Gardening - David Austin Roses

Beautiful, right? These roses are technically titled "The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild," and were planted bareroot only six weeks ago. They don't have nearly the peony-sized blooms we'll see in years to come, and the raspberry scent isn't quite as strong as it will be, but they're amazing nonetheless.

As promised, here's the tutorial on planting bareroot roses. In picture A., you'll note the obvious--prepare by having either a beautiful planter picked out, or a sunny place in your garden--roses love full sun, even in our Zone 9. Besides decent soil and some rose food, picture B illustrates everything else you'll need--a watering can filled with water and root stimulator, and the roses themselves. Note that the roses arrive with roots that are longer than the branches, which have been trimmed severely back for shipping. In this picture the roots are dark because they've been soaking in a bucket of water overnight to rehydrate them; this is a crucial step, and you should rehydrate this way for at least several hours. When ready, prepare the planter (or a hole you've dug to approximately twice the width of the root ball) with good garden soil mixed with a good handful or two of rose food as seen in picture C. From that point, place your roses and begin alternating between loosely adding more soil and watering it in with the root stimulator so that the soil moistens and you eliminate any air pockets. Your result should look something like picture D, where you'll note we've added even more rose food before mulching. Roses are heavy feeders, so you'll want to continue to feed them every month or so.

As always, we recommend David Austin Roses for the best English roses, which blend wonderful size, color, and scent, and repeat bloom constantly throughout the summer. Click the logo below to visit the David Austin site.