Moving plants in winter

[greenerfingers]

Hello my green thumbed advisors!

I'll be moving home next week and am very worried about moving my plants. They are currently in the ground and will have to be in pots for the foreseeable future (maybe 3/4 months). They are my David Austen roses and Salvia plants mainly. My bulbs I'll be leaving behind as I don't know if it's a good idea to take them out. My other plants are dormant right now so have no idea where to dig up without killing them.

Any tips would be wonderful, and if it'll mean they'll all just die then I may just have to leave them .

For context I'm SE England and it's very frosty.

Thank you

It is the best time of year for moving stuff while it’s dormant, as long as it’s not frosty.

However, salvias are not generally long lived, so I’d probably not take them.
Looking after stuff in pots is extra work, I’d probably only bother if its something really special/sentimental your trying to save.
Half the fun of gardening is mooching round the garden centre buying new stuff!
I’d just divide and take small pots of any perennials that you’d like to take with you.
Just get a good root ball and water well. A sturdy bin bag is sometimes helpful if you’ve no pots big enough and can get it planted promptly in the new house.

If your new garden is ready to go, its bareroot season, so you can buy roses, shrubs, trees very reasonably compared to potted on versions. I can vouch for some beautiful roses on the DA website! However our local garden centre are doing 3 for £28, not the “Waitrose” DA varieties though!

Are you selling your home? Have you told your buyer that you are taking plants? They’re regarded as fixtures and normally part of the sale

bulbs will survive - they may miss a season’s flowering.

This. I was mighty pissed off when our previous owner took some plants, not pissed off enough to do anything legally, but you’re selling the whole lot, including what’s in the ground

Having moved a vast amount of plants in the past (all agreed upfront with buyers) I wouldn’t bother again. There is no guarantee they will survive being dug up, they are a pain to look after (especially prone to vine weevil in pots), and may not be happy or right in your new garden anyway. You can replace your DA roses; if you’re really keen you could take cuttings of your salvias but again you can probably replace those pretty easily.

If you must, and if it’s been agreed upfront (or you are renting) then I would consider the DA roses if you can’t see yourself replacing them, but they will need big deep pots and good solid potting compost (I’d go for soil based, a John Innes mix), and you need to cut them right back and maximise the amount of root you get out. The rest I would just start afresh.

Thank you for the replies!

No I'm not selling up, we were renting temporarily and had grown the plants with an intention to take them once we get our own place. Owners are happy with it as they plan to do work.

The roses are sentimental but other plants I wanted to take just because they've grown considerably in size last few summers and would fill borders nicely rather than wait again.