Agreed. This rose should move well. The more roots you save, the less cutting on top you have to do. I make a frame out of bamboo or pipe and put a shade cloth over it if the weather gets hot right after the move. A big market umbrella works well too. Don't let the midday sun beat down on the moved rose until the roots heal a bit. Now is the time to find a better spot and dig a HUGE hole. Bigger than the previous one. I'm on my third Madame P. and cannot get enough. One is trained up as a semi climber and one I maintain as a 5 foot bush. The other is trained out low ( more about that later). I let them grow as they will for 3 years and then the training begins. For the traditional bush- Once you get big sturdy canes coming up, shorten them back in summer after flowering when they look like so many fishing poles shooting out of the top of the bush. Then you should get a decent fall crop of flowers. I get some now and again through the year but only when I shorten the "poles" in the summer. If you leave the canes in the center taller, and trim the others progressively shorter as you go outward until at the very front, they are quite short, you will get a rose that spring blooms top to bottom! To increase the flowers, every year, do the spring pruning slightly higher than the year before so that you end up with what I call "branchy tops". That increases the flowers X4 or more. You have to figure out where you want the eventual height of the trimmed rose to be with this method and start trimming lower than that because by year 3 and four when its branchy it will be the final height you want. This training is only for plants that are throwing up big fat canes, not roses that are just moved and starting to establish in the first 3 or 4 years. Mine start out ( I dig them up and split them sometimes) as young tall thin plants and gradually build into big rounded bushes full of branchy ends that are loaded with flowers. If you don't force the branching on each cane, you will get one big bloom on the end of each tall wand ( how mine look in the first years) The last one I have is allowed to grow tall and then I bend it down- not quite pegged down to the earth- through the other plants. Then I get a huge crop through the geraniums, penstemon,iris,etc. ALL ALONG the long cane. This is the most work to do because you have to tie them down to poles and then you have the canes and poles to step around as you pull weeds and mulch. I think it's worth it if you want these huge blooms by the bucket full. Truly this is one of the best roses heaven ever gave us and there are many great ways to grow it. I even grew one in a pot but don't think it could get the size it needs to get because it needs lots of room for the roots to get big so you can get the amazing flowers. Shake out the water that rained overnight into the open blooms into a glass bowl and you will taste something so rare...the amazing perfume as you drink the rainwater...try it for yourself..I do this whenever I can and it's a real treat for the senses. Good luck with the move. I know you will just love this rose once it gets over 4 years old and becomes big.

Even just a 3 year old plant has a surprisingly massive and dense root system. Cut the vines back to about 8-12". Dig the root ball as big and deeply as possible, but even and 18x18 inch rootball is going to be difficult to manage. It has to be small enough that it can be moved and replanted without too much fuss. I recommend having a male helper if you can. It takes a lot to lift the root ball out if the ground. I wouldn't worry about moving it though, Clematis are fairly tough and forgiving plants. I have dropped rootballs, and soil has fallen away, but they all seem to respond well once they have a chance to settle in. It could take a year or two. At least that has been my experience. I've had clematis that do even better following a move as it gets their root ball shaken up a bit. :)

I dunno, I think you could move it now and it would have time to get settled before the snow flies in Vermont. I would in any case give it a hard prune in early spring. Gary

I have a couple of strange tools for cutting tough, never-ending roots. One is a wide-bladed chisel such as a mason might use to split bricks, except it's cruder (I made it out of a railroad spike.) I put it against the root and hammer on it with a mallet. The other is a homemade machete type of knife made from an old car spring. Same kind of deal. If you find a beat-up lopper at a rummage sale you might be able to cut roots with that. Have you ever used a comealong? It's a lever-operated block and tackle device that will exert a lot of pull, so you won't have to do the grab-and-run thing. You're almost there. Keep at it! :-)M