Zuzu, that's explains plenty on the bare roots. As for the drift roses, the ones I bought in the group purchase were about 3 years ago. I put them in the ground right away. 75% of them although they faltered the first year are back and doing very well now. I do have 3 well established drifts that I bought locally and they haven't had a problem at all.
It is difficult to figure, 2 plants of the same within feet of each other 1 lives and 1 dies. I look at that as 50% success rate and I keep getting more.
