Timing is important when planting your roses. In the low desert the best time to plant bare root rose bushes are between January (after last frost) and early March. As usual, you'll first need to select an area that will get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight, eight is preferable. Roses are more prolific bloomers when exposed to the recommended amount of sunlight.
Secondly, I took a shopping trip to my local home improvement store where along with the bare root rose bushes I purchased 1 - 10lb bag of bare root rose bush planting soil. If you don't already have a shovel, you will need one of those as well.
Here is an example of what you are looking for
Here are the steps I took to plant each of my rose bushes:
- Run sprinkler or irrigation system to thoroughly moisten soil. This will make working the soil easier and help the roses to get established sooner and better.
- Dig a hole twice as deep as the roots of your bare rose bush and at least 1 ft in diameter.
- At the bottom of the hole you have just dug, pile a small mound of a 50-50 mixture of your planting bed dirt and purchases planting soil.
- Arrange the roots of you rose bush to spread out on top of this mound. Adjust mound and plant height so that the graft union will lie just below ground level. Here's a photo for better clarification
- Fill in hole around bare root rose bush with a 50-50 mixture of your planting bed dirt and purchases planting soil. Be sure to tamp down soil so that the roots are firmly pressed into the soil.
