There’s no better way to plant roses than as bare-root plants – they’re cheap, easy and extremely forgiving, says Alan Titchmarsh
It was autumn, and I was 14 years old when I planted my first bare-root rose bush on cold Yorkshire clay. How could a few sticks, with a handful of stringy roots, possibly grow into something beautiful – especially after I’d done as the local nurseryman had instructed, and chopped back those sticks to just 8cm after planting? But grow they did, and from that day on I’ve been a firm advocate of planting bare-root roses, thanks to their reasonable price and their ability to thrive. I cannot recall a single failure, which proves the wisdom of an old friend of mine who firmly believed that ‘roses grow in spite of their owners’. Of all our garden shrubs, roses are, undoubtedly, the most forgiving.
Tough as old boots
It is during their dormant winter season that roses can be dug up with little or no soil clinging to their roots, and moved to a new spot with almost no check to their growth. The thick and fleshy roots – tough as old boots and just as leathery – clearly contain enough moisture and nourishment to see the plant through its early stages of re-establishment. That said, there’s no point in leaving those great snaking roots intact – they’d have to be wound round and round a hole just to fit them in. Instead, with your secateurs, snip off all but 20cm on each of them – creating a tighter root network that will contain sufficient sustenance for their early needs. By the following summer they’ll have pushed out newer roots to feed and anchor the plant.
While November to March is bare-root time, container-grown roses can be planted at any time of year. They’re infinitely more expensive, though, and it’s easy to see why. The grower has had to pot them up, nurture and nourish them through a season’s growth before they’re ready for sale. Bare-root plants will have been grown in nursery rows in open ground – much easier to manage – before they’re dug up, cut back to around 30cm, thrust into a paper sack with a small polythene bag around their roots and posted off to their new home. Labour is reduced and, consequently, so is the cost to the consumer.
Secrets of success
There are a few rules of thumb that will ensure success. For a start, open the package as soon as it arrives, remove the polythe
