14 May '07 4:18 pm Moosey.. I have been wandering around your garden...well you did invite me I think I can feel roots growing forth!
Seriously... I saw your entry for the red Rose you transplanted during the height of summer, along with lots of other plants.
When I started my first rose garden at Tarawera, I was given 12 bushes in the middle of a hot summer. The donor who had a huge garden said that they may not survive the transplant as they were all in full bloom, but speed and care of the roots helped a lot, as we had a hours journey home after picking them up.We pre-pruned them to fit in the wagon and reduce the shock to the plants.
Their places were all ready for them, moist from an early in the day heavy watering, so it was just a matter of getting them in their new home as soon as we got home...no time for a cuppa first for us.
For a month after planting those roses got a daily bucket of water each and not once did I see a sign of wilting,a month later they were in full bloom again.
It is the dedication to watering that makes the difference when moved in summer...even large trunked older roses can be moved with success.
Since that time I have transplanted roses several times in summer and most gardeners I know are disbelieving... however they scoff no longer after seeing how well it can be done...I never turn down an unwanted rose whatever the season...I love their tenacity!
Thank you for your beautiful garden!
moosey
head gardener
Hurray for Roses
17 May '07 1:43 pm It's those buckets of water that do the trick - and some blind faith? When you think how rose survive years - decades of neglect, you begin to see these beautiful plants as robust shrubs rather than carriers of fragile flowers. Ha! It's a subtle mind shift, but it works!
I loved reading your post - the day it arrived I had just picked four fragrant blooms from the unknown red, and rediscovered the Moody Blues rose next-door. They, plus an unknown yellow, were the three personal 'heirlooms' that came to my garden that mid-summer's day. I'll always remember the root system on the red - a thick wedge of root like a kumara, and no little fine roots at all. But nature and the water buckets knew better!
Cheers, nice to talk to you, MMMM
pumpkin
compost executive
Auckland
18 May '07 6:45 am I loved your post also Pusslil and like moosey have moved roses in a not-so-textbook way
However, even with absolutely no dirt at all, nu-uh none, sitting in the bright sun, waiting for me to dig the whole those white carpet roses hardly even missed a beat in their fabulous display of midsummer bloom
Those who say roses are hard to grow or finicky are trying way to hard
Mark
Home gardener & plant fetishist
Berkeley, California, USA
I second the sentiment about roses being tough.
18 May '07 8:13 am I do think of them as being tenacious growers. The leaves are subject to rust, black spot and mildew but that is a bigger problem for our aesthetics than it is for their health. I've had roses that I've moved come back from the small feeder roots I left. It did not want to leave! In general, disease prone roses like 'Golden Showers' (which sounds like the punch line to a bad joke anyway) should just be discarded and replaced unless no other healthier rose has the same attributes.
Icarus
helper
Sydney, Australia
I'm so glad to have read this topic...
17 Oct '07 5:38 pm I've got 4 rose bushes at the front of my house that were already here when we moved in, but they only get 2 hours of sun in the morning so I've been contemplating moving them, even though it's mid-spring and they are growing. I bit the bullet and transplanted one today to see how it gets on, gave it a good soak and kept my fingers crossed. I'm so glad to read that summer/spring transplants can work!
I think I can feel roots growing forth!
those white carpet roses hardly even missed a beat in their fabulous display of midsummer bloom 
