Devon,
United Kingdom 
I planted four bare root rose bushes at the end of April having soaked their roots in water for a week beforehand. The patio and climber have lots of leaves and look good but the two standard roses are doing little to nothing at all.
I planted them according to instructions and have kept them watered but the two new leaf buds look very dried at the tips and progress into leaves is very slow. The house is built on the site of an old stone quarry and at the planting depth, there is a lot of rock which is difficult to penetrate. Am I just being impatient or is there something I can do to tell whether they are alive or not?
Thank you.
8 Jun, 2013
Answers
use your thumb nail and scrape back a bit of the bark. if its green underneath they are still alive if brown then that bit is dead. re scrape an other area etc. you say you had them in water for a week. That might have been the problem. as the roots will not have been able to get much oxygen to keep them alive. I normally only soak bare root plants overnight.
Certainly the soil depth wont help.
8 Jun, 2013
If any new leaves are growing at all is isn't dead yet! Standing it in water for so long certainly won't have helped but while there's life there's hope. If the soil is very shallow with no chance for the roots to penetrate, it might be an option, if you try again, to plant them in large tubs perhaps?
8 Jun, 2013
If your saying that there is rock that is hard to penetrate under the roots of the roses I would think this is the problem, as there is nowhere for the roots to spread or penetrate.
8 Jun, 2013