Question
Hi There,

I am moving from NC to Lawrence, KS this spring and am bringing my roses with me. They are a sturdy tea hybrid, and are in pots. My husband and I will are buying our first home, so I will finally have a spot to put my roses into the ground. I've noticed that the soil in Lawrence is VERY clay filled and seems to have a really high water table. What can I do to make the pot to ground transplant as smooth as possible for my roses, and to prevent root rot, or damage in the soil? I've only grown roses in pots, which is easy peasy, so I could use as much advise as possible for their move to KS soil. Thanks!

Answer
Hi Monika,
Welcome to Lawrence, Kansas, home of the Jayhawks and Kansas University.  I live about 35 miles east in Kansas City.  You'll love Lawrence.  It is a cool, progressive university town with tons of its own resources as well as being located near a major metropolitan area.

You're right.  Northeast Kansas soil is mostly clay as a result of the glaciers eons ago.  But, you can still grow roses.  There are many rose gardens in Kansas.  You just need to amend the soil.  Dig down about 12 inches and mix the soil with well composted manure and return that mix to the ground.  Keep adding well-composted manure, leaves, straw, etc. to the areas, once you have planted the roses and you will be rewarded with beautiful blooms each year.  A lot of hybrid roses have trouble in Kansas because we tend to have very hot, humid summers.  We can also go six weeks without a decent, steady rain from mid-July to the end of August.  If I were you, I would also access one of our rose experts here on Allexperts for more information on growing roses.  As for the water table, I think that depends on how close you are to a spring or other body of water.  I have not found the water table to be abnormally high in most parts of NE Kansas.  Now, when I lived down in NW Florida, THAT was a high water table.  I hope this helps.