Hi Cotton,
I'm posting this from quite far away...northwestern Patagonia, end of summer, suffering the driest drought of three consecutive years. All of our wells are almost dried by now, so my bushes are ( actually were) not receiving water at all. Once I realized that enough moisture is not only necessary but actually life or death, my only option was to lift them and place them in containers ( mine 8 gallon for bush sized and 10 gallon for climbers). I started to do so, late January lifting my bushes in the midst of the growing season . To my surprise
none of my climbers had developed any feeder roots ( nor did the bush types: I discovered the same: not a single feeder root). That was the reason of why I saw no new growth on the top. They had started to go dormant very early on. No blooms of course. The first of these ( then 150 more bushes) was later transferred to my greenhouse ( cool no heating) since my major other drawback for growing roses is the lack of enough soil temperature so that a proper root mass is reconstituted. Now 'Ghislaine de Feligonde' is covered in plenty of blooms.
My climber is
only now very much like this photo...
Many more followed later. Much against mainstream lore, the
most and critical part of rose culture is developing a healthy root mass FIRST . A good root mass is the necessary guarantee of a thriving top growth and thence a good blooming season. Where I live can be considered a cool temperate dryland. A desert type of soil, actually quite like yours, similar to my brown sandy top soil. Roses come from a very different kind of environment. ( edges of moist forests with plenty of natural available organic material). So when changing environment, first their root system ( technically the root microbiome) has to readapt to the new condition. This is achieved by isolating the plant from the outside soil environment, instead of planting it in it. Not starting out in the ground that most gardeners do, because they live in the ideal environment or close to it. Not yours or mine. However roses do adapt to all conditions.
But you need to buy time for it. That is where I'm chiming in for. In your condition perhaps your best choice would be simply pot them each inside a large container . My way of doing it would be place a layer of raw wool below (1") thick then some alfalfa meal or straw, another layer of dry leaves, and then my soil mixture. This is constituted in equal parts of brown soil ( sandy ...looks like yours but don't know) black soil, similar to your garden soil and finally well rotted compost ; all of it well mixed inside a wheelbarrow/cart. I fill my pot up to 4" below the brim, place the rose in the middle, trying to disturb the minimum existing feeder roots. Then fill up above the rootstock crown about 2" below the graft union, and top dress the whole thing again with dry leaves, raw wool and in your case at least an inch of wood chips so as to keep the whole plants' roots moist. Of course water it immediately afterwards watching how water oozes out from the bottom holes. Enough. Raw wool is a wonderful moisture retentive material. Since you are heading into your tipical triple digit summer I would keep your young plant in a shaded place, even if it only receives less sun than required for full bloom. Roses if placed in full shaded positions still grow and develop good roots; simply they might produce a few blooms the first year. Our friend here Lyn
@RoseBlush1 , has taught me ( from the other end of our planet) that to grow a good rose you need to tend the first years differently from later on. The key to success is a healthy root system first.
I hope this helps.
Arturo
