Decided against good sense to plant roses in a late July heat wave in the Northeast. The roses arrived without leaves but looking sturdy and strong. I used all the Heirloom "Get Growing" materials at planting. Within a week they were leafing out, at about 3 weeks they were budding, and within 5 weeks I had blooms! I'm wary of red roses because too often the color is not to my taste. I decided to trust the photos and the "scarlet red" description, and my first blooms are indeed my idea of the perfect rich red. I bought bareroot roses from other sources long ago and most of them have only limped along, making me think I couldn't grow roses. The own-root roses in soil from Heirloom are a game changer!