Moving Roses.....

Hi all,

I've decided the border near my garage needs to be widened ,it's far too small,don't know what I was thinking aboutin it is 3 Ebb Tide Roses and ideally they need to come about a foot further forward,have I left it too late to move them?....your advice needed please....

 

My thoughts are You've got a couple of weeks left working on bare root time being oct to April. I'm just not sure if a foot further forward constitutes growing a rose where another has been. I would dig a big hole remove soil fill with mpc to be on safe side. Hopefully woo will be on in a min lol

 

If you move them now Loli I don't think there'll be any problems, they are a lot tougher than we think and should soon get their roots down. Just be careful of wind rock if they are already starting to leaf up.

 

I moved 2 of them yesterday....one came up lovely ...it shouldn't know it's been moved if no body tells it but the other every bit of soil dropped off the root ball,made it a nice new home with well rotted manure ,apologised for being so ham fisted and said a prayer...chickened out of moving the last one but will pluck up the courage in the week

 

"that Rules are meant to guide you ,not bind you". What a great expression Woo not heard that 1 before. I totally agree with it especially with respect to gardening. Often a plant will be said to not move, well maybe if some hash bash merchant is attempting it! I've moved things which "don't move" successfully and regularly at the wrong time as up here in Scotland you have to do things when you can rather than at the ideal time when we might have a foot of snow! The only plant I can think of which I did move and killed was a Daphne. It was huge (about 40 odd years old). I spent a whole day carefully lifting as much root with it as I could (Daphne root is quite soft and brittle) and transplanted it. As it was evergreen I thought it was ok but after about 4 months the dreaded tell tale signs showed it wasn't. Oh well it would have been trampled under foot if left in situ (workmen!!!!) so tried my best for it. Too old to plant a replacement and see it grow to any decent size. Roses on the other hand I've moved when likewise about 40 years old and they continue to flourish.

 

Re CRG's comment about not planting a rose where one has been before. Is there a time limit on this? There are a couple of places in the garden where I'd like to plant some roses but I've no idea if there have been roses there before. Certainly not in the last 6 years, but not sure if there has ever been any planted there.

 

I think it's a couple of years so u shouldn't have a problem. Here's an hrs link which explains more than I can http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=572

 

I believe it exists. Seen it in a private rose garden when I was a child. I've got a peace from that garden which was braught down from the Wirral to Cardiff to rescue it.

 

I t

was thinking of you last night listening to desert island discs with the guy that created Harlow Carr and how the roses were donated very interesting.

 

Aww lovely bloke I really enjoyed learning how they created the garden from just boggy farmland.