I am in East Tennessee- zone 7a. What is the best time for me to plant bare root roses?

Thanks for the help.

I don't have any experience with your zone, Carolyn, but no one else has responded to your question and I don't want you to get discouraged with our forum. I think late February or early March would be the right time for zone 7. I hope someone in a colder zone than mine will come along and confirm or refute my advice.

Carolyn,

I've had the best success planting dormant bare root roses in late fall, or early winter in zone 5b; however, since that time is past for this year, I'd say that Zuzu is right on the mark for springtime planting.

Carolyn - you're too warm of a zone for me to give good advice to, but I plant bareroots here when the ground's manageable. So I won't be burying bodies for another 2 months (I have to find the ground first). If you're worried about a late frost you can always cover with a temporary tent of newspaper & straw. There are a lot of wonderful nurseries there in TN... personally I'd ask them. It also depends on your soil - if it's super rocky I'd wait a little 'cuz of the thaw/freeze could screw up the root systems or make the canes into mush. Clay/sand doesn't have that much of a problem (not as much ground flexing).

Carolyn, I'm zone 6/7. I think late march is your best bet. If you had a crystal ball and knew that it wouldn't be too hot in June, you could wait until late April. Never tried in Jan or Feb. I've planted every other month, and the biggest failures were when I planted in late May and June and then had extremely hot or windy weather right after.
If you have long mild springs, they'll do fine with March, April, into May. Don't know about Feb--depends on your soil. Our soil just now froze. The weather patterns this winter have been so strange, who knows what's going to survive or thrive. (Our spring lasts about 3 days. We go from freezing to hot winds very quickly!)

Thanks everyone! I have three ordered from Palatine roses to be shipped to me in late February. We have had such a mild winter here, the ground has never frozen more than a 1/2 inch down, and that just occurred this week. I thought probably a couple of weeks after the time to prune roses, which is usually late February in this area, should be about right. But I have never seen or heard any advice about the time to plant bare root so thought I would check with people who know more than me. I think I will go ahead and take shipment at that time and put them in pots if our weather is not cooperating.

You prune in February? Wow. We don't until April. We get crazy temperature swings in the spring. Amazing how seasons can vary within the same zone number.

Yes, I typically prune in late February or early March; mind you, this is only the third year I have had roses so am relatively new at this. However, most of the local gardening advice I have read or heard has suggested mid to late February pruning of roses. I did it weekend before last. This year especially many of my roses are already starting to leaf out. I am hoping we do not get an extremely long cold period as I have many perennial plants already coming up. However, our temperature rarely falls more than a few degrees below freezing overnight this time of year and that does not seem to bother the roses (knock on wood!)

Hi Carolyn,

I've lived in zone 6b and I planted bare root roses in late March or early April. I now live in zone 7b and I plant bare root roses in March. I got some from SW greenhouse at the beginning of March this year. My Palatine order arrives mid March. A Pickering order will arrive end of March. I can attest to the fact that May and June are right out. The roses will all die before they get established. Probably all of them. That said, I think even dormant bare root roses resent too many freeze-thaw cycles, so at least where I live here mid February is too early. I planted a shipment of Palatine roses at the beginning of April last year and they all survived until frost, so I bet you could plant until April 15th if you were careful to keep them very well watered as they establish.

Potted roses are a different matter. Many will survive light frosts, but if the temperature drops enough for the leaves to be destroyed - perhaps mid or low twenties - it can destroy the plant. So I usually wait to plant those at least until mid April. I took a shipment last April 21st of nice, leafed out roses from Rogue Valley Roses. A storm blew in on the 23rd when most of the roses were in the ground, taking the temperature into the teens. I lost all that I had planted. Very disappointing.

Good Luck