You find you need to transplant one of your beloved rose bushes? When is the best time to do this? You want to give the rose bush to a friend and you’d love to give her a bush that is full of beautiful blooms. However, this isn’t the best time to transplant your rose if you want to have the most chance of success.
Digging up and moving your bush to another spot presents some trauma to the poor plant and the heat of midsummer it can mean lots of wilting and possibly the loss of your plant. Whilst it is possible to successfully transplant your rose in summer, if you can rather wait until the plant is in a dormant state and the weather is cool and damp. This might be in the fall or the springtime.

Step 1: Prepare the New Home for the Plant

It’s important that you have everything ready and prepared so that you can simply place the rose bush into its new home readily and easily. This will limit the time that the plant has to remain out of the soil with its roots exposed. As with all rose plantings, you want to ensure rich, well-drained soil with lots of compost added. Make sure that you dig a hole that is going to be large enough to accommodate the entire root ball of the plant. It would be better for you to dig too big a hole than have too small a hole.

Step 2: Water Your Rose Bush Before You Dig it Up

You need to ensure that your rose bush is well hydrated to prepare it best for the shock of transplant. Water your plant very well the day before you dig it up. This will also have the added advantage of ensuring that you can more easily dig into the soil to extract your bush.

Step 3: Dig up Your Rose Bush

Carefully dig your plant up. Draw a circle around the bush that is approximately as wide as the longest canes. Then dig in your shovel and carefully dig right around the bush. If you notice any large roots that are in the way of your shovel, don’t hack at them as this will only traumatize the plant significantly. Rather cut them cleanly with a lopper. Once you’ve dug your circle, gently insert your shovel under the root ball and then lever the plant out of the soil. You want to try to limit damage to the fine root hairs so try to be as gentle as possible and take as much soil as possible.

Step 4: Plant Your Bush in its New Home

Move the plant rapidly to the hole that you’ve already prepared and place the root ball carefully in the hole. If you have to transplant the bush for some distance, then cover the root ball with a piece of moist burlap to limit water loss. Once you’ve placed your bush into the hole, cover the roots with compost and soil. Then water extensively for the next week.

Next summer you should have beautiful flowers from your rose again!