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How often do we buy rose seedlings not when they are best planted on the plot, but when they are sold at discount sales. And it happens that when you see a variety you like, you don’t think at all about how to save rose seedlings before planting. Even writing out tricky varieties via the Internet, we are unlikely to be able to accurately guess by the time of planting, so we create a problem for ourselves, which then has to be solved.
The problem of planting material conservation
The problem of preserving planting material arises not only with the untimely purchase of seedlings, this happens when breeding roses with cuttings, when you need to save cuttings with or without roots until spring. It happens that a summer resident wants to plant roses in the fall, but the weather fails, does not allow planting at the right time, and then it turns out to be too late. In this case, the seedlings also need to be stored until spring.
The solution to this problem depends on a number of reasons. Here the state of the seedling matters, whether it has sprouts, what the condition of the kidneys is, whether the root system is open or closed. The time left before planting is very important, it depends on it what conditions for storing the seedling need to be created.
If the summer resident got hold of seedlings with a closed root system, this means that the roots, together with the clod of earth in which they grew up, are in the container. There is no problem here, you just need to leave them where the temperature does not exceed +3 degrees.
If you bought roses with open roots, you should urgently take action, they do not need to be left just in the air, even throughout the day. Seedlings are often sold packaged in beautiful boxes, there is even earth, but such packages have nothing to do with a closed root system.
The roots are often folded and tightly tied with polyethylene, this does not benefit them at all. Their buds may have awakened for a long time, and weak, elongated shoots may even grow – it is not known how much and how they were stored. So, if it was not possible to plant roses right away, you need to navigate in time and create suitable conditions for them.
Video “Storing seedlings until spring”
From the video you will learn about the storage of rose seedlings.
Trying to keep seedlings at home
Home conditions do not shine with a variety of options, but a refrigerator can help out even if you have to store planting material for up to two months. This is very useful when seedlings ordered from a nursery or an online store were delivered unexpectedly quickly. The revival of the flower market in Europe is happening too early by our standards, because they start planting a month earlier than ours. Here’s a chain reaction activates even our fairs – it is better to buy imported varieties just when they are so massively offered. And the result is a wonderful planting material in the middle of winter. So what if April is on the calendar, there is as much snow in the country as it was in January.
It does not matter if the seedlings were purchased in March or April. Expand them, remove the packaging, inspect, evaluate the condition of the roots and shoots. The roots need to be straightened if they were bent or folded, then carefully wrapped with polyethylene with holes for air circulation or kraft paper. Shoots can remain outside of such a package. This bundle should be placed on the shelf of the refrigerator and stored at a temperature of +1 to +3 degrees. Every 5 to 6 days, it is advisable to moisten the seedlings with a spray bottle. This is ideal for seedlings with dormant buds.
If not only the buds have woken up, but the shoots are already growing, then the plant needs to be given a vertical position, because new branches always grow upwards, and if they grow at an angle of 90 degrees to the main shoots, then the bush will look, to put it mildly, unpresentable.
It is better to cut or pinch young shoots, they are still weak, and their growth only weakens the entire bush, because they feed on the nutrients that he managed to accumulate in his short life, and the root system does not work. To save it, you need to take any dishes with a volume of at least five liters (a saucepan, a pot, a plastic bottle, a bucket), drill holes in its bottom, put pebbles (expanded clay or pebbles) on the bottom for drainage, fill the soil with peat and sand, or even one peat and plant a rose. You need to plant carefully, straightening all the roots. After that, the rose is watered and put on a loggia or glazed balcony. You can put a bag on top of the shoots, but do not create a greenhouse effect. Such conditions allow the seedling to grow, but very slowly – the cold inhibits the growth of shoots, and the root system is formed, additional roots grow. The main thing is to prevent sub-zero temperatures, if the frost intensifies, then the rose can be moved somewhere or simply wrapped up.
A seedling planted in a pot will then need to be gradually accustomed to fresh air and sunlight before landing on the street. This is done by taking it out first in the morning for a short while, then in the mornings and evenings, gradually increasing the time of “walks”. It is very important that the rose pot be kept at a temperature around zero, and then warmed up along with the rise in temperature outside. If you grow it for at least a month on the windowsill in the warmth of the apartment, then it will be a very vulnerable and painful plant.
We store in the cold in the country
In the country, as a rule, there is a basement, it is suitable for storing seedlings and cuttings. Roses are pruned in autumn, many people use this time to harvest cuttings, and plant them for rooting in the spring. Seedlings that could not be planted in the fall, cuttings cut for spring planting, can be dug into the ground and left to winter in a cool basement.
The air temperature should not fall below zero and rise above +3 degrees, the ground and shoots (above-ground part) must be periodically moistened.
With the beginning of spring, the dishes with plants should be transferred to the veranda, the same conditions will be obtained as on the glazed balcony – they will begin to grow, but slowly enough to wait for a real landing on the site.
Unplanted seedlings and cuttings can overwinter even in the snow, like bears in a den. To do this (of course, in the presence of abundant snow that will lie until spring), you need to dig a hole in the snow with appropriate dimensions in some dark corner of the garden. Put boards or spruce branches on its bottom, planting material on them, put a box on top or build a wire frame, cover it all with lutrasil and cover it with snow on top. Such a “house” is suitable for seedlings with dormant buds and for plants with sprouts, only sprouts that are too large need to be cut off, and small pinch off slightly.
Tips from practice
Experienced flower growers advise not to buy a pig in a poke, the seedling must be considered from all sides. If you have already bought a beautiful package or received it in the mail, you should immediately unfold the plant and examine it. All damaged parts must be cut off, the cut points should be treated with wood ash. By the way, healthy roots on the cut should be light, they can be dipped not in ashes, but in Kornevin or another agent that stimulates root growth.
If there is a net on the seedling, it does not need to be removed, you can plant it directly with it, it will soon rot. It is also not necessary to rip off paraffin from the shoots, it will not interfere with growth, it will soon fall off by itself. True, unscrupulous sellers can mask spots on the trunks with them. 
If you find dark spots of unknown origin, carefully wipe them with ordinary green paint. Before planting, seedlings should be treated with some kind of parasite remedy and closed with a bag for two hours. It happens that the planting material is infected with thrips or some other muck that cannot be seen until they breed.
If you are not going to plant a bush an hour after bringing it home, place it in a container of clean water at room temperature.
Video “Overexposure of seedlings until spring”
From the video you will learn how to overexpose seedlings in winter until spring.
