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moving established roses
Welsh Daffodil
Posts: 38
in Talkback
I am in the process of having a new garden fence put up, which means having to move two fairly old rose bushes. I have had to dig them up and at the moment they are in tubs filled with water! They are in the greenhouse now as I have nowhere else to put them. Will they be ok? They are already producing new shoots and I don't think I will be ready to replant them for a couple of weeks. Any advice out there would be welcome.
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They'd be better outside in a pot filled with compost
In the sticks near Peterborough
No, no, no.
Sorry to say so, but if you want to keep these bushes alive you need to treat them with respect.
Roses don't have a large root ball. Most of what you dig up are the roots that keep them in the ground, the main feeding roots are the size of a fist at the base of the main stem. If you moved them while they were still dormant, they have a chance of surviving but not if you leave them standing in water.
. My suggestion would be to earth them up if you can't pot them. Make any hole in a spare bit of ground and keep them moist. That's emergency treatment with no guarantees of survival.I have some personal experience of moving well established roses and mine took three years to recover. Good luck
Thanks for the advice. Been too wet to get out into the garden, but better forecast for this week and next weekend so will try and find a space in the garden for them. Hopefully they will survive. One of them was a cutting from a friends garden, don't know the name but it has a wonderful scent. Fingers crossed then!!
Just an update on my rose bushes. I potted them up, watered them well and waited. They have all survived, with new shoots and buds forming. Keeping an eye on them though, but very pleased they survived their ordeal!
Well done