Go back in this thread and take a look at my photo, you will see the box is a bit crushed, but the 8 roses inside are in great shape. They tape the pots in. It took me forever to get them all undone. They spent some time putting wet newspaper on the top of each pot, staking each rose, then placing the pot in a bag and tying that bag closed. Rather than cut the roses that were too tall for the box, they curled them around.
I know conventional wisdom is to pot these in bigger pots, and that is indeed what the instructions said to do, but these roses are big enough that I am tempted to plant them directly in the ground. When Chamblees sends potted 1 gallon roses, (barely rooted, sometimes!) they say to put them in the ground. I've tried growing theirs in pots and in the ground, and both ways seem the same. Slow.
With temps here at 100 all week, the soil in my pots is hot! Soil in the ground isn't.
Drainage is better in the ground. I'll plant them all next week, one way or another, but I'm leaning towards going right into permanent homes unless someone really has a good argument the other way.
Roots on these look good already.
