Chelle ....
Digging your holes now and putting a container in the hole and putting the soil you removed out of the hole back and waiting until spring is the very best way to deal with spring's sticky clay mud.
In spring you can just pop out the container and plant your rose without fighting mud.
Also, with clay, I truly believe adding a LOT of small rock to the back fill improves the drainage of clay soil. It doesn't decompose, so it's always working to help with the drainage in future years. I found this out by accident. I have so much rock in my native soil that I can actually walk on it when it is fully saturated and have perfect drainage.
With my clay soil, I've found having different size particles of non plant organic materials below the surface allows all kinds of beneficial things to happen down in the root zone. I put all of my organic materials/amendments on top of the bed rather than below the surface. As they decompose, they feed the soil just fine. To me, putting all of the manure and compose on top, like nature does, works better for the plants.
Smiles,
Lyn
Dang typos
