Advice on moving roses

Just found out at four o'clock today that on Wednesday a digger is coming to remove half of one of the flowerbeds at work .Thing is in the half that is going to be removed there are about 20 rose bushes . Is it a good time to move them ? and whats the best way of giving them a fighting chance when they are moved?
Thanks in advance.

 

Dig the new hole first if you can, Beefy, then dig as big a rootball as you can to minimise root disturbance - and get the rootball on to a sheet or something, wrap it round, and transport carefully to the new hole. You could out bonemeal in or growmore, or something along those lines, but that's not essential, just handle gently and minimise disturbance. Water in well!! Oh, and if we do get frost, firm in again next morning after the frosts...

 

I was planning to let the digger dig the holes and do the transplanting - ie dig a trench about 2 foot wide and deep then dig out each rose in the bucket of the digger and shift it to the newly dug trench (if the digger driver will coperate) and then fill in around them with a soil+compost mix with a little fertilizer.

 

Just make sure you dig plenty deep to get them out Beefy - some roses have VERY deep roots. but otherwise that should work fine, and be the quickest way of doing it! I never have equipment like that at my disposal - obviously I'm doing something wrong!

 

Sounds OK to me - but tell the driver to go careful- besides the tap root, the more rootball they have the better chance they have.

That said you may remember Pal's rescued roses? Most of them survived fine - being dug out bare rooted, kept in wet bags for a while and then potted up. So they seem quite tough

 

Its just that the school is getting all the tarmac drives and carparks resarfaced and they decided to widen the entrance into one of the carparks so the roses lose. :(

 

Good luck, and lets us know how they do eh!

 

UPDATE roses are safe.Luckly for the roses a fire hydrant was discovered in the corner of the flowerbed and on investigation it was to much hassle to move it so the roses stay for now.
Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

D'uh! Pity they hadn't noticed it before, Beefy! Then you wouldn't have had to work out all the logistics..... But at least you know what to do if something similar crops up! :D

 

Excellent - I am delighted to hear that they will be untroubled.

 

Yes its a pity "they" didn't notice cos I did but if they didnt know why would I tell them and give myself a pile of bother all because someone cant drive a minibus round a corner.

 

:D :D