HelpfulGardener.com

I'm a very new gardener, on my third year of attempting to make plants stay alive (with mixed results). I ordered some lovely bareroot roses over the winter, and they arrived unexpectedly this week. Because of a crazy work schedule, I was unable to finish preparing the soil as I wanted to-- it was tilled last winter, but I was planning to mix in more organic matter this spring, as the soil in my area is moderate-to-heavy clay. Anyway, I got them into the ground with a bit of compost just to get them out of the packaging, but now that it's been a few days and I'm looking at some time off work, I'm debating digging them back up to do things right. It's been raining pretty steadily all week, and is supposed to continue to do so for another few days. Is it worth it to disturb the roots at this point, or should I leave them and hope for the best?

Thanks so much for the advice!!

Often before retirement, when bare rooted plants would come during the middle of the week, I would just unpack the plants, hill them up in a mound of soil, and keep them constantly moist. Then when opportunity came, would plant them in their permanent home. The always seemed to work well, with plants showing no signs of stress from the process. If the plants are still dormant or mostly so, I would be comfortable with lifting and replanting. If they have lots of new growth already, then that would perhaps cause me to leave them in place and just augment the soil above and around the roots.