A question for the “Nursery Manager”!
The RoS are in gallon buckets & the lilac is in a 3 gallon bucket. I am guessing the RoS need daily watering & maybe every other day for the lilac? I don’t want to drown anything, but it’s hot here & I don’t want to lose any plants or stress them too much.
The RoS were not really wilted when they arrived, but slightly droopy. They were well-packed & each had a cone of plastic with a panel of something in it like row cover. Some of the plastic had tiny holes in it. I know they were hot, even with big holes in the boxes. They were mostly dry when I checked the soil. I didn’t move them off the front porch for about an hour and even without water, they had noticeably perked up - fresh, cooler air, I would guess.
We have a concrete pad near the shop so I moved them there & watered them late afternoon. Around noon today, it’s quite hot & I think the concrete makes it worse, so I moved them to one of my metal raised beds - they are sitting on top of pine straw mulch. They will be getting some shade around 3:00. I watered them again when I moved them. Hopefully, this spot will suit them (at least 6+ hours sun) until I can plant them. It’s too hot for me to be digging holes!
While they’re all still in pots, it’s best to water them 2x a day, am & pm. They should have good drainage in a pot, and they’ll need a drink 2x a day in the heat of summer.
Once planted, I would give them an initial good soak (a ‘trickle’ from a garden hose for 15 minutes or so per plant to make sure there are no air pockets around the root ball in your planting hole. If you need to water from a can, give them a gallon of water each, to do the same.
Then - dependent upon rain, treat them like any other planted thing - 1” of water PER WEEK.
Don’t panic if they look ‘droopy’ once planted. It will take a week or so for them to get adjusted, and while you’ll THINK they need a drink - they don’t! Over-watering them will also make them look ‘droopy.’ It’s a vicious cycle! ;)
Also, when planting, make sure you break up the root ball - you may need to score it with a box cutter, which is always my tool of choice for that job. You won’t hurt it - I promise!