Planting Roses

October 7, 2025

It's always fun to plant a new garden - especially when it includes lots of beautiful, fragrant flowers.

Remember all those bare-root roses I received from Star Roses and Plants last spring? After potting them up and caring for them all summer long, they're ready to finally transplant. I decided to plant them in a bed behind my main greenhouse not far from my raspberry bushes. This space was previously used for growing strawberries, and before that, garlic, but I moved both those crops to my large vegetable garden and thought this area would be excellent for growing these roses - all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance.

Enjoy these photos.

: Star Roses and Plants is a company of brands that focuses on breeding and introducing specimens offering longer-lasting, disease resistant blooms. All these bare-root roses arrived in a huge box last April. Healthy bare-roots get off to a more vigorous start because their abundant, fibrous roots have already had a chance to develop unrestricted.

: Bare-roots often come in bundles. They come in groups of 10, 15, 25, or more. This bundle contains 25.

: As soon as they arrive they are placed in trug buckets filled with water. When working with bare-roots it’s important to soak them for several hours or even overnight. Never let the roots dry out. These are in excellent condition – healthy, plump roots with no sign of mold or damage, and healthy canes with plump, reddish buds.

: They were all organized in neat rows lined up by variety. Bare-root cuttings are difficult to identify when there are no leaves or flowers, so it is important to keep them separated by cultivar and always properly marked. They stayed here for five months until they developed well in their pots.

: And this is what they looked like this weekend after I moved 64 of them and placed them carefully in the garden bed.

: Varieties are grouped in two or four. Among them – Rasberry Cupcake, Beverly, Dee-lish, Romantica Ball Gown, Romantica Moonlight, Francis Meilland, Parfuma Earth Angel, Princesse Charlene de Monaco, Eleganza Wedding Bells, Liv Tyler, Sunbelt Savannah, Michelangelo, Parfuma Bliss, and Sweet Mademoiselle.

: Hard to believe they grew so quickly from bare-root cuttings, but they look great.

: This is Michelangelo. It has vibrant golden petals, deep green foliage, and a sweet lemony fragrance.

: This rose is Romantica Ball Gown. It opens with more than 100 petals per blooms and has an intense rose scent.

: And this one is Romantica Moonlight with large, light yellow flowers and disease resistant foliage.

: And the digging begins – 64 holes, 32 on each side.

: When planting, make sure the hole is slightly wider but equal in depth to the rose’s root ball. These holes are about 15 to 18 inches deep by 18 to 24 inches wide.

: A handful of Miracle-Gro Organic All Purpose Plant Food is added to each hole.

: This plant food is specially formulated to help grow stronger, vibrant, and more productive plants.

: Pasang carefully removes a rose from its pot. Do this slowly, especially if the root ball is moist and crumbling.

: Pasang teases the roots to stimulate growth.

: And then places the rose into the designated hole and checks to see that it is at the same level as it was in the pot. The soil should be just under the graft.

: Pasang also looks to see that the plant is straight and that its best side faces out. Lastly, he gently tamps the soil down around the plant to establish good contact.

: Any surrounding soil is leveled and tidied with a hard rake.

: The crew works fast – this day is unseasonably warm.

: Ryan follows behind each planted rose and grooms it, pruning any dead blooms.

: Newly planted and just given a generous watering – I think these roses will look so beautiful here. I am excited to see them grow and bloom in this space.