Moving established roses

[FDCR]

Hi all. Looking for some advice about moving established garden roses.
My grandmother has recently had to move down from her home in the North to us in the Midlands.

She has a number of roses in the garden of the house that she has lived in for 60+ years or more and is distressed at leaving them. It is unlikely she will ever return to that house.

She has indicated that she thinks that some of them are not varieties commercially available now, although I will know more on that front when she writes them out on the garden plan for me.

I have no idea what kind of roses we are talking about at the moment, btw - pretty sure we're not talking Rambling Rector or any of the more vigorous rugosas but other than that, your guess is as good as mine. Are particular varieties easier to move and re-establish than others?

Have you any advice as to the viability of moving some of them and care after? Or whether I would be better advised to just try cuttings? My main concern with that is that they take forever to get established?
I am hoping, if it is feasible, to go up soon before the growing season really gets under way; fortunately it is always later up that end of the country.

I gather rose replant disease can be a problem but I have plenty of areas in the garden that have not seen roses for at least 30 years and probably longer, which should be ok, do you think?

[Flordel]

I don't think it will be a problem if you take them out before they go into vegetation. They should not linger much before kicking back.
It would be a good idea to take cuttings as well, just stick them directly in the garden with a glass jar or a plastic bottle an top and see how that goes (well, this is what I usually do).
The success of moving them depends on how big the bush is, bigger ones tend to suffer more.
I've replaced last year a rose with another one without even changing the soil around it and it seems that it didn't mind, so I think you have nothing to worry about in this respect.

[elemire]

Regarding the rose replant disease, what sometimes is advised is to seed the area where the roses were with Tagetes. You have to seed it (versus plant separate ones), because there has to be a decent amount of their roots in the area to disinfect the soil (their roots are poisonous to nematoides). Another plant they advice sometimes are begonias.

Moving established roses is possible, but you have to do it when they are still dormant, and probably you will have to cut them back a bit, so there are not too many canes compared with the roots. Trying the cuttings is a good idea too. Otherwise it depends a bit what kind of roses she has, some oldies are still very popular today, so they might not necessarily be out of commerce - Peace or Tropicana to name a few.

[black bart]

I think it's a good idea to take cuttings, however, for what it's worth, a friend of mine some years ago moved several old (in the sense of very well established,they'd been there for many years...) rose plants out of her grandmother's garden (I think they were selling that house or some such) to her own garden,and they did fine.Definitely do it when they are dormant though, is my opinion, and cut 'em back,as elemire says. I'd cut them back kind of drastically, myself, just so the moved plant doesn't have to worry about supporting a lot of top growth, but can concentrate on establishing new roots.
As for rose replant disease,in areas where roses have not grown for 30 years, I'd think you'd have nothing to worry about,just add lots of nice new organic matter...regards, bart

[admin]

Great advice from the forum regulars!

- chop the roses back quite hard, keep as much root as you can and move them now while they are dormant. Plant with lots of Peter Beales Roots Boost directly on the roots and water well and that will give them their best chance.

[Stefanie]

We moved many established rose bushes over the years. For transport purposes they where cut back (most of the roses we moved where modern roses, mainly HT's and Florie's) and dug out with as big a root as one could get and carry.

The night before the bush was to be moved we watered it very very well to keep it turgid (remember we are in a warm climate with literally no frost), cut it back the next day and dug it out. The roots are placed into a big old hessian bag and the plant is transported to it's new location where there is a large whole, prepared with compost and bone meal waiting.

Soil sickness: I am led to believe that it does exist but mainly in very sandy soils. My mom, who sits on pure sand can not plant a rose where there was one before - it will die. She has to exchange the soil! We on the other hand sit on heavy clay and I have planted rose bush upon rose bush in the same hole with no ill effect...

The trick here is, if you are not sure if there is soil sickness; plant the rose in a card board box. Sink the box with the rose planted into the ground. It will take a year or so for the box to rot away and by than the rose is established. I have practised this technique many a time and it works well.