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My garden helper planted my eight new roses six weeks ago and while they look like they're doing fine, I'm realizing that they weren't planted "correctly" per the voluminous rose planting advice. I wasn't present to supervise the planting (sigh) and they were just plopped into the ground with minimal fuss. My question is whether I should replant them. My concerns:
-- The planting holes weren't dug very deep. The bud union isn't 1 inch below ground, but right at ground level or slightly above.
-- The planting holes weren't dug very wide, either. Though I provided plenty of planting soil, less than half the total soil I provided was used, meaning each rose got less than half the supplementary soil as was recommended by the nursery.
The thing is, the roses look like they are doing fine. They're blooming, they're sending up canes, they are putting out fresh foliage. I don't really want to traumatize them with more digging if it's not necessary, but I'm worried that they're going to be stunted in the long term without the "right start in life". If I don't replant them, is there anything I should do to try to offset their current situation? For example, the bud union height -- should I try to mound up soil around it? I worry that creating a hill under the roses will just make water slide off.
Photos attached show the roses right at planting, and then a recent shot showing their progress.
I'm in Virginia, zone 7a. The roses are in an ideal bed for them (lots of sun). Soil is red clay below a few inches of good topsoil.
Click an image for an enlarged view.
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