How far are you going to move. I moved in 2001 and took all 550 of my roses with me. But, I only moved 50 miles away so was able to drive back and forth to remove and transport them to my new home. I potted and overwintered them in my front yard surrounded by a snow fence and covered with oak leaves. They all survived. You have time to pot yours and get prepared for the move. We made the decision to move quickly so I had to pot mine and get them moved after the fact. It all worked out.
I had just planted several new roses that spring and we moved on August 1st.
Good Luck.

>We might move

My advice would be not to do too much figuring based on what might happen and wait for the absolute ideal time to do what you want to do, especially not for something as important to your mental happiness as growing beautiful things.

My father-in-law was always putting off things, waiting until he fully retired to do all the things he'd always wanted to do. But he got a bad case of brain cancer that killed him the very year he would have retired and started to live.

Don't put off doing those things that matter to you, Jane. If you end up not being able to move all the roses, well, that's too bad, but you'll have spent some you've enjoyed tremendously and you'll have managed to enrich other lives too at the same time - the lives of everyone who sees the beauty of your roses now and in the future. That's worth doing, and doing now.

Best wishes,
Mary

Karl, all 550 roses? WOW!!! I couldn't imagine how tired you must be after everything is done. But again, anything for the roses right? I think we will move within 100 miles, If you can handle 550 roses Karl, I can handle mine. One more question, so you really got 550 pot for those roses, and kept them in the pot from August until the next spring? (I assume most of them are mature and big roses)

Mary, you are so right about "doing things that matter to you"! I will not care if I have to start over again, but hopefully not, because I do get attached to the ones that I grow, especially when I have to start them in band size.

Thanks for the advice!

Jane

I got the pots free from a landscape company. They had stacks of them. Black Nursery pots can't be recycled and they have to pay someone to haul them away. They were more than happy to let me have a many as I wanted. After 10 years, I'm still using some.
Most were mature. When I dug them up, I cut them way back and placed them in as big a pot as I could that would let me keep as big a root ball as possible. They were watered well daily and were all leafing out and growing when winter arrived. The oak leaves did a great job protecting them. Each day I dug up and potted as many as my 4x8 trailer and my van would hold. I transported them to my new home and placed them in a big circle in my front yard. The lot was covered with trees that had to be removed to make room for the roses, then beds had to be prepared. This was why I had to overwinter them in pots.
It took me the month of September to get it done and the rest of that fall to remove the trees I wanted to get rid of.
When you're obsessed with roses, you'll do most anything to save them.
9/11 occurred right after we moved so my old home didn't sell until the following spring. This gave me all the time I needed to move the roses.
Unfortunately, that next spring I had my stroke and it took quite awhile to get the roses replanted. Because of the stroke, winter protecting wasn't possible any more so Over the next few years I lost most of my hybrid teas. They were replaced with hardy shrub varieties like hybrid rugosas, Canadian Explorers and Parkland roses, anything that would feed my obsession and not require winter protection.
One does what one has to do. I'm completely content with those I now have.
I handle my obsession in another way now. Last year I rooted over 250 cuttings.
I do all this from the seat of my Rascal scooter and with only my right hand.

Karl,

You certainly went through a lot! I should stop complaining about too much work to move my roses at this point. I am speechless.

Now that I know it's possible even move them in the Summer, I will slowly save those big black nursery pots just in case we need to move in summer instead of spring.

Thank you for all your advice.

Jane

Jane, Pot them up in the early spring of the year you're moving. That way they'll be ready to go if you can't move until summer. Transplanting is better in early spring when the roses are just coming out or dormancy or are still dormant. Don't skimp on pot size. Get the biggest you can handle if you think they may be in the pots awhile. Planting a potted rose in hot weather is possible if you don't disturb the root ball while doing so. E-mail me for directions on doing this.

Can you put new roses in pots, or is it too cold there? Then you would have ready mature and well rooted roses to plant when you do get to a new place.

For me, I can't move any roses from our yard, because we have root-knot nematodes in the soil, and I wouldn't want to take them to a new place.

To Karl, thank you for your offering, I will be looking for you before I have to move,and thank you for being so kind. PS. I love all your pictures on your website.

To Mary, just want to you to know that after taking your advice, I ordered 7 more roses now I am sure will have a bad back around planting time. I will forward you my chiropractor bill. (just kidding)

To Becky, I have never tried to put roses in a pot, they always go to the garden directly. I think it might be too cold here to do that. I guess the worst case would be, if I can't move any of them, I will give them away to people on rose forums or leave them to the new owner of the house to enjoy.

Jing

Winter protection would certainly seem to be a significant concern for your area, so having roses be able to keep well-established roots would seem to be a big plus. So... I'm not sure how useful my own experience is for you, since I live on the Gulf Coast. But here it is anyaway, ; )

12 years ago I moved from Mobile, AL to New Orleans, in August! I had 60 roses at the time. I left some that were huge behind, because I didn't have the heart to dig them up and have to cut them way back. Months ahead of time I rooted cuttings from several that were off patent. And all my newer roses I potted up. I can say that even in the heat of August, roses WILL survive if you just pay attention to dilligent watering. I ended up moving just half my roses. The rooted cuttings idea worked great for me, because it was so much easier to deal with little pots. But, if you have frigid winters it may be hard to overwinter tender baby root systems. Even the roses I drastically cut back to almost nothing, with chopped short roots, came back beautifully.
The roses I left behind looked terrific. And I typed up "loving" instructions for basic care and left them to the next occupants. Also left some old pruners and a pump sprayer behind. Wouldn't you know it, 2 years later when I happened to be in Mobile, I drove by the old place and whoever was then living there had torn out every single rose! So much for leaving something wonderful for the next person! I was upset. If you ever face such a choice, you might consider giving the roses you cannot take with you to friends or neighbors who enjoy gardening. It's just too distressing to see people totally disregard roses like that. Reminds me of childhood, when my family sold our home (I was 8 at the time) and moved nearby. The vegetable garden my parents had carefully cultivated got turned into a dog pen! Even the rows of raspberries that were so wonderful ended up unceremoniously torn out. Go figure!

Mike

Yes, realize that the next owner may pull out everything. It's the reality of it.

Can you plant in pots and put the pots in the ground? Would be easier to pull out when the time comes.

I'm probably moving in less than 6 months, and I have rooted cuttings in the ground. (They didn't cost anything but labor, so not as much to lose as buying plants) I probably won't buy any more as I am running out of room, but the rooted cuttings should let me take a few of "my babies" with me. 2-3 years is a long time. You could enjoy many blooms before then. :)

I say go for it. Rose growing is always a testing process -- usually you put in too many and then you keep only the ones you like. In 2 or 3 years, you WILL have developed some favorites, which will be worth it to YOU to go to the trouble to move or replace, and some that you will probably hope that the "new owner" will dig up and discard.

In November of 2009, we moved from northeastern NJ just SW of NYC (6b/7a) to Central Florida (8b/9a), a trip of nearly 1100 miles. We left every one of our 250 rosebushes (mostly HT, FL, GR, and minis and minifloras) behind. They were on the wrong rootstock for Florida (multiflora, Dr. Huey, or ownroot), so there was no point digging them up -- even if we could have afforded to do so. The minis and minifloras in pots were also left behind -- we had no room to take them with us. It broke our hearts, but we had no choice.

We knew in the late fall of 2007 that we would be moving south after I retired in the summer of 2009, so we made no additions in either '08 or '09 -- neither one of us saw the reason to waste the money. We enjoyed what we had while we had them.

Now we're starting from scratch. We planted 8 bushes in the front of the house last year, and this year, we'll have nearly 70 more in the ground (no, we're not rich -- far from it, as we're both on pensions. But I've been selling off books, DVDs, and CDs on Amazon to stock my rosebeds). I've been able to find a lot of our favorites, but am having a harder time finding others, since I'm limited to the varieties I can find on Fortuniana.

My flower bed is not that big, I think I will keep the number of roses under 50. This is my hobby, so I can't expect hubby help with anything. He loves the roses but probably want to leave all of them behind when the time has come for us to move. But I don't mind doing everything, those roses are totally worth it.

I am already planning on giving 2 "not so favorite" roses away this year, so I can make more room for the new ones. for the rest of the roses, I will start to pot my rose and put them in ground when we are ready to sell the house, of course I will give some away to whoever wants them.

Talk about discard roses, shame on my sister-in-law. They bought a house in DC last year with great knock out bushes (6-8 bush) in front of their yard, last week when we visited them she is ready to dig out every single one of them and throw them in the garbage. I told her she can post ad online and asking people who need free rose bushes dig out themselves, but She doesn't seems care about the idea much. So Mike_in_new_Orleans, I totally understand what you are talking about.

Kathy's mention of moving to south or central Florida from a northern state is not the same as moving to a nearby county where your growing conditions won't be much if any different. But it does remind me, about fortuniana rootstock, Kathy, you might consider looking for vendors (or even fellow-rosarians in Florida) who do custom rooting. I understand Jim Mills in Buckatuna, MS will custom root roses. You can buy a rose (at least off-patent ones) and provide budwood to the person grafting, then you can get the variety you want on that rootstock. Probably somewhat pricey, but for old favorates that are otherwise hard to find, it could be worth it. I have a couple roses that are no longer commercially available as far as I know. So I would hate to just leave them behind. It is certainly some trouble moving roses, but when you consider the expense of replacing them, it may very well be worth it.

Fortuniana is reportedly more challenging to graft onto than some other rootstocks. I've never even tried it. I tried to bud onto several Dr. Hueys many years ago, mostly out of curiosity. None of mine were successful, so I haven't even felt tempted to try fortuniana. Besides, after I moved from Mobile to New Orleans, I have since then grown roses exclusively in pots. Its easier for me living in a neighborhood with tremendously invasive tree roots. Plus, I'm limited to space for a maxiumum of about 40 roses, so I like to swap a few out each year as well as rearrange what I have from time to time. Keeps the garden interesting, and it is worlds easier with potted roses. I'm talking about 16-18 inch diameter pots for minis and 20-24in for the hybrid teas. Anyway, for potted roses, ownroot is just easier and seems to adapt to the confined space the best.

Mike

Forgot to mention, regarding your sister chucking the knockout roses, I guess there are different ways to look at it. Think of all the pruned branches all of us rose growers toss out. In theory, those could become many individual plants. So many people reasonably think of plants in a similar way. If they don't want them, unless they're rare varieties, giving them away would just deprive struggling rose growers/vendors from earning a little income from orders for their propagation efforts.
But I have a hard time just throwing out bushes. The only ones I have tossed in the trash are ones that have had serious disease problems that I wouldn't want to burden unsuspecting new rose growers with. So I've given lots over the years to co-workers, friends, and neighbors. Last year I had run out of acquaintances with any room left for more roses, so my wife suggested Craig's list. I did't even have to post a "free roses" post. I just looked up people looking for free garden plants and responded. It was easy, and they came and got them. You just have to decide how to "package them." Either old nursery pots you don't want anymore or even a couple layers of black garbage sacks around a rootball, then wrapped in duck tape.

Mike

Trust me I know her very well, she definitely wasn't thinking for the rose grower/vendors (lol). She even said she just hate these bushes in her front yard and want to get rid of them. (these roses are big, healthy and beautiful too) oh well, that's her choice I guess.

For the rose I don't want anymore,I posted an ad. "free rose plant" on craigslist few days ago and got many replies,I will make sure it will end up with a good home.

I don't mind start over if it's really necessary, however, because the love and efforts I put in my roses, it would be very hard for me to part with them. :)

Just a thought: if I bought a house partly because I was so charmed by its garden, I'd be outraged if when I went to move in, many of the plants and shrubs had disappeared. Be sure the buyer understands (perhaps signs a paper indicating agreement) that many plants will not be included in the sale.

Carol

Carol,

I already thought of that. When we first bought this house and start planting roses, I told my hubby one day when we sale it, we will have something in written that most of the roses are not going to be included in the sale. :) What I am going to do is, I will replace them with some hardy perennial.

Get them potted up and segregated from the others prior to putting the house up for sale.
It was fortunate for me my house didn't sell right away. 9/11 occurred the day after we put it on the market. It didn't sell until the following April so I had all fall to move my roses and get the yard reseeded. I put shrubs and sod in the front and by the time it sold, everything looked natural.

Landscaping goes with the house unless you exclude it in the contract. This, of course, excludes plants in pots.