Bartung, as I'd mentioned in my reply to you on April 11, Walnut, CA can get really hot, which is why I advised lots of water and some shade. I lived the first 32 years of my life in Pasadena, and attended Cal Poly Pomona, so I'm very familiar with the area! It hit 85 in Santa Barbara on Friday (yesterday), so I imagine you were in the 90s there. I wouldn't cut anything off now, but continue to water like crazy and try to set up some shade for it... even a patio chair could help. Your rose has very little in the way of roots now, so it's very susceptible to wilting from the heat and sun.

Thank you SusaninSB for your reminder, I will set up some shade tomorrow.

Update regarding my pine tree hole, the person finally came this afternoon. He is willing to dig 2 ft deep for me this Wednesday. Will 18 inches wide be good enough? Am I able to plant the rose right away after the hole reaches a reasonable size?

The soil that remains in the pine tree hole is very loose, it doesn't seem to hold any water. I have organic compost which I mixed 50 and 50 with native soil for my previous roses. Can I mix the remaining pine tree hole soil the same way? Or is it okay to use 100% compost to plant the rose in this pine tree hole?

I would appreciate it very much if someone could advise me.

Hi KenNEGA, on April 16 you mentioned that you've done it several times with good results. If you happen to read this message, could you share how you did it? Thank you in advance.

Roses shouldn't be planted in 100% compost; you need the structure and composition of soil (mixed with compost) to support the rose. Compost decomposes over time and will settle (or even "sink"), creating a less stable environment than if soil is mixed in with it. I typically mix 1/3 soil, 1/3 composted manure, and 1/3 peat moss as a medium for my garden roses.

Thank you Milk. Actually I didn't mean organic compost, I typed it by mistake. What I have is Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, Raised Bed & In-Ground Soil with Compost.

The soil inside the pine tree hole is very flaky, I think it is pine tree chips mixed with little native soil. I am not sure if it is still usable. Could you advise? Thank you.

Actually I think you'd be best off adding a lot of plain native soil to the hole,not just a potting soil product.

1: only plant in the native soil
2: correct depth (though with roses you can go both ways: graft up or below soil surface...)
3: water when necessary
4: mulch
5: TIME and patience

Some native soils are not very conducive for planting and growing roses to optimal conditions. That's because roses are thirsty plants whose roots prefer porous, nutrient-rich, moist but well-draining soil. An ideal, mature soil would be made up of approximately 45% minerals (a combination of sand, clay, and silt), about 5% organic matter (plant and animal), and roughly equal parts of air and water (about 25% each). It would be crumbly, relatively dark in color, smell earthy and rich, contain microorganisms and earthworms, have plenty of nutrients, and a pH between 6.5 and 7.5.



But many native soils are far from this ideal, because they may be predominantly clay-based on one extreme, or too sandy on the other. Heavy, thick clay soils are often greasy when wet, or hard as rock when completely dry. They lack aeration, and are slow to drain. On the other hand, sandy soils are so porous and well aerated that they are very fast to drain, and often dry out too quickly for many moisture-loving roses (with the possible exception of rugosas, which are also known informally as beach roses). There are also gravelly soils filled with scree, such as those in dry mountainous areas, which present their own challenges to growing roses (which @RoseBlush1 can attest to).

This is why it's perfectly acceptable, and often necessary, to augment native soil with amendments such as compost, peat moss, leaf mold, etc. Note that the above "formula" for an ideal mature soil is only 5% organic material, but I add considerably more to that when mixing my own soils for a new planting, because compost will continue to decompose over time.

One of the best courses I ever took at the New York Botanical Garden many years ago was on the topic of soil science, how to identify the type of soil you have, and how to amend it to bring it closer to a loamy ideal. Short of taking such a course or having soil professionally tested, there are plenty of resources online that will quickly help a gardener understand what type of soil they have, such as these

https://ucanr.edu/sites/MarinM...
https://www.thespruce.com/maki...

The first link is a bit more academic, while the second link is a bit more casual in its explanation. There are many other resources that can be found on numerous horticultural websites.

@Mike ...

Your post was extremely well written and informative.

One of the things each gardener has to remember is that our gardens are often artificial environments. A lot of the hard work ... labor ... we do in our gardens is to mitigate what nature has not provided or to meet the challenges of nature in our climate.

Understanding our soil, the drainage of our soil, the insects and animals that find roses to be their favorite meal and controlling the variables that impact the health of our roses, allows us to grow plants that give us joy.

@Arico ....

If I were to grow roses only in native soil, I would not have a garden. It's that simple. When I bought this house over 20 yrs ago, everything was covered with snow and I didn't have a clue as to what I was getting into, but I did have a passion for growing roses.

Sure, I have made mistakes as I learned how to succeed in growing healthy roses with soil that will never be rich and loamy and in a challenging climate, but roses are adaptable as I am. It has been an on-going learning process, but I have over 100 healthy roses of various classes, growing on five levels.

I could not afford to import soil from the valley, nor could I afford expensive amendments, so I am growing roses in both a soil environment that will never have the loamy texture they prefer and in a climate of extreme heat during the summer months, but I haven't killed any of the roses I have planted and have been thrilled each season by their glorious performance.

I have also had the reward of meeting some wonderful people and passing along what I have learned which has been an additional blessing.

Smiles,
Lyn

An interesting topic to consider is the many different "native" soils found in close proximity to one another. I live in a small town that is just 5-1/2 square miles. Part of the town in on the banks of the Hudson River, which consists of the same clay that was used in the 19th Century to make millions of bricks to build New York City's buildings. I live one mile up a steep slope from that shoreline, and part of my property consists of typical dark but rocky soil that can be dug 18 inches deep for roses. But another part of the property only has a few inches of decent topsoil above god-awful hardpan that is nearly impossible to dig out without using a pickaxe. Still other parts of the property's soil was deeply amended by beautiful, clean, rich loam that was imported from a farm about 5 miles from here (before we bought the place). In other words, there are extremely different types of native soil not only within a five-mile radius of where I live, but across the 2/3rds of an acre where I garden.

We have a similar example of contrasting soil types on our farm. The high areas are a light, sandy soil, and as you go downhill the soil is a heavy black clay - locally referred to as black gumbo. As you dig down through the sandy soil, you meet a layer of gritty red clay. Fortunately amending with any organic materials seems to improve all of the soils.

With 'native soil' I merely wanted to state 'to plant in the mineral soil' and to not amend it with organic matter since that will decompose over time and make the mineral soil sink, effectively creating a bowl...

Thank you all very much for your input. Milke is very informative regarding soil, I have much to learn.

The person came and dug the pine tree hole this afternoon, can you believe he and his brother did it manually? It took them one and half hours. They dug through the root all the way to the soil.

After increasing more water and setting up shade, the cherry parfait now is doing okay, all the other 3 roses I planted at the same time stay the same, there is hardly any new growth, I was thinking it could be because my soil is not suitable for the roses.

Previously I posted a photo showing one of the roses has 3 little buds, and one of the buds now is blooming, it is Heirloom hybrid tea from Aldi, so pretty! I can't help but share the images.

The pine tree hole is now ready, so I need to plant the remaining 4 roses in the front yard this weekend. I hope it is not too late as the weather is getting hotter. One of the roses goes to the pine tree hole and the other 3 will be planted in the holes where the old roses used to be.

I hope I can do better this time.

Bartung, Heirloom is one of my favorite roses, and yours looks great!

Those are some beautiful roses!

Thank you SusaninSB and Cotton for your compliments.

Hi Cotton, I often check your updates, we are both beginners and wish to grow our own roses. I do hope that your roses and mine all turn out well.

At last, I finished planting the remaining four roses which had already developed masses of fine roots. The pine tree hole was very deep and wide at the top, there was not much solid soil from there. It took me ages to fill the hole up, I had to borrow soil from here and there, but still did not quite fill to the top.

So far, they are doing well, and continue to grow. Fortunately, the weather cooled down last week in California, we also had heavy rain last Wednesday and Thursday. The newly planted roses definitely benefited from it. According to the weather forecast, the temperature in the following few days will still be cool, I hope it gives the roses more time to settle and grow better.

The previously planted four roses are very slow going. Cherry parfait, the first to have new shoots, then dried out, apart from its red leaves at the top turning green, there is no sign of new growth. The other three finally got some new shoots but still need to observe how they develop.

Planting roses is a challenge to me, and I am grateful that whenever I need help you guys always reach out to me. It is comforting to know that on this journey I am not alone.

You'll want to add an inch or two of mulch to that bed to prevent the soil from drying out as quickly as it otherwise would; to help regulate the ground temperature (keeping it within a narrower range); and to suppress weeds.

Thank you Mike, will do that.