Unboxing the Roses – Gardening Part 4

My roses finally arrived from Jackson & Perkins last Monday. All 18 of them. So, the process to plant them begins.

The Box--Carefree Wonder Roses from J&P

How it was packaged

These are the Carefree Wonders from this picture. Eventually, hopefully, they will look like the 2nd picture.

Close up of roses still in the box. Yes, they are bare root.

Carefree Wonder by J&P

After we disentangled the roots and canes, we had to soak them overnight in water. We were able to get 2-3 in each bucket.

Roses soaking in the Homer Buckets

My hubs wasn’t doing so well on Tuesday night. Not sure if most of you know, but he is a disabled veteran. He suffers chronic neck pain from several accidents while in the Army. He also gets 3 to 4 migraines a week. When he’s out, he is out! So, Tuesday, I planted 6 roses by myself (with a little help from my son, who’s easily distracted–but what 9-year-old isn’t?). Anyway, I planted 6 roses around the back patio. Here’s the before, during and after photos. 🙂

Back patio--Before	Back patio--After (without roses)
Back Patio Area with Newly Planted Roses

Hubs still wasn’t doing well on Wednesday either. But he powered through helping me with the remaining 12. They HAD to get planted within a few days of arrival. It couldn’t be helped. I commend him! I just feel so bad that because of all this manual labor, he’s suffering because of it. But he tells me not to worry. (Can’t help it!) He loves doing things with me and the boy! 😀 I love him.

Oh, and my hubs calls each one of my roses, “She/her”!

So, the front got the remainder of the roses. We mixed up new soil with vermiculite and peat moss, added some water crystals and fertilizer and added it to the holes we dug.  And here’s where they all went. Notice they are much smaller than what’s left of the existing bushes. 🙂 Hopefully, they will establish and fill in nicely. Eventually, those bushes will be gone too. I just don’t know what I will be putting in their place just yet.

Front Left Porch With Newly Planted Roses

Right Front Porch with Newly Planted Roses -- There's two behind the pillar as well.

So, this is pretty much it with the process. I’ll probably post more pictures when they are established and blooming! I’ve got a couple I am really worried about because when they came to me their roots were cut really short. But luckily, Jackson and Perkins has a 1 year warranty on their plants!

We still have a lot of old dirt, decomposing mulch and leaves to remove from the bed, and put down some mulch. We wanted to replace the mulch with stone, but OH.EM.GEE! That will be next year’s project. We need 4 cubic yards to do that (about $600). And that’s about two or three TONS! I may just save up for someone to do it for us! Probably not, though, because that’s about $2000!

Hope you enjoy watching us break our backs! We are definitely NOT 20 anymore! 😀 But hopefully, this will all be worth it in the end!