By Pdb
Lancashire,
United Kingdom 
I bought 3 climbing roses that were on offer at Homebase a few weeks ago. They are in pots. I haven't had chance to plant them yet. My question is shall I plant them with the existing soil on them or shall I knock the soil off and have a look at the roots and cut of any that doesn't look healthy? I bought 2 last year one of which took and the other died, so want to make sure I do the right thing. One of them will be going in the same place as the one that died. They are going to be climbing up 2 pergolas I have.
Thank you.
Polly
13 Feb, 2011
Answers
We always clean up the roots of bought-in plants before planting. The compost can harbour all sorts of diseases and weed seeds.
13 Feb, 2011
Also, keep them in the pots until they have a good root system. Some plants are recently dug up and need time to recover and grow new roots.
13 Feb, 2011
I take your point, Volunteer, but my experience of many plants bought like this is that they have been in the pots for far too long and are pot bound.
13 Feb, 2011
You should not really plant roses in the same place where they were before.But i think you can put something in the soil to prevent disease getting to the roots of the new rose,But i cant think what the stuff is called.Perhaps some one else on here can suggest what to put in the hole before planting?
I know when we have planted climbing roses we have knocked the soil of gently before planting so the roots can spread out in the ground better.
We have found this quite succesful as you can tell with the pictures of my climbing roses.And quite a lot of people have commented how lovely they are when on bloom
13 Feb, 2011