Planting Bareroot Climbing Roses (Video)

How to Plant a Bareroot Climbing Rose against a Fence

It's now bareroot planting season (November - March), so it's the best time to plant bareroot roses. In the video below, Andy our head nurseryman will show you how to plant a bareroot climbing rose against a fence.

You will need your bareroot climbing rose, a spade, some rootgrow and a watering can filled with water.
 

TRANSCRIPT

Today, we’re going to plant a bareroot climbing rose. We're in November, the ground is still warm, so it'll establish a little bit before winter. So we’re going to get it planted. Choose your spot, we’re going to plant it up against this fence, it’s nice and sunny. First we'll dig a hole, just loosen to soil in the bottom a little bit as well. Grab some rootgrow, sprinkle it in the bottom of the hole and on some of the soil when you fill it back in. Bareroot climbing rose - grafted onto a rootstock.  It's done by a chip bud. So the chip bud has been taken, the rootstock has been pruned off and now you're left with the rose. So what you don't want to do, is plant right up to here. What you want to do is plant just below where the chip bud was taken. So kind of just underneath where it's been pruned off. So once you've got that, put in the ground.

Give it a bit of a shake, so the soil settles down in between the roots. So we've got your rose planted. You’ve got to face the fence - turn it round a bit and you want it to be about a hands width away from the wall. So it's kind of six to eight inches away from the wall. Angle it in giving it a good shake. Firm it in and what you'll see once you spread the soil out, you've got the soil level just below where that graft union is.
And that's fine.

I wouldn't worry about pruning these top bits off just at the moment, they can be done in the spring. It's what you want to do underneath the soil at the moment. You want the roots to establish before winter and then it'll kind of come on. So after you've planted it, make sure it’s firmed in, last thing to do, just give it a water, give it a good soak. And with the amount of moisture left in the soil this time of the year, it shouldn't need much more than that over the winter.
 

*How Deep Should I Plant My Rose?
 

The short answer is that it really doesn't make a huge difference in most cases: you can plant so that the graft union is above soil level, at soil level, or a couple of inches below soil level.
 

The advantage of burying the graft union is that the rose will be very stable in the ground and won't suffer from "wind rock", which tends to affect taller shrub roses.
Because climbing roses are fixed to wires or other supports, wind rock is not a concern, so there is no benefit to planting them deep.

The advantage of keeping the graft union above ground is that it will always be completely clear which shoot are root suckers that need to be removed.