I moved from a house in Santa Cruz, at the end of February when roses have already come out of dormancy here. A woman friend of mine knew how much I loved those roses which I intended to leave. I came out of the house and almost had a heart attack when I saw my roses lying in the yard with bare roots! She pulled full grown hybrid teas right out of the ground, bare-rooted them. Isn't that funny she didn't even tell me she was going to do that to my babies, I would have tried to stop her. I wish I could remember how she prepared them for storage. Anyway, I'm sure it was at least a week maybe several before I actually planted them, in large pots, and they did fine, even that first year. I did add quite a bit of good quality homemade compost to the potting soil. Years later I moved again this time I had my husband and another man to help move the roses. They were grumbling at the prospect of hard work, so I walked through the garden, saying take this one, leave that one, this ones too large, so leave it, etc, and I put out some cardboard boxes lined with plastic garbage bags. Then I went to get some more boxes at the grocery store, and returned in 40 minutes, they had removed every rose, with root balls and soil and they were in the truck. I was amazed, but since the soil had been well built up with with compost and mulch, the roses dug up much easier than the men had expected, and they actually enjoyed doing it. This time we took root balls and soil, and some quite large roses. Then when we planted them, we tried to prune only lightly, but some showed by wilting that they needed harder pruning. Every one that we actually got in the ground within a month or so did fine. The sooner the better of course. Just keep them in shade or semi-shade and don't allow drying out in the boxes. Good luck.

I live in British Columbia and there can be wet, cold weather in spring. My Dark Desire is now 8 years old. It never, ever gets black spot and it is not overly thorny (the worst possible thorns are on Falling in Love.) These aspects are apparently very variable according to location. It would grow too tall and become leggy but I cut it down every sprng. I have to because the cold winter always causes some die off, but each spring it renews itself again. It needs a rejuvenation but I have no idea what more it needs than the fertilizer I provide each year. Too bad they can't talk.

Flamenco Rosita (also known as Ivor's Rose) is a magenta like pink. I wouldn't really call it hot pink, but it is a bright color. It gets pretty big so give it lots of room. Its extremely disease resistant and the blooms last very well in the vase. Mine is a sparse bloomer however, but its only a couple of years old and I recently moved it, so I'm betting it will pick up in a year or two.

JJ and Lily, I move roses around like they were furniture in a living room. Here is my best experiences. First, when possible, I move them as soon as the dirt is thawed enough to be dug in the spring when they are dormant. Dig the destination holes first. Next, dig a large area around the roots to take as much root with you as possible AND, take as much dirt as possible. I use 2 shovels and place the rose between them before I lift them out. Sort of like a shovel/rose sandwich. Then I place them in their new hole and add water and fill in with dirt. Most often they don’t even know they have been moved. To do it later in the season is tricky. I did it last year. I used old sheets on copper pipe trellises in front of the roses and made sure I watered twice a day. It was 90-100 degrees. I moved 4 of them,and 3 of them were little. The 3 little ones did great. The jury is still out on the larger rose. It’s canes stayed green, but it didn’t grow leaves afterwards, so I’ll find out if it’s alive this spring. Believe it or not, I am going to be moving 3 of those 4 roses again this spring... it’s just the way I do. :) If you like the location, JJ, I would give them another year. Use a good fertilizer (I use Osmocote 1/4 cup per plant early in the spring) and water them well during the season. See if that doesn’t make a difference. Rebecca