Once planted, your roses should break dormancy in about one to two weeks. When you're ready to plant your container rose, give it a good drink of water to thoroughly saturate the soil in the pot. Site Preparation and Planting . No matter what type of soil you have, you can improve it with organic matter. Compost is one of the best sources of organic matter and it is readily available either in bags from your local garden center, or from your neighborhood leaf-composting center, or you can make it yourself.
Roses are heavy feeders, so be generous with compost.
For more information on this subject, see Selecting and Preparing the Site . Planting Steps Prepare the planting site by removing all other vegetation either mechanically or chemically. A little extra work now will save you a lot of weeding time later. Blend this mix well. Place a shovel-full or two of the amended soil into the hole and level it out.