The Roses Have Arrived!

April 2008: Please note that, for the foreseeable future, Rustic Hideaway will no longer be stocking roses.

Things are starting to get hectic around here. We're receiving shipments of plants and/or seeds on an almost daily basis now. One of the more interesting crops that we work with are the roses. Our shipment of bareroot Hybrid Tea roses arrived a couple of days ago, and I thought that it might be interesting to share the initial pruning and potting process.

When we receive our shipments of dormant bareroot roses, they always arrive in big boxes. As you can see in the photo, there is no soil with them, whatsoever - just bare plants!:


The first step is pruning. In order to fit them into the pots, it is necessary to prune both the canes and the roots. The idea is to achieve a balance between the two so that the roots are the same length (or a little longer) than the canes:


Once the roots and canes are pruned, the next step is the potting process. The way it's done is to fill the bottom of the pot with 1 - 2 inches of soil, and then place the rose plant in the pot. The soil is then filled in around the roots until it is within and inch or so of the top of the pot:


The last step is to give the plants a good, thorough soaking with clear water. It is important to water them three or four times until the water runs out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pots. This will eliminate any air pockets in the soil, and ensure good soil-to-root contact. No fertilizer is applied at this time as it will inhibit the formation of the delicate feeder roots.

Once this process is complete, the plants are placed on pallets to begin the growing process:


As of this writing, this is the stage that the roses are at now.

Once the plants do begin to leaf out, they will be placed on a feeding schedule, and monitored for insects and diseases. They will remain on these pallets until they begin to bloom, and then they will be moved to the sales area.

I'll post some more photos in about a month, so we can see how they are progressing.

For detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to grow beautiful roses, see our Rose Tutorial.

Growing Tip

Each year, after blooming, remove the spent blossoms from your lilac bushes. This will direct their energy toward producing new blooms (instead of seeds) for the following year. It makes them look tidy, too!

Growing Clematis

Here are some tips for growing superb Clematis plants:

The best time to plant Clematis is Spring, Summer, or early Fall in a location of 5 - 6 hours of sunlight.

Clematis roots are long and run deep and like it cool and damp, but not soggy. A good idea is to plant annuals around the base of the Clematis, plant a low-growing shrub to shade the roots, or mulch the ground around the base of the Clematis plant to help keep the soil and roots cool. Loosen the soil to a depth of 2 feet. Mix this soil with peat and sand. Carefully set your Clematis plant in the hole so the crown is 1 inch below the soil level when the plant was in the pot.

Stake the plant, and if possible, wrap a piece of screen loosely around this to prevent animals from breaking or eating off the stem for the first year. The stake should be placed towards the trellis, to train the plant to it's permanent support.

Keep your Clematis well watered - do not let it dry out. In years to come, always soak well once a week in dry weather. Feed twice a year with a balanced granular fertilizer, or a good water-soluble fertilizer that will get to the plant much quicker.

Prune your Clematis the first Spring after planting, to 10-12 inches. This is very important to get your plant off to low branching and heavier flowering over the whole Clematis vine.

Apply a mulch around the base of your Clematis through the Winter dormant months. With proper care, your Clematis plant will give you much enjoyment for many years!

- from Donahue's^® Clematis Culture

Rustic Hideaway is an exclusive dealer of Donahue's^® Clematis plants.

Heat for Our Babies

Seeds won't germinate without heat, and to this day, this is the way we heat our greenhouses - good, old-fashioned wood heat. Of course, it's a lot of work cutting all that wood for fuel, but with a circulating fan to help out, it makes for a nice, even heat source.

Spring is on Its Way!

We've been receiving shipments of seeds and seedlings for the past couple of months now. The above photo shows some of our flats of seedlings germinating in our "starting greenhouse". In a couple of months, these little guys will be growing in people's gardens! Most of the flats you see in the photo are filled with vegetable seeds.