Choose your spot
Roses need approximately 6 hours of sunlight a day so choose a spot in the garden where they are going to get adequate light throughout the year. Keep in mind, that some spots in your garden will receive less light in winter than they will in summer.
Make sure your rose won’t be competing with any other plants. This includes the lawn! Roses will not enjoy having to compete with already established plants as this can affect their overall growth. Make sure they’re not planted under large trees (particularly eucalyptus) and the lawn is kept back at least 40cm from the base.
Do not plant your rose where you have recently removed one unless you either allow the soil to rest for 6 months or more OR replace the soil. If a rose has recently died in this spot, find the cause of death before planting a new one as a new rose may find the same demise!
Soil
Roses can grow in most soil types, but for the best results, they prefer medium to heavy loam with a pH of 6.5 – 7. You can check your soil type using a pH Soil Testing kit.
When are you planning to plant?
Today – Go straight to our planting instructions
Tomorrow – Open the bag and give them a quick water. Then re-cover with plastic to protect the roots.
In 2 days or more – Remove entirely from plastic and ‘heel in’. Heeling in is temporarily planting your plants in a mound or large pot of loose, fresh soil. This can be a mound anywhere in the garden as it’s only temporary.
What you will need:
- Shovel
- Garden Soil
- Bucket (filled with water)
- Watering Can
- Stake
- Rubber or Chain Ties
Planting a Bare Rooted Rose
The following instructions are for Standard Roses. All other bare root roses are planted with the same method, they just don’t require a stake.
- Remove bare-root roses from the plastic wrap or bag.
- Soak the roots in a bucket of water for approximately 2hrs to re-hydrate them.
- Prepare a hole approximately 50cm wide and 30cm deep.
- Mound up loose soil in the base of the hole approximately two-thirds up for your rose to rest on.
- Lay your shovel handle across the top of the hole to indicate the soil line. When you place the bare root rose in the hole, make sure the soil line on the rose is level with the shovel handle. (diagram of soil line on rose)
- Now is a good time to put in the stake to avoid root damage. Place the stake approximately 2cm away from the center of the soil mound and hammer in firmly.
- Rest the rose on the mound of soil and gently spread the roots out. Your rose should be touching parallel with the stake and the stake should be at least 1cm above the graft of the rose. Adjust the soil mound and rose if needed.
- Backfill the hole and gently press down. Create a depression around the base of the rose and stake in the shape of a donut for water to pool in.
- Now tie the rose to the stake. Use chain or rubber ties and tie firmly but not too tightly. You do not want to cause any damage to the stem of the rose but you also don’t want your rose to fall or flop around in windy weather.
- Water in well to help the soil settle around the roots. No roots should be exposed.
DO NOT FERTILISE! Bare root roses don’t need fertiliser at the time of planting as they are dormant. They will require feeding in late spring when the sap begins to move and buds begin to form.
Climbing roses will require a trellis to climb up.
6ft Standard Weeping roses will require a strong stake with a rose ring.
