Transplanting Roses Successfully
I have a weakness for roses, who does not? In the past few months, I’ve researched everything I will on how to grow roses as a result of I need to have a rose garden that Rembrandt would like to paint. There are several resources on the web with rose gardening info: websites, blogs, forums, and ebooks. I decide the best of the information and reserve it to have it on hand in my gardening efforts. Here is one among the articles that I found on growing roses.
The method I outline here is a lot of work, but it will give your rose its best chance of survival, should you need to move it mid season, for reasons that dictate it caní¢ÂÂt be left until fall.
Roses, unlike some other plants, doní¢ÂÂt form a thick tangle of a root system, so digging up a rose with the intention of keeping a root-ball of soil intact around its roots, will be difficult to achieve. But, whatever time of year you decide to lift your rose bush, ití¢ÂÂs still worth attempting this. If you really must move a rose during the growing season, I advise that you prepare for disappointment. But hereí¢ÂÂs the best way to do it.
Youí¢ÂÂve selected the new location for your rose, and it meets the roseí¢ÂÂs requirements: í¢Â¢ The location receives a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. í¢Â¢ The pH value of the soil is between 6.0 and 6.9 í¢Â¢ The soil has been enriched with garden compost or well rotted manure.
The evening before lifting (digging up) the rose you intend moving, water the soil around it thoroughly with a hose pipe, making sure that the soil is well saturated. Depending on how much lush growth is on the rose bush, youí¢ÂÂll probably have to prune it back somewhat, otherwise it may lose more water through its foliage than it can take up through its roots, causing it to flag and wilt. If you are in the middle of your summer and thereí¢ÂÂs a lot of new growth, then Ií¢ÂÂd be inclined to reduce it by half, at this stage.
Ití¢ÂÂs the evening of the following day now and the worst of the suní¢ÂÂs heat is over. Water the rose again; making sure that the soil around its roots is really well watered. Now dig your hole at the planting site. Doing this first, will mean that your rose is out of the ground for the shortest time possible. Obviously, the size of the hole will depend, to some degree, on the size of the rose youí¢ÂÂre moving, but doní¢ÂÂt simply dig a small hole thinking that you can squeeze the rose into it and ití¢ÂÂll be OK – it woní¢ÂÂt!
Dig a hole large enough to accommodate the estimated size of the roseí¢ÂÂs roots, leaving a gap of 3 inches between the roots and the rim of the hole, all round, and about 18 inches deep (again, this will depend on the size of the rose). This is an opportunity to run a hosepipe into this hole and allow it to soak the soil while you dig up the rose bush.
Now is the time to dig up your rose, using a spade not a garden fork. Hold the spade in such a way that the blade is vertical and kick the spade into the ground as deep as possible. Do this all the way around the bush. If the rose is 2 feet wide, dig down around the plant, about 14 inches away from the stem, as the spread of the bush will, to some extent, determine the spread of the root system below. This vertical cut will sever any roots beyond that initial 14 inches (you are going to have to sever roots but keep as many as possible intact). After having done this, dig a trench all around the rose in front of this vertical cut and finally try and dig under the rose to sever any remaining roots there.
It may be obvious to state, but transplanting a rose bush requires that you first dig it up. Unlike planting a rose, which you will only take delivery of, during the appropriate time of year, transplanting a rose from one area of your garden to another is left to your own good judgement. You can dig up a rose, as indeed, you can dig up any plant, with the intention of transplanting it, but to maximise your chances of success, you would sensibly only attempt this task during the plantí¢ÂÂs dormant season, sometime between late fall and mid spring.
