Ange
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Urgent Help please re Moving a Rose

Good evening gardeners,

I've recently been given permission to dig up some mature Roses (shrub roses) in a garden that's about to have the developers in to build over it. I've dug up 3 shrubs, I've put one directly in the garden and 2 in extremely large tubs. They all of course, have buds on already - one of them is Bonica '82 (I think it's called). Well, the 2 in the very large tubs, which are WELL watered and I've fed them too, are of course drooping the flowers, due to shock. Should I be pruning back quite a bit to help them please? It would have been criminal to just leave them in the garden, but almost worse should they now die. Urgent advice needed please,

Thanks

Ange

imafan26
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You will have to cut them back probably to the five strongest canes and disbud them. It would be good to try to get as big a root ball as you can. Whether you plant them in large pots or in the soil, you may need to water them in well a couple of times a day. Ideally, I would have moved them in cooler weather, but as you said it was now or never.

When I got a mature shrub that I rescued, I bagged the root ball to try to preserve as much as possible and built a saucer shaped hole which I amended with compost and fertilizer. I put in the rose and straightened it and cut out any roots that were broken and damaged during transport. Refilled the hole and left a ring to water in the rose. I was told to water twice to three times a day for at least four weeks until the new roots grew. I also had to prune the rose to about a foot and just kept about 5 of the strongest canes, very few leaves and no buds. The new shoots will come from the canes. Too many leaves, buds and branches left on the canes with shortened root system really stresses them. They lose a lot of water.
I also paint my cut ends because I had problems of die back and when I called Jackson and Perkins rose help line they told me to do that on cuts larger than 1/2 inch. Normally, pruning paint is frowned upon, but it did stop the die back. The rose society members also said it was important that the cutting tools be sharp and clean. They clean the tools after every use with an engine degreaser (it is really good at removing sticky sap), and spray the tools between cuts with alcohol to disinfect them to slow down the transmission of disease.

Ange
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imafan26 wrote:You will have to cut them back probably to the five strongest canes and disbud them. It would be good to try to get as big a root ball as you can. Whether you plant them in large pots or in the soil, you may need to water them in well a couple of times a day. Ideally, I would have moved them in cooler weather, but as you said it was now or never. important that the cutting tools be sharp and clean. ~ ~ ~They clean the tools after every use with an engine degreaser (it is really good at removing sticky sap), and spray the tools between cuts with alcohol to disinfect them to slow down the transmission of disease.
Good Morning imafan26!

I'm located in Lincolnshire, England, and the temps aren't that warm as yet, only about 59°f during the day, down to about 45-50°f over night. It's already in the tub, as I wanted to get it's *feet* back in soil asap, but I have been heavily watering, have this morning cut back and lost many dozens of buds - hopefully, I'll be rewarded next year! Thank you very much for your advice, and Happy Sunday!

Ange
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applestar
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@imafan I want to make sure -- when you refer to "buds" you mean *flower* buds, correct?

Good luck rescuing those roses, Ange!

imafan26
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yes, the flower buds not the node buds.

Sandy888
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Honestly, I never had problem transplanting roses - just treated them as any other shrub. I would make about 2' circle around the rose with my shovel, dug about 1.5' deep and gently lifted the whole "ball of soil" out. I would than plop it in prepared and amended hole and made sure it was planted at the same depth as it was in original site. If I noticed any branches loosing turgor I would than shorten them same way I prune them when flowers are spent - couple of leaves down to the next nice outward facing "5 leaf". I would water them every day for 2 weeks and than put them on normal schedule of every other day or 2 times per week depending of the weather.



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