Gail Futoran wrote:

"E" wrote in message
m...
I just purchased a house in the Portland, OR area with a very large
yard that probably has over 30 rose bushes that I think have been
neglected for a few years. I believe most of them are fairly old
rose bushes. Most of them have not been pruned back as I've been
told they should have been. I've never had roses before, and have no
idea what they all are. I'd like to move them all out of the flower
beds around the house and into a central "rose garden". Can I do
this now? Should I wait until next fall? Is there anything special I
should do when I transplant them?

I hope someone in the PNW comments on pruning time up there. Seems a
bit late to do anything other than a firm deadheading to remove any
hips, dead wood, and tiny twiggy stuff, but someone knows the answer.
Check the local rose society site for info. Also: remember that
climbers aren't pruned back hard. Are all these roses bushes?

I moved three very large and one small rose last winter in a fit of
redecorating. The ideal is to do it in the late winter, if you can work
the soil then, with the roses dormant, just as if you were barerooting
the roses. Prepare the beds you're moving into several months in
advance. It's hard work. I can't imagine doing 30 roses at a sitting.
That would take me several years.

I cut back roses that were 6 feet tall and wide to about 12 to 18
inches. I even left a 3 foot cane on Pierre de Ronsard. It was scary,
but it worked. The roses I cut back hardest look the best now. I
already had the beds prepared well in advance, amended, 2 x 2 ft. holes
filled with bone meal and compost and good stuff. Then I *cut* out huge
root masses, as large as I could handle with one helper, carried them
to their new home in a muck bucket, and planted. I didn't worry about
the small feeder roots: this was just like barerooting in the fields,
where the feeder roots don't make it and you try to preserve large
anchor roots. Every rose survived and is thriving right now. The roses
I moved were 2 Westerlands, 1 Pierre de Ronsard and Sunsprte. Sunsprite
loved the hard pruning. Here's a little webpage that shows a bit of the
roses and the process, before and after.
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ecbernstein/Bareroots.html

"Cass" asked

Allegra: More roses- Too late to prune?

Yes, if my roses are an indication and in general
here in the NW. After the first week of April is
rosecide to go after them with a pair of Felcos.

The best thing to do as you already suggested is
to clean up the beds of decaying material underneath
to control any fungus that may appear particularly
if the poor things have indeed were neglected,
deadhead anything that may be still be clinging to
them, taking the twigs and any dead wood would
not harm them, but getting into the canes with
anything but a debris bag is asking for trouble.

This is the time when the cane borers are having
their babies and any injury to the cambium or
the wood is an invitation for them to move in so
that has to be considered as well. Not to speak of
the despicable aphids that so far haven't shown here
but PM is having a field day. Banner Maxx and
Indicate 5 ( now called Phase 5 according to the
person BH talked to when ordering ) are coming
either today or tomorrow so we will mix them,
then we suit and go...

Allegra