Getting Back to the Roots : Though They Look Like Sticks Now, These Plants Will Grow Into Thriving Roses and Fruit Trees

During all of this month and at least half of February--when the ground becomes dry enough to dig--it is time to plant things bare root. Things that can be planted bare root (and not everything can) include roses (most affordable planted this way); deciduous fruit trees, such as apples, apricots, peaches and plums, and even some vegetables, including asparagus and that horseradish that tastes so good with roast beef.

Bare root means just that: Plants are dug from the growing fields, the dirt is shaken from the roots and they are shipped to nurseries with their roots bare of soil--no container, no soil. You also can buy plants at nurseries this way, but more often you will find them wrapped and ready to go.

Burkard Nurseries in Pasadena is one that still carries on the fine old tradition of selling bare-root plants from bins or barrels filled with barely moist canning soil, which keeps the roots from drying out.

Going there is like taking a step back into California garden history. The crisp, dry January air smells of damp wood shavings, and there are rows and rows of plants from which to choose, though you must rely on your knowledge or the salesperson’s, or on color photos stapled to stakes, because bare-root plants also are quite bare of leaves and flowers or fruit. They look remarkably like sticks and not at all like what they will become.

Plant Them Quickly

Each plant will be carefully pruned and then wrapped in brown paper and tied in a complicated web of twine, and the package will be so pretty that you will not want to undo it. But you must, for the secret of bare-root planting is to get the plant in the ground quickly before its roots can dry or be otherwise damaged, though bare-root plants can survive considerable damage because they are quite dormant.

Obviously, all this special treatment costs time and money, so many places that sell plants bare root now sell them wrapped and ready to go. Some nurseries, such as Armstrong Garden Centers, do this themselves and exercise special care.

Chris Greenwood, the rose buyer and garden center manager at the Monrovia store, describes how they package roses: They accept only the freshest plants and all are Grade No. 1, the best (there are also lesser grades: 1 1/2 and 2); they package them immediately and in large bags so the roots don’t have to be pruned to fit; they carefully leach and moisten the sawdust that protects the roots in the plastic bags; they do not cover the tops of the plants but dip them in an antitranspirant so they do not dry out, and they offer a “100% guarantee.”

But not all packaged bare-root plants are treated so kindly, and the buyer should beware. They can be, frankly, a crap shoot, though you can find some incredible bargains packaged this way--you roll the dice and hope that the plants have not dried out or rotted in their plastic bags, or that there are enough roots for the plant to survive and prosper. Should you open the bag and find there are not, see if you can take it back and try again.

A third alternative also is available. The Palos Verdes Begonia Farm pots its bare-root plants, so they are no longer bare root at all. This is done because plants tend to leaf out quickly in Southern California, especially because we often have a false spring in January, with weeks of warm weather.

Once the plant has begun to leaf out, it also begins growing new roots, so any jostling at this point will set the plant back, perhaps a whole year. It will probably survive, but that first spring and summer it will do little.

To avoid this, John Bauman at the Begonia Farm puts his bare-root stock in pots and suggests shaking the soil from the roots and planting them bare root if they have not begun to sprout at planting time, or if they have, they can be planted like any other container-grown plant.

What do you do if you shop late and end up with bare-root plants that are not in containers but have sprouted? Many suggest drastic action, and it most often works in my own experience: Snap off all the sprouts and the plant will start all over again, but don’t expect the same exuberant growth the first year.

The Bare Advantage

Why unpot bare-root plants that have been put into containers? Because there are advantages to planting things bare root. If you garden in reasonably good soil, you can completely avoid what is called an “interface,” where two different kinds of soil meet. An interface--between the container soil and the natural soil--can repel roots and keep them from growing far and wide, thus stunting the plant. Most of the huge and healthy rose bushes you see were planted bare root; fruit trees too.

If you garden in poor soil, amend it with a packaged product such as Kellogg’s Amend or Bandini’s Soil Builder. You will still have less of an interface than you would between a totally artificial potting soil and the native soil. No matter what kind of soil you have, mix a complete fertilizer into the soil that goes back in the hole. Rose experts also recommend using a time-release fertilizer, such as Osmocote, in the planting hole to help the rose later in the season. And many still swear by blood and bone meal, slow-to-act organic fertilizers.

In rose circles, the conventional wisdom is to have the planting hole dug in advance, even weeks in advance, so the roses can be planted as soon as they come home--and this is good advice for fruit trees as well.

Yet another advantage of bare-root planting: You will not have roots that circle, or matted roots, as you often find with container-grown plants. In fact, you can carefully spread the roots out in a most natural fashion in the planting hole so they are headed down and out from the center of the plant.

To do this, you plant on a cone of soil mounded up in the bottom of the planting hole. Most nurseries have handouts that describe this time-honored planting technique, which is a tradition in itself and as fun as building sand castles at the beach. Be sure to ask for one.