My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are rushing to get hundreds of bare-root cuttings into pots before the holiday weekend.
Earlier this week, I received a huge delivery of bare-roots and young transplants from Star Roses and Plants, a company of brands that focuses on breeding and introducing specimens offering longer-lasting, disease resistant blooms. On the day they arrived, my team potted up more than 100 arborvitae and dogwood trees. On day-two - hundreds of bare-root hydrangeas, lilacs, and roses. It's a big undertaking, but the task is getting done and all the plants are in excellent condition.
Enjoy these photos.
I’m so proud of all the many bare-root plants I am able to nurture here in pots before they are planted in more permanent positions. These bare-roots are Sweet Starlight Hydrangeas, Hydrangea paniculata. Its bright white blooms age from light to dark pink.
These are New Age Lavender Lilacs, Syringa vulgaris. They are ultra-compact, mildew-resistant with a sweet and delightful fragrance.
And these are some of the potted roses, 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.
The main part of this delivery was the roses. All the specimens are delivered in sturdy, well-packaged boxes. Healthy bare-roots get off to a more vigorous start because their abundant, fibrous roots have already had a chance to develop unrestricted.
The bare-root roses are placed in trug buckets filled with water right away. When working with bare-roots it’s important to soak them for several hours or even overnight. Never let the roots dry out. One can already see the buds. These are in excellent condition – healthy, plump roots with no sign of mold or damage, and healthy canes with plump, reddish buds. Avoid very thin or dried-out plants and root systems.
Bare-roots often come in bundles. Depending on the nursery, they may come in groups of 10, 15, 25, or more. Phurba removes the twine from this bundle of 25.
Roses have two kinds of fibrous roots – thick roots to help stabilize the plant and keep it upright and thin feeder roots that absorb all the nutrients from the soil.
And do you know… roses are often armed with sharp prickles – they aren’t thorns at all. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
For potting, we use a nutrient-filled composted manure and top soil mix I make right here at the farm. A generous sprinkling of Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed Plant Food is added and mixed in thoroughly.
Each bare-root rose is matched to an appropriately sized pot. The root section should fit into the pot without bing crowded at the bottom.
Phurba inspects the roots of each plant before it is potted up. This pot is already filled with a thin layer of soil.
Phurba positions the root so that the bud union is below the soil when filled.
Holding the plant with one hand, Phurba backfills just to under the pot’s lip.
Lastly, he gently tamps the soil down around the plant, so there is good contact with the roots.
Nearby, Alex pots up another rose. The crew has devised an efficient production line process for potting massive amounts of bare-roots.
The rose cultivars include: Rosa ‘KORnagelio’ Arborose Kiss Me Kate, Rosa ‘KORtangenu’ Arborose Tangerine Skies, Rosa ‘Meidelweis’ Bolero, Rosa ‘Meibacus’ Liv Taylor, Rosa ‘Meitelov’ Michelangelo, Rosa ‘Meikaquinz’ Moonlight Romantica, Rosa ‘KORmarzau’ Parfuma Bliss, Rosa ‘KORgeowim’ Parfuma Earth Angel, Rosa ‘Meipapey’ Romantica Ball Gown, Rosa ‘KORcarmis’ Raspberry Cupcake Rose, Rosa ‘KORvioros’ Sunbelt Savannah, Rosa ‘Meiroguste’ Top Cream, Rosa ‘Meinostair’ Sweet Mademoiselle, Rosa, ‘Meiclusif’ Dee-Lish Rose, Rosa ‘KORpauvio’ Eleganza Beverly, Rosa ‘KORsteflali’ Eleganza Wedding Bells, Rosa ‘Meitroni’ Francis Meilland Rose, and Rosa ‘Meidysouk’ Princesse Charlene de Monaco.
As each variety is done, the roses are loaded onto a wheelbarrow and brought to their designated spot in the “nursery.”
Matthew arranges them carefully with ample walking space in between varieties.
Here’s my team of bare-root planters – Alex, Phurba, and Pasang. They’re doing an excellent, fast, and efficient job. They’ve gotten a lot done, but there’s still more to go…
While here, these specimens will be watered and fed until they are more developed. I am already thinking about where these plants and trees will go. Follow along and see where…
My "nursery" is filling fast. I can't wait to see all these specimens flourish here at the farm.
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.
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.
A large piece of weed cloth is put down and secured. This will keep the area looking neat, tidy and much more manageable.
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.
Here’s Phurba unloading the first of 100 Little Mister Buxus, Buxus microphylla.
According to Star Roses and Plants, I now have the largest collection of Little Mister Buxus shrubs.
This boxwood variety has a dense and compact habit with year-round bold green foliage and blight-resistance.
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.
Our first bare-roots to pot are these Emerald Squeeze™ Thuja, Thuja occidentalis ‘Lilshreckthu.’
Using our trusted Kubota tractor and bucket loader, Chhiring delivers a supply of nutrient-rich soil to the potting site.
Star Roses and Plants also gifted me with enough pots for planting.
The pots are filled a third of the way full in a production line process.
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.
Arborvitaes have soft, dense evergreen foliage.
This variety also has a very strong and fibrous root system.
The bare-root is held secure in the pot as soil is dropped around its roots.
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.
As the bare-roots are potted, they’re loaded onto a wheelbarrow and brought to their temporary growing spot in the yard.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Maintaining a productive orchard is a lot of work.
The large orchard surrounding my pool includes more than 200-fruit trees. There are apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, apricot, pear, medlar, and quince trees. Since it was first planted in 2017, these trees have provided so many wonderful fruits. They are all pruned and fed regularly through the year. Unfortunately, even with excellent maintenance and care, sometimes trees need to be replaced due to disease or damage. I also like to add trees whenever I can. This week, an order of bare-root fruit trees arrived from Trees of Antiquity in Paso Robles, California. Right away they were placed in water, left to soak, and then planted in the ground.
Enjoy these photos.
This is my orchard in summer when all the trees are leafed out and filled with sweet, juicy fruits.
I grow lots of peaches. Peach trees thrive in an area where they can soak up the sunshine throughout the day. Growing peach trees are self-fruiting, which means the pollen from the same flower or variety can pollinate the tree and produce fruit.
Some of the many pears in the orchard are Bartlett, Columbia, D’Amalis, Ginnybrook, McLaughlin, Nova, Patten, Seckel, Stacyville, and Washington State.
And of course, I have a section of delicious apples. I already grow hundreds of apple trees here at the farm – some that were here when I acquired the property and others I planted soon after moving here. These orchard apple trees include Baldwin, Black Oxford, Cortland, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Fuji, Golden Russet, Grimes Golden, Honeycrisp, Liberty, Redfield, Roxbury Russet, and Windham Russet.
This is the orchard now. Early spring is the best time to plant bare-root trees in the ground, when it is no longer frozen and before buds break. It also gives them time to get established before the peak of spring growth.
I just received my order of bare-root fruit trees to fill in spaces where trees were removed. When selecting fruit trees, be sure to get tree species and varieties that will thrive in your climate and soil conditions.
After the trees arrived, they were placed in buckets of water right away to soak. Soaking the roots for at least four to 12 hours ensures they are fully hydrated and ready to absorb water and nutrients once planted.
They were also given a solution specifically for transplants. This is Miracle-Gro Quick Start. It provides the nutrients they need to thrive and develop strong roots.
In the orchard, holes are already dug. It should be twice the width of the tree’s roots.
Matt sprinkles a generous handful over the composted soil.
And then mixes all the elements together. This helps ensure the tree roots will develop using all the soil in the space and not just the layer of newly added compost.
Matt also creates a mound out of the soil a few inches high in the bottom of the hole. This will give some support to the root system.
Fruiting ‘scion’ wood is often grafted onto resilient rootstocks. The graft point looks like a ‘knuckle’ at the bottom of the trunk. When planting, this point must be at least a few inches above soil level.
Here’s a closer look at the grafting point. It is pretty easy to find no matter how old or big the tree is.
Ryan shows Matt how to position the bare-root in its hole. He also advises him to step back from the tree at several points to make sure it is planted straight.
These bare-root fruit trees have strong main stems with fresh growth.
Ryan carefully places the fruit tree into the hole, centered on the mound. He spreads its roots so they grow outward.
He holds the tree upright in position with one hand and slowly backfills the hole with the other, so the soil falls back around the roots.
Here, one can see that the graft is above the soil line. This union area is delicate. Positioning the graft union above the soil preserves the rootstock and allows for better growth and productivity.
Here, Matt compacts the soil around the plant to ensure good contact around the roots.
I always try to grow interesting and unique varieties. This selection includes: English Morello Cherry, Purple Guigne Cherry, Lake Duke Cherry, Black Pearl Cherry, Sweetheart Cherry, Indian Blood Peach, Rio Oso Gem Peach, Polly White Peach, Nectar Peach, Suncrest Peach, Blenheim Apricot, Mountain Roast Apple, Christmas Pink Apple, Winekist Apple, Muscat de Venus Apple, Grenadine Apple, Pink Parfait Apple, Strawberry Parfait Apple, Niedwetzkyana Apple, Rubiyat Apple, and Surprise Apple. I’m looking forward to seeing the fruits develop and tasting each and every one.
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