A Good Start: How to Plant a Plant

A few weeks ago I won a contest on Your Easy Garden blog, and the prize was 3 Flower Carpet roses. I wasn't previously familiar with them, but they're supposed to be low-maintenance, disease-resistant, and (more recently) bred to tolerate heat and humidity. I just planted them last week. They're a spreading rose, so I made new flower beds with plenty of space for them. I planted one of my roses under the perfect conditions--full sun, good drainage. But I was determined that I wanted a rose in front of my house, so I planted it in mostly shade, heavy clay soil, at the bottom of a gutter spout. We'll see if all my soil prep will keep my rose alive in spite of my better judgment!

There's a rose bush there, if you look closely.
It will have leaves soon, I promise.

What my Flower Carpet roses should look like in a few months.

I decided to give one of them to my mother-in-law. I had never ordered a bareroot (without soil) plant before, so I carefully followed the 6-step instruction sheet that came with it. As we were planting it, my father-in-law commented, "It's a good thing you did it because I would just have dug a hole and stuck it in the ground." I think that's what most people do when they're planting something--just stick it in the ground. The way you plant something, though, can affect whether the roots get established well, whether the plant gets the right amount of water, or whether the plant gets disease. Don't worry--doing it right isn't actually that complicated. I'll give you a few tips.

1. Wider is better, deeper is worser. One of my horticulture professors taught me this rule of thumb for what size your hole should be. It's terrible grammar, but it stuck with me. To be more exact, your hole should be exactly as deep as your root ball (or the pot your plant is coming out of), and about twice as wide as your root ball. This is more important when you're planting strong, long-living trees and shrubs, but less important if you're planting an annual like a pansy that you'll rip out in a few months.

2. Break up the roots. When you buy a plant, it may be "root-bound", which means the pot is full of roots, some of which may be growing in a circle (the shape of its pot). You want to encourage the roots to grow beyond the size and shape of the pot it was in--the plant won't necessarily do this on its own. Just take your hand, grab the roots at the bottom, and pull them apart. If you break some small roots, that's fine--they'll grow back. If it's really bad, sometimes I'll take my pruning shears and make a few vertical cuts down the sides of the root ball.

3. As you plant it, make sure the top of the original soil of the plant is even with the surrounding soil. You shouldn't be putting soil on top, or planting it so shallow all the water runs off. There's a few exceptions. Tomato seedlings like to be planted deep, so you cover up the first few inches of stem. When I planted my rose, it was in heavy clay soil (and roses like well-drained soil), so I planted it slightly raised up to try to improve drainage (I hope it works!).

After I planted my rose, I watered it really well.

 Happy planting! What are you planting this spring?

As always, feel free to comment with any questions you have.