A LOT of the root mass is left behind.

So, when you plant a rose, it has an inefficient root system and cannot send enough moisture to the top growth to sustain it. The first thing the rose will do is start growing new roots. You need to water your rose daily because the new rose doesn't even have enough roots to take up enough moisture for the new roots it is growing.

Roses are great survivors and it won't take them long to grow those roots. Hold off feeding your new roses until you see some new growth in the top growth. That tells you that the rose is ready to grow ...

When you water, do a deep watering to encourage the rose to put down deep roots.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thank you very much for your advice, will water more to help the roots grow.

It's interesting that bart2018 mentioned "The rose needs to work on it's roots right now, and can't support the new growth" Actually, I planted 4 roses that day, two of them have no new growth on top, and none of any green leaves at the top are wilting.

I still have 4 more bare root roses (hybrid tea) to plant, and they have been sitting in my back yard for 4 weeks, they are from Aldi and Home Depot (former are in the bags, latter are in plastic containers, both are filled with soil). I water and expose them under the sun every day, the soil inside are always moist. Now they have grown more leaves and taller, almost like small trees, one of them even has 3 rose buds.

Could you advise me when I plant them, I should remove all the soil around the roots, or I can plant them with the soil. Thank you.

@Bartung ....

You might want to read this thread.

The thread "Finally got 'em planted!" in Roses forum

@Cotton is gardening in a much hotter and arid climate than yours, but he, too, is planting "body bag" roses. The info posted there can help you understand about the need to grow roots.

My rule of thumb when I am planting canned roses is not to disturb the roots at all. Any time you plant a rose or transplant a rose, you are going to break off some of the feeder roots. It can't be helped.

Just do the best you can. Roses are tough.

Smiles,
Lyn

I suspect that when you cut the plastic bags open, it will release some tension in the roots. This may cause them to open up a bit, and cause some (if not all) of the loose soil to fall away. Even if all of the soil doesn't fall away at that stage, my guess is that as you settle the roses into their planting holes, more soil may fall away then, too. This is because bagged roses don't have hundreds of tiny feeder roots binding the soil together into a stable mass, the way many perennials do when you remove them from their pots.

When you place the roses into their new planting holes, make sure the roots are thoroughly surrounded by the new soil through and through. Water deeply to let the soil you add into the hole settle into place.

This process may result in some shock, and may cause the new existing growth to wilt a bit, especially the tips of new stems. It might also prevent the existing buds from blooming if they haven't opened before you plant the roses. But don't worry too much about that. Any wilted portions of stems will either perk back up after a few days, or you can trim them off if they don't.

Those roses are the "bare roots" that some folks sell... I recognize the plastic pot from HD in pic #2 from your OP. Since you're in Walnut, CA, it's extremely late for bare roots here, but you're doing well so far. January is our normal bare root season in So. Calif. The advice above is perfect, but I'd really emphasize watering them like crazy now, and maybe putting up some sort of shade situation for them for awhile until they get their roots established. We're having really mild temps now, but if they're in full sun in Walnut, you need to be careful with them. Water and shade.

...or else, you could just plant them in pots for their first season,and then put them out in the garden in autumn. In my hot climate (Tuscany, Italy),I've found out the hard way that planting has to be done in fall.

Thank you all for the valuble information and advice. I came to the right place and learned a lot from you.

Just like Lyn said, will just do the best I can. Wish me luck!

Good luck!

I am not sure if I should start a new topic or continue with this one.

Previously I mentioned that I would plant another 4 bare root roses, but now I have trouble with one hole. Originally, I had 5 roses in my rose bushes bed, and a pine tree at the corner shared the bed. Last year I had the pine tree removed. In order to bring the machine to get rid of the roots, the worker dug up 3 of my roses, and placed them back afterwards, unfortunately the roses never survived.

Now I plan to plant 3 roses back to the same spots and one in the pine tree hole. However, when I dug the hole down to about 10 inches and found the lower part of the pine tree root was still sitting there., so I was not able to go any further. Is there still a chance I can plant the rose there or is it impossible? Please advise, thank you.

I don't think I would bother with a hole that shallow.

I don't know Mike. I've done this several times with good results. The tree is gone. The root is dead. It won't bother the rose at all. I just dig around the pine tree root and spread the roots of the rose around the pine tree root. A little bit of extra work but with the way this section of the garden is laid out, it will be worth the extra work.

I may have misread the post. I thought Bartung meant that he would be planting the rose directly on top of the wide, circular pine tree stump, since that is what is usually ground up by stump grinders to a shallow depth below the soil line. But if it's just a portion of a root that has been encountered, I would use a reciprocating saw to remove a large enough portion of the root to make room for the rose roots.

Thank you for your replies. I have just contacted the person who did the pine tree removal for me last year, and he will be coming to take a look in a few days. If he is willing to remove more of the root for me, how deep would be ideal? I would appreciate your advice.

As far as I know, 2 feet deep is what is usually recommended.

I usually dig 15 - 18 inches (38 - 46 cm), depending on whether I hit hardpan or tree roots.

I dig my holes about 2' deep, but wider at the top of the hole so that the feeder roots can spread out.

Of course, I am gardening in rock, so I always have to do a perk test, too.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thank you for the advice for the depth of the pine tree hole. The person promised to come is not available until tomorrow, hope he comes.

The cherry parfait rose I planted two weeks ago recovered quite well after I increased the water. Two days ago I noticed new leaf shoots at the top and looked quite healthy. Today when I checked I found they are either fading away or dried out. I water 4,500ml a day for each rose, but since yesterday the weather in California suddenly turned very hot, I still watered the same amount, obviously it is not enough as the temperature changed tremendously.

You can see the first photo which I took 2 days ago, healthy looking new shoots. Second and third, which I took today, they are either fading away or dried out.

Is it correct that I should just trim off the leaves at the top? Please advise, thank you.