With roses available everywhere from local nurseries, Home Depot, Lowe's, grocery stores like HEB and many more places, the question you may have is - when do I buy and plant these roses? Is there a deadline to plant them? The answer is “ABSOLUTELY YES”!
To save your money, sanity and boost your confidence in starting/growing roses, planting time becomes an important factor in many southern states with tricky/bipolar weather including Texas.
Summer heat tends to arrive earlier which doesn’t not allow enough time for plants to establish.
Roses are cold loving plants, the cold won't bother them when you plant them during winter compared to planting them in such warm/hot months.
Bareroots or body bags that you see at Home Depot and HEB: Buy now, soak in water overnight (ideally at least 24 hours) so they can be fully hydrated, and plant now or by March in case our Texas heat kicks in early. This way, they have time to establish to survive the heat.
I do NOT recommend planting bare roots in May or anything past that point. A few online vendors (for example: Jackson and Perkins which is a great company by the way) typically offers HUGE sales on their bareroots at that time, the planting time is NOT quite ideal for Texas (but could be for the northern states where spring just begins) unless you have a shaded area to start them so they get some shade during summertime. If you plan to buy bareroots, buy & plant them sooner before May.
I was tempted to buy in the past years when seeing that huge sale, glad I didn't. The chances of them surviving is almost 50/50.
Potted roses - you have more flexibility, but I'd try to plant and get them establish before mid-May or much sooner.
You can technically plant closer to the summer, but the chance of them surviving through our Texas heat is very tricky. Some may make it and some may not.
From my experience since 2020, the roses that I planted near summer took the longest to establish and they're struggling during summer months. Some did not make it either.
🌹🌱I put together a guidebook here on what to look for when bringing new roses to your home what to inspect so that you don't introduce pests and diseases to your garden.
In this e-book, we'll cover:
Intro / why it's important to wait to introduce your new roses to your garden?
My experiences
Do our due intelligence
Inspect potted roses
Inspect bare root roses
👩🌾🌹Brand new to growing roses and want on-going support to confidently start your rose dream? Do you feel lost with all the advice out there? Check out the Blooming with Joy monthly subscription.
Each month, I show you everything I do in my rose garden including how I care, plant & feed my roses at different time of the year. Caring for roses shouldn't be complicated, it should bring joy, not more stress and work - from me - A bakyard rose gardener in SE Houston.