Question
It's spring in Minnesota and I want to move two suckers (I assume they are suckers) of a William Baffin climber away from the mother plant.  The rose branches are 5 feet tall.  Can I cut them back to 2-3 feet for easier handling?

Is it advisable to take a straight spade to cut around the roots--I assume they're attached to the mother plant--before they get going too much and until I can dig them up?  They'll be donated at a plant sale, but we want them potted for several weeks before they sell, so we're doing it in late April for a May 22 sale.

We are zone 4 in Minneapolis, MN

So, cutting back and cutting around roots?

Thanks
mw

Answer
It might be a wisdom to make sure it is a basal cane of William Baffin and not a sucker from the understock. I would dig back right to the base of where the sucker is coming from. Cut it off right where it is joined to the main rose. Cut it back to no less than 3 feet as it is a climber. Trim any very long roots coming from off the sucker, back to 12 inches and then pot it up. If the sucker is coming from below a bump where the rose is grafted, it will probably be just a sucker. However I don't think it would be budded in your cold winters. Water, water, water daily to just keep the soil damp but not wet. No fertilizer as the roots will have been disturbed and not  able to use it. The sucker should look like an underground roots with the canes growing from the end of it. Shorten the root if it won't fit into a pot but make sure you have at least 12 inches of the roots from which it is coming from. Sorry, I sound confusing. The sucker should look like 12 inches of dark roots with 3 feet of green cane at the end and this should fit into a pot.