There are pitfalls when buying climbing rose seedlings, and no matter how much money you spend, you can easily make these mistakes
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This is day 869 of Blue Demon's daily original articles
Rose cultivation series articles: No. 68
Yesterday Blue Demon went on a trip around Nanxun with friends. While chatting over lunch about gardening, they happened to mention that a friend had just bought a very large rose. At that moment, Blue Demon's mind immediately pictured it - wow, it must be a big spender handing out gifts, haha...
The friends along for the trip are all flower lovers too, so naturally they knew that Blue Demon also loves roses dearly. Since a friend had bought an extra-large rose seedling, of course we had to go take a look.
As it happened, that evening when Blue Demon was looking at the question forms submitted by flower friends in the reader group, it turned out that flower friends in our reader group had mentioned a similar problem.
Actually, regarding large rose seedlings, Blue Demon has already said in previous articles that buying them is not recommended, but many people still cannot resist buying them, thinking that big is good, that they grow fast, and that there is no need to raise a small seedling bit by bit.
But just look at the questions from Blue Demon's readers and you will know that for such large seedlings, once they reach us flower friends, the final outcome is often stunted growth or withering and death.
If you absolutely must buy this kind of extra-large climbing rose, then Blue Demon has 2 pieces of advice for you that can help you avoid taking unnecessary detours and wasting unnecessary money.
Advice on buying extra-large rose seedlings:
1. Purchase timing
For extra-large seedlings like the one in the picture above, if you want to buy them, you must choose to buy in late autumn, winter or early spring.
At these 3 time points, roses are about to go dormant, are dormant, or have just entered the blind bud stage. At this time, transplanting and acclimating the pot causes less damage to the rose and makes recovery relatively easier.
Last winter, Blue Demon transplanted a super-large climbing rose, almost as a bare-root transplant. The spread of its branches was about 3 sq m. It was not heavily pruned at transplanting time. Although it also bloomed all over this spring, it had hardly any leaves.
When transplanting extra-large seedlings, heavy pruning should be done, otherwise later growth will definitely be affected to some extent.
Think about it: if transplanting during the winter dormant period without heavy pruning can still affect rose growth, then if we buy and transplant during the flowering period, is it not very difficult to avoid stunted growth and death?
In order to prevent the seedling from withering, we can only choose to prune heavily. In that case, what is the point of buying such an extra-large seedling?
2. Look at the growing medium
The large seedlings commonly seen on the market are all cultivated in garden soil. When these seedlings are at the nursery, they are mostly managed extensively outdoors, and part of their root system will grow into the ground, forming a semi-ground-planted state.
Just imagine, when lifting such seedlings, have the roots already been damaged?
If you want to buy such ready-made climbing plants, everyone is advised to spend more money and buy from brand chain stores. Buy truly pot-grown climbing plants.
For those genuinely cultivated in flower pots, the soil used is rose-specific soil. Such ready-made seedlings can be bought, and after buying them there is no need for repotting or pruning. If you want to change the pot, you can first use the double-pot method, or repot with the soil ball intact after flowering.
What should you do if you have bought a super-large seedling?
If you have already bought an extra-large rose seedling like Blue Demon's readers did, then in order to ensure the seedling's survival, Blue Demon also has a few suggestions for you:
1. Prune boldly and drastically.
Cut off all dead branches, yellowing branches, and old branches without leaves. Cut the entire seedling back to about 1/3 of its height, and note that you should try to retain as many leaves as possible.
2. Change the soil lightly.
For seedlings in grow bags or nursery pots like these, repotting and changing the soil after purchase is definitely necessary. Planting in garden soil will bring more difficulties for our later management.
But note that when changing the soil, you can only replace 1/3-1/2 of the soil on the outer part of the original soil ball, exposing the outer roots, which can promote rapid rooting.
If you replace all the soil, or even wash the roots, then you will need to prune especially harshly, even cutting it completely bare, and in that case the later care requirements will be somewhat higher.
3. Train the branches horizontally.
Keeping your rose branches drooping can make the rose sprout strong new branches faster, and then there is hope for the rose to regain vigor.
Blue Demon has said so much, and hopes you can truly appreciate Blue Demon's good intentions from it. Blue Demon is not attacking anyone, but simply discussing the matter as it is. Growing flowers well is the original intention of every one of us flower lovers.Welcome to follow Blue Demon's WeChat public account: Blue Demon Garden (ilanyao) to exchange and discuss together.
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