Hi All!

This is my first post here, and I'm already begging for advice!

I recently (June2017) bought a house from a man who was an AVID gardener and rose collector. The yards are beautiful but VERY overwhelming for a person who has spent her adult life in apartments and homes with tiny yards. I haven't even counted all the rose bushes and I'm at 87. I'm guessing it's 100+ which is about 80+ more than I would like.

I have friends who want the bushes I want to remove but I want to insure that I remove and pack them up for transport safely. I looked into transplanting tips but they all seem to be focused on moving the plants from one part of the yard to the other.

Do I need to wrap up the roots? Just put them in a container? Do I need to prep them before removal? I'm guessing there will be lag time of a few days before the plants are replanted.

Any tips, trick, help, advice will be GREATLY appreciated!

THANKS!
Erika

PS - If anyone here is in the Tacoma area and wants a bush or 10, let me know! ;)

to the roses forum Erika!

I think it is a great idea to give away your unwanted roses rather than just throwing them away, I'm sure your friends will enjoy them for many years to come!

I'm sure someone in a zone similar to yours will chime in and give some advice.

One thing I do know is that if your climate is cold enough in winter to make the roses go dormant, that is the best time to move them. Also, bare root plants do not like drying out, so wrapping the roots in wet newspapers and a plastic bag might be a good idea.

Hi Erika,

I agree with Lilli. Newpaper, burlap, whatever. I noticed that a recent shipment of bare root roses arrived in what looked like a garbage bag. Kept in a garbage bag with damp, shredded newspaper a rose kept in cool temperatures will be happy for a few days, at least.

If I were in your position, Erika, I might consider having my friends dig up their own roses. Maybe tag the ones you will be giving away and make an event of it. A bring your own shovel (BYOS) party. This way, you don't have to do any back-breaking work. And the people who get the roses have full responsibility for the health of the plant. You can offer some drinks, snacks, use of a pruning shears, photos or descriptions of the roses to be dug up. And maybe some replanting tips. They can provide the shovels, and back-breaking labor. I can't imagine a serious gardener who would be unwilling to join such a BYOS party.

Most roses replanted within hours of being dug up in cool spring weather before growth starts will likely survive the move, especially if they have been materially trimmed to within about 18 inches of the ground before being moved. Not that this is likely to be a problem where you live, but you will want to be sure the areas around the roses to be moved are all well watered when the party begins.

Good luck!

BYOS, good idea Steve! Roses are pretty hardy, and unless subjected to very warm temperatures, will be fine. My bare roots come in, in another few weeks, and they will just be bare roots, in a cardboard box, no wrapping of any kind! If they are still alive when they arrive, I will not lose any! Erica, are you certain you would not like to see them all bloom before you give them away? Just a thought!

Make sure you get as much of the roots as you can, especially the tap root.
I found out in the past few year, even though I have been doing this for a long time, screw up saving roots, dead flower.
If they have been there a long time there will be far far, far more, and deep, roots to deal with than you can imagine and if this is new to you , have any idea of.
By deep I mean often feet not inches.
I have moved roses a matter of feet from one garden to the next and when I dig not dig wide or deep enough , end up with a dead rose.
I am not trying to scare you, this is simple reality.
If your soil is a silty loam , how sandy it is will determine how hard they are to dig up.
A lot of sand easy, if you have any hard delta clay, not so much.

IrisLilli said: to the roses forum Erika!

I think it is a great idea to give away your unwanted roses rather than just throwing them away, I'm sure your friends will enjoy them for many years to come!

I'm sure someone in a zone similar to yours will chime in and give some advice.

One thing I do know is that if your climate is cold enough in winter to make the roses go dormant, that is the best time to move them. Also, bare root plants do not like drying out, so wrapping the roots in wet newspapers and a plastic bag might be a good idea.

I'm in the Pacific Northwest so it TOTALLY gets cold enough! Heck! It's still cold which is why I think I should do this now! Thanks for the tip about the newspaper. I was thinking I would have to go invest in burlap or something.

Thanks for the help!
Erika

fwmosher said:BYOS, good idea Steve! Roses are pretty hardy, and unless subjected to very warm temperatures, will be fine. My bare roots come in, in another few weeks, and they will just be bare roots, in a cardboard box, no wrapping of any kind! If they are still alive when they arrive, I will not lose any! Erica, are you certain you would not like to see them all bloom before you give them away? Just a thought!

I did see them bloom last year and there are some beauties! I know there are about 5 I don't want to part with for sure. But There are some beautiful but VERY thorny bushes that keep catching my poor dog, so those will have to go, as pretty as they are... There is one purple bloom that makes me swoon, so that's staying The rest are beautiful but far too much for me so I'm happy to give them a new happy home.

<3,
Erika

Erika you are an angel for giving these away instead of destroying them. I moved many many roses in the heat of summer and they survived. I just used big trash bags with some water squirted into the bags. The secret is to not let the tiny roots dry out, and as others said, water them well before digging, and prune them back. I agree with Steve on letting your rose loving friends do the digging. My cynical self thinks people take better care of something if they work for it.

Erika, if you have a chance, buy a roll of surveyors tape from your hardware store, all different colours, and just tag the ones you want to keep. Cheers!

I don't know if your still looking for advise but I have done this twice in 4 years. Packed up nearly my entire garden. The first time I dug them up in the winter. I just left a pretty big root ball and put them in a big 10 gal pot, but make sure the top growth is retaliative to the roots. The bigger you want to keep the plant the bigger the root ball. I went to the nursery and they sold me some big nursery pots for like a dollar. the smaller ones were like cents. I had over 200 pots of various plants of various sizes. we didn't know when the house would sell so I had to pot them.I didn't loose any. I'm never moving again only for the fact that my heart cant take digging up my garden again.

When I moved from NJ to AZ I left all of the many dozens of roses. Many I knew would be able to replace, or else I knew I would not miss them much. There are a few I wish I had brought with me, though: Pearl Drift, Goldfinch, Eglantine, and Mary Webb.

Steve812 said:When I moved from NJ to AZ I left all of the many dozens of roses. Many I knew would be able to replace, or else I knew I would not miss them much. There are a few I wish I had brought with me, though: Pearl Drift, Goldfinch, Eglantine, and Mary Webb.

I left any that were easily replaceable or small. but there was one
I left that I cant get now and I regret it. aloha kordes.

Palatine shows they grow it but are out of stock. I would either contact them and see if they intend to eventually have enough to sell again.

https://palatineroses.com/rose...

Hi Erika First have your friends prep their spot ,give your roses a good drink of water.
Contact your garden club,donate some for their spring plant sale they will be happy to come and dig them out for you good luck and happy gardening

pepper23 said:Palatine shows they grow it but are out of stock. I would either contact them and see if they intend to eventually have enough to sell again.

https://palatineroses.com/rose...

Thanks I will keep them in mind next year. I ordered late this year so I quickly saw that they were mostly out of stock so i didn't really pay attention to what they actually had.