My box from Stark Bros. arrived Friday afternoon with three cherry trees, six raspberry bushes, three blueberry bushes and 75 teeny tiny strawberry plants — all bare root.

It may be an economical (and plant-friendly) way to ship perennials, but for a busy gardener, a box of bare root plants is a little stressful. As soon as you plants are boxed up and shipped out, the clock is ticking. My birthday, tickets to the Guthrie, an engagement party, Mother’s Day — Bare root plants have no interest in my weekend plans. They need water, soil and sunlight ASAP.

This was my first specialty plant order and didn’t know what to expect when I opened the box. Yellow buds? Little leaves? A shriveled albino berry? Instead, I found plastic bags filled with brown, twisted tentacles.

Huh?

An organized gardener would’ve done her research and prepared her site ahead of time, but this gardener was still digging holes in her back yard at 8 p.m. Sunday night. (If you’re looking for tips for planting bare root plants, This site is super helpful: http://nga-gardenshop.stores.yahoo.net/plantingbarerootperennials.html)

It’s hard to believe that these bare canes will soon sprout leaves and bear fruit. For now, I’ll keep my fingers crossed and keep you posted on their progress.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 7:43 am and is filed under Berries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.