I have 18 roses in containers. My climber is in a 15 gallon plastic container and the rest are hybrid tea roses in 5 and 6 gallon containers (5 gallon plastic and what I am calling 6 gallon are terra cotta pots that are bigger than 5 gallons but not by much - they could be 7 gallons). My roses started bare root (with 2 exceptions - 1 pulled from the ground and 1 purchased already potted) 6 years ago. Obviously it's better to have a bigger pot, but I haven't had major problems with this size pot. I have changed the soil once so far just to keep it fresh. I fertilize every other week at 1/2 strength with liquid fertilizer similar to Miracle Gro and once per month I fertilize with fish emulsion and an organic slow-acting fertilizer like alfalfa meal, blood meal, or Grow More. I never apply all of this on the same day, so that usually means a schedule similar to: Wednesday Week 1 Organic granular fertilizer Saturday Week 1 Weak liquid fertilizer Saturday Week 2 Weak liquid fertilizer Wednesday Week 2 Spray fungicide Saturday Week 3 Weak liquid fertilizer Wednesday Week 3 Fish emulsion Saturday Week 4 Weak liquid fertilizer Wednesday Week 4 Spray fungicide (I try to do the nasty things like spray chemicals and smelly fish emulsion during the week so that my neighbors and I don't have to deal with it when we are BBQing and the like on the weekends.) I spray for insects when they become a problem, except that I do proactively spray all of my buds with spinosad because thrips are the bane of my existence. For instance, I don't think I sprayed an insecticide at all last year. Most years I end up spraying maybe twice. I don't want to kill the praying mantis and hover flies that I get. Fungicide is a different story and I spray every other week (the week I do not fertilize). I use Immunox alternated with Mancozeb/Banner Maxx. When I do use an insecticide I use one mixed with yet a different fungicide just to switch it up. That's about it. Here in CA I usually prune in January, although I pruned in February this year. We usually get 3 flushes per year, although I had 4 this year with the mild weather. The biggest challenge I face growing roses in containers is keeping them watered. A rose in the ground can withstand even the fiercest heat for a few days between waterings. My container roses need to be watered every day when the temperature is above 90 degrees and when it's 100+ sometimes I water them twice if they look sad when I get home from work. If I miss a day the roses don't die, but the new growth gets crispy and the flowers I work so hard for burn up. Luckily, this is usually just for a couple of weeks in July or August. Otherwise, I water 2-3x per week. Right now with the rain I am watering just 1x to supplement Mother Nature.

My question is, is your garage insulated but unheated? If so then you could garage it until spring. Put it up on some wood blocks and remember to water it some every month. You can just put a shovel of snow on the top of the pot when you shovel but roses need water over the winter and since it's inside it won't get that naturally. If it's not insulated then it won't really be much protection. With the past two winters we've had I'm thinking planting would be better. Do it ASAP so it has as much time as possible to settle in before the ground freezes. Bury it deep to protect the crown as much as possible. Don't winter protect it too soon. You have to wait until it is completely dormant to put any kind of winter protection on it, There are two problems with covering them too soon. The first is that if it's still warm and the little critters haven't made their winter nests they'll find those leaves make a great nesting spot and your rose is a built in food source. I lost a few roses that way one year. The second problem is the purpose of covering is not to keep them warm but to keep them dormant in the spring when the temps are fluctuating a lot. You don't want them to come out of dormancy too soon and then get hit with a late killing frosts. The heavy mulching keeps the soil from thawing out and encouraging the rose to grow before it's time.

Prune first, then dig. It will reduce stress on the plants in case you are not able to get all of the roots. Also note campv's issue. If you can't bring in soil, then you can bareroot the plants, keep the roots moist, and plant them once you arrive in NV.

This seems like the perfect thread for information about roses and 511 mix. I decided to put all my roses in 20in x 20in air pots with 511 mix. All of them were bare root. So far, it hasn't been great. the bareroots have taken more time than usual to start growing. They also show signs of needing more water. My mix seems to be water repellent and I have had to start watering earlier this year in order to keep the roses from dying off. After a couple of rains and waterings, the pots seem to be holding onto water a little better, and my roses are starting to wake up. But I can still tell the soil is dry when I stick my finger in the top of it. I guess that means it's draining well, but it's not retaining water. This made me worry about summer. So I decided to take some smaller 5gallon air pots and double the peat moss in the recipe to 512. It still drained really fast, but I don't know if that is better for the larger pots or not. So I took another pot and increased the mix to 513. After filling it with water, it behaved much more like the potting mix I normally use (miracle gro potting mix). This morning, I could tell it was retaining water. We had an 80 degree full sun day today, so I'm going to see how it handled it when I get home from work. Thought I'd share this for others who might be interested in this. Everyone's experience has already been very helpful!