The Planting Depth for Home Run Roses

Home Run

• Home Run was bred by Tom Carruth, the research director of Weeks Roses, in 2006. Knock Out is the pollen parent, or "father," of Home Run. Home Run exhibits vigor, disease resistance and a continuously blooming habit, much like its famous parent. The shrub grows 2 to 3 feet high and wide as a tidy, rounded bush. Single, bright-red blossoms are displayed in clusters throughout the growing season in rapidly repeated flushes. Pink Home Run produces clusters of single, vibrant pink roses all season long.

Site Selection

• Choose a site receiving six to eight hours of exposure to sunlight daily. Provide dappled afternoon shade in the hottest climate regions. Space Home Run roses used as a low hedge somewhat closer than specimen plants. Consider the mature sizes of companion plants in the mixed bed, and allow space for good air circulation around each rose bush at maturity. Roses require excellent drainage and neutral to slightly acid soil.

Bare-Root Roses

• Soak the bare-root plant in water for at least 12 hours. Dig a round hole 2 feet wide and deep. Combine the removed topsoil with composted mulch and refill the hole halfway, creating a mound of soil in the hole. Settle the roots over the mound, situating the bud union at surface level in hot climates, just below the surface where temperatures fall below freezing throughout the winter, or 1 to 2 inches above ground level where sunburn or winter freezing do not pose problems. Fill the hole halfway with soil and water well. Finish filling the the hole after the water has drained. Cover the plant halfway with a mound of mulch and keep it watered until new growth begins in several weeks, then gently remove the mulch mound.

Container Roses

• Roses purchased in containers are either grafted or growing on their own roots. Dig a large planting hole as for bare-root roses anytime during the growing season. Backfill the hole part way with the amended soil. Remove the rose bush from its container and settle the root ball on the flat soil surface in the hole. Grafted container roses are placed with the bud union at the appropriate depth according to local climate, as for bare-root plants. Own-root roses are placed with the root ball surface at soil level. Proceed planting as for bare-root roses. The mulch-mounding process is unnecessary with container-grown roses.