Taking cuttings or moving an old rose

[didireallysaythat]

The garden we moved into had a somewhat neglected rose against the house. It had one major stem, went straight up but made fantastic big, brassy, fragrant red roses about 12 feet in the air. I took some cuttings and one took (see photo against fence) so I cut the main plant down as we're going to be doing some building work in a years time so I've started moving plants. I thought I'd probably kill it, but of course it's come back nice and strong (rubbish picture of the two stems next to catnip).

What I'd like to do is either transplant the rose (bit risky give it's old and narly at the bottom?) or take more cuttings (but the wood is very fresh - is this possible and when should I try?).

Any advice gratefully received !

i moved about 30 roses last winter - they were all about 15 years old. Some didn't survive but the majority were fine and some of them look really healthy and are flowering madly now.
I moved them in Feb - and I think it's probably better to wait until winter if you can - pruned them down a lot, dug them out carefully and then replanted into new holes with plenty of john innes no 3 and some mycorhyzzal (i can never spell this so forgive spelling) on the roots.

That's a good idea. I could lightly prune in the autumn to take some hard wood cuttings then shift in the spring. I know the root dip stuff you mean - top tip ! Thank you

Thanks for this thread OP - I need to move a rose that was bought and planted as a climber but has turned out to be a bush. It's far too big where it is so I shall be joining you in the winter rose moving!

Can I ask how you took the cuttings? I had no idea you could take rose cuttings so I'd like to take a few just in case it doesn't survive transplanting.

Since lots of roses are grafted, if you take cuttings you may end up with a plant of a different habit from the parent plant.
The most likely risk of this is that you'll end up with a climber from a shrub.
If you are taking cuttings from a climber you should be fine.

I can get a climber from a shrub? I want a climber and I have a shrub!

I'm not good at this but I chopped off about a foot of a hard wood branch, and cut this into 4 inch sections. I shoved these into a pot and forgot about them for months. One rooted and grew from the bottom OK. The others rotted off.

Cupcakes youcan only get a climber from a shrub if the original top part of the graft was a climber.
You could try it out and see what you get after about 4 years...