Question
My grandmother is finally moving out of her house, and since my grandfather (who is now deceased) was so fond of his rosebushes, I decided to take 3 of them to my house.  the are well aged and very healthy.  What is the best way to go about doing this?  It's the end of April, and we are in Northern VA.  Am I supposed to prep the ground or add anything to it?  I am not too sure of the variety of the roses, I think one is called "Mr. Lincoln" and the other two, I am not sure.  I just really want the relocation to be a success.  Oh, and how much sun do they need?

Answer
Now is okay to dig up the roses and replant them if you are in an area that has had a cold winter. If you are in a warmer area you can replant them but you will be taking a chance that they may not survive.  First have the new hole ready before moving the rose. Although roses like full sun 8 hours will be okay  especially if your summer is hot.
The night before you move, cut back the roses to about 2 feet and cut out any dead canes of those that are thinner than a pencil and water them well. You can't help damaging the root system when you dig the rose out and pruning them back means the roots don't have as much growth to sustain. Plant them right away firming the soil around him with your feet, place some sort of mulch around the base to keep the new roots that grow cool as well as the older ones and then water, water, water. Never mind if the roses looks droopy, just ignore the fact they are in a snit and keep watering. If the sun gets too hot and makes them droopy, then throw wet material over the top of them. The reason that transplanted roses die is because digging them out has damaged or even killed the feeder roots which do the job of taking up the nutrients and water to the rose canes. Now you have to do the job for at least a couple of months until the new ones have grown and can do the job as before. Sometime roses when they have been transplanted in warm gardens may not perk up until the middle of the summer. Large roses are usually more tricky to transplant then younger ones so even if the roses look poor don't assume they are dead because they may not start to come back until next spring.