I was like many of you here & jumped on the Chamblee's Co-op, which I'm grateful for. I'm very leery about ordering plants online (been burned a lot), but, after following the good advice from people here who've been there, done that, I decided to try it. I got 2 roses from Chamblees, Musicale & Molineux. They were shipped USPS, they were packed well, but the USPS sucks & squished the box. Musicale was small enough not to get damaged, but Molineux was a bigger plant and had almost all it's canes crushed. Not broken, but crushed. So, I trimmed back behind the crushed part of the canes & put them into the ground. They're about 10' from each other & get the same exact amount of sun (all day). I used MiracleGro Tree & Shrub soil for the bottom part of the soil & then native soil on top so they would have a good start (this is what I use for all my roses and never ever ever had a problem in the past). About 2 days after I put them in the ground, we got a small cold-snap, but I buried them each under a foot (literally) of mulch, pulling the mulch away when it got warm for the day & reburying at night for about a week. Both were very stressed out, which was to be expected. I gave everyone a nice drink of Age-Old Kelp (1/2 cup in 2gal) and do a every-3rd-day watering for about 2-3 minutes first thing in the morning before it gets warm (HA!).

Musicale is covered in leaves. It's about 1/2 the size of Molineux (about 2-3" tall), but has over 25 leaves on it (didn't count every single one). Looks like an itty-bitty bush. Molineux, however, is still just green canes. No signs of "pimples" (leaf buds) anywhere. Now, I haven't had good luck w/David Austins, as I'm on my second Fisherman's Friend (first one from Heirloom croaked almost immediately). So, what can I give this poor Molineux to help it along? I see Angie's (Hemophobic) Molineux in her parade (http://cubits.org/roses/thread...) and drool, but I just can't seem to get mine going.

Help? This weekend, I'll be draining one of my aquariums almost 100% (65gal freshwater, acidic) and I'll be using the aquarium water on a lot of my plants. Do you think that this might help it too? Fish emulsion (fish poo) is SOOOO good for plants...

here's a beebalm just because. :)

I'm having the same issue with Teasing Georgia which suffered none of those insults. We've had no hard frosts since I put I put it in the ground in early April. But it's just sitting there. Not sure whether it's the rose or the site. The other six or seven DA roses I bought at the same time are nicely leafed out.

Toni, were these bareroot roses that you planted? I don't fertilize my bareroots until they are nicely established (and I would think that planting the roots in MiracleGrow soil would be the equivalent of fertilizing them). Also, I do the traditional "mounding" of mulch all the way to the top of the plant during a bareroot roses' first few weeks in the ground. This allows the roots to get established so they can support foliage development, and prevents tender new shoots from burning in the sun, which can happen even if it's cool outside.

Of course, potted roses are another story; I don't mound them. However, I don't fertilize them, either, for a while after planting them, because the soil they are potted in usually already has fertilizer in it, and I don't want to over-do it.

I don't really know how Chamblee's does their roses.. there was a small amount of soil around the roots when I got them. And I'm treating this one like I treat EVERYONE.. and I've planted over 40 roses this spring w/o a single problem. You know what it's like to have a short growing season.. have to get established and FAST. It's already almost June and everyone's just now putting in annuals and veggies.

Toni, here in Prescott we're a few days - maybe as much as a week or two - ahead of you (on average) for late spring weather. Just today I saw some nascent leaves on Secret. Still none on Teasing Georgia. My advice is to keep watering every day or two, pretending that the leaves are there, until either the canes turn brown an inch below the soil line or until the plant is nicely leafed out and we are past the brutally hot days of summer.

That's what I'm doing right now. Today was a MISERABLE day. 86 degs and constant wind of 25-50mph and less than a week ago the high was in the lower 50s. I HATE wind, a drying, fast wind that whips you to pieces and just makes it for a rough rough day. I tried putting up a trellis lattice fence up around my new Canadian Red Chokecherry tree to keep my puppy from digging it up (she's already killed my elm that way), and the wind kept blowing the fence around like a kite. That was not fun. Then I was working on my pond area putting in some roses (I ended up putting in 7 Sterling Silvers in an arc, 2 Stainless Steels in the back between 3 of the Sterling Silvers, an Heirloom in the center, and flanking the Heirloom 4 Singin' the Blues. Talk about a gorgeous blue rose setup! I could NOT be happier!), plus a small 2' Japanese Maple "Lions Head" and 4 blue delphiniums. I'll be putting in some Bluebells for a groundcover, plus some columbines (Red & Gold, purple, blues, blue & white) around the ponds. But those won't go into the ground until probably Monday evening as I have to work tomorrow (Sun). After that, I just had to come in.. my hair was whipped into a massive snarly mess and I was filthy to beat the band. Yuck. One of the roses I had picked up from Home Depot earlier, Wild Blue Yonder, blossomed today.. OMG talk about a GORGEOUS rose! I'll try to take pictures of everything tomorrow morning.

Wild Blue Yonder is one of my favorite roses, it is a stunning bloom isn't it?!

Waiting seems to have worked. Mostly. Secret is now blooming (nothing to write about), Crown Princess Margareta, a late starter has dozens of buds, and Teasing Georgia has six leaves. Still a bit of concern for this rose. It's the only bare root rose planted in April that is just sitting there.

Could root competition prevent a rose from leafing out?

Steve, sometimes on roses that are having trouble leafing out you have to sweat the buds out. Put a large clear plastic bag over the canes, then punch a couple of small holes to let some of the heat out, but hold a lot of the moisture in. This will help as we call it, sweat out the buds, Once the leaves are growing out nicely, you can take the bag off. Not sure what your high temps are, but if your still in the 80's should be fine with just a couple of holes in the top of the bag to let heat escape.

Alan

Great idea. Especially if it is objecting to the 50F temps at night.

(But what if the rose is unwilling to be seen in anything but designer sweats?)

Then you need a designer plastic bag, of course!

Of course!