Potting Up More Bare-Roots
My team is at it again - potting up hundreds of bare-root trees and shrubs.
Over the last couple of weeks, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew have been busy caring for all sorts of bare-roots - plants that are so named because they are dug from the ground while dormant and then stored without any soil surrounding their roots. Yesterday, I received a shipment of beautiful bare-root roses, hydrangeas, lilacs, dogwoods, arborvitae and others. I also received more than 100 boxwood shrub transplants - all from Star Roses and Plants, a company of brands, including The Knock Out® Family of Roses, Bloomables®, Drift® Roses, and Bushel and Berry® that focuses on breeding and introducing plants that offer disease resistance and long-lasting blooms. Once the plants arrived, it was all hands on deck.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
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- I’m using my former vegetable garden, down by my chicken coops, as a “nursery” for newly potted specimens. It’s large, flat, and completely fenced in. Here’s Phurba leveling the soil for the weed cloth.
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- A large piece of weed cloth is put down and secured. This will keep the area looking neat, tidy and much more manageable.
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- Star Roses and Plants is well known first by its beautiful roses and then by all its other newly bred and developed plants. I received 426 roses.
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- Here’s Phurba unloading the first of 100 Little Mister Buxus, Buxus microphylla.
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- According to Star Roses and Plants, I now have the largest collection of Little Mister Buxus shrubs.
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- This boxwood variety has a dense and compact habit with year-round bold green foliage and blight-resistance.
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- Here’s one box of bare-root lilacs, Syringa Vulgaris New Age Lavender. This lilac is a compact, deciduous shrub with a rounded growth habit. It grows to about six-feet tall and wide and is very fragrant.
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- Our first bare-roots to pot are these Emerald Squeeze™ Thuja, Thuja occidentalis ‘Lilshreckthu.’
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- Using our trusted Kubota tractor and bucket loader, Chhiring delivers a supply of nutrient-rich soil to the potting site.
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- Then it is mixed with a generous amount of Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed Plant Food.
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- Star Roses and Plants also gifted me with enough pots for planting.
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- The pots are filled a third of the way full in a production line process.
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- Here’s Alex holding up one of the Thuja bare-roots. Bare-root plants should not have any mold or mildew. The cuttings should also feel heavy. If they feel light and dried out then the plant probably will not grow. Healthy bare-root trees get off to a more vigorous start because their abundant roots have already had a chance to develop unrestricted.
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- Arborvitaes have soft, dense evergreen foliage.
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- This variety also has a very strong and fibrous root system.
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- The bare-root is held secure in the pot as soil is dropped around its roots.
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- Once the pot is filled to just under its lip, Phurba tamps down carefully to ensure good contact between the soil and the plant’s roots.
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- As the bare-roots are potted, they’re loaded onto a wheelbarrow and brought to their temporary growing spot in the yard.
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- These bare-roots will stay here for about a year where they can be cared for closely until they are ready to plant in more permanent areas around the farm.
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- These are bare-root cuttings of Cornus sericea ‘Winter Spark,’ commonly known as red twig dogwood or red osier dogwood, an upright spreading shrub that can reach a height of nine feet if left unpruned.
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- Each of these bare-root cuttings is also placed into an appropriately sized pot. The root section should fit into the pot without being crowded at the bottom. Phurba checks and teases the roots before placing into the designated container.
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- These dogwoods will add vibrant color to the landscape when planted. It’s a busy and productive start to the planting season here at my farm! I’ll show you my bare-root roses from Star Roses and Plants in an upcoming blog.
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