Question
I planted a Mr. Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth rose a little over a month ago in Raleigh zone 7.  I also planted several potted roses.  The potted roses are growing slowly but the two bareroot ones seem to be doing very little.  They have gotten a couple of shoots but they seem to stay small and dry up and fall off.  The leaves are few and tiny and some of them also curl and dry.  There is no apparent disease.  I have sprayed them once for fungus as a preventative and put a systemic fertilizer/bug killer mix at the base of the soil and thus have seen no aphids or caterpillars eating on them.  I shoved a shovel down around them (as I have a lot of clay) to make sure they weren't sitting in water and they aren't.  When I planted them, I mixed in some garden soil with the clay and applied a rose fertilizer.  Is there anything else I can do?  Is something wrong with these roses? Thank you!!!  

Answer
Hi Susan-

I hate to tell you this, but I myself have not had great results with bareroot roses.  Let me tell you why.  There are a lot of problems with them.  For one thing - when they are harvested from the field- a large machine butchers their root systems and cuts off most of the roots so they will fit into a nice little package.  Second, bareroot only works if the roses are completely dormant during the shipping/retail process.  If you come across a package that shows new leaves or growth - the roses is no longer dormant, and it is possible irreversable damage has already begun on the root system.  This happens a lot in warm regions because the roses only stay dormant in the cold.  You could try root stimulator to see if this will help to regrow the roots.  If the roses eventually die - don't take it so hard.  Every rose that I've bought that was bareroot didn't live more than 1-2 years.  This is because I live in a very warm region (USDA zone 9a) and the roses for sale here are rarely dormant. The best roses to buy of course are the ones that are in pots, either mail order (like from Chamblees roses or Antique Rose Emporium on the web) or from your local garden center.

Good luck-

Carlene