Roses

I never really thought I'd like to grow roses.  After all, they have thorns, and little bugs, and the everyone talks, they like a lot of attention.  So I never bothered with them.  But last weekend my brother bought a house with a LOT of roses, and he doesn't want them.  I ended up with three rose bushes, and might have more before we're done.

So...how are you supposed to transplant a rose?  Knowing nothing, I just dug 'em up, stuck 'em in a bucket, added water, and hauled them home.  It was a pretty hot day, and we had other errands to run, so they sat in the back of the truck for several hours.  When we got home, we dug holes, added a bunch of water, threw in a handful of some kind of rose food we found in his new garage, and stuck the roses in.  Since then I've been watering them, but I really don't quite know what to do next.  I have already shocked them to death, and I'll see the results later.

But whether they live or die, I've decided I'd like to know how and when to transplant roses, and what to do with them afterwards.  (Just in case someday I end up with one that lives!!)  I started digging around the Internet, and this is what I found out.

Things I Did Wrong:
1. Roses are best transplanted in late winter or early spring.  (I transplanted them on a 100 degree July summer day.)
2. Prune the rose.  (I guess I'd better figure out how to do that correctly and give it a try.)
3. Spread out the roots over a mound of dirt in the new hole.  (I just plunked it in there!)

Things I Did Right:
1.  Flood the hole and give it lots of water when transplanting.
2.  Plant it about the same level as it was before.
3.  Water daily for a week.

One post I read said not to drown roses - that they thrive in dry heat.  It also said they're very tough, and it's very hard to kill them.  (Whew!  They might still have a chance to make it.)

So what about pruning?  I'm beginning to think it's a good thing to cut plants back.  I've seen some good results with a few other things.  The things I've read say to open up the center of the plant, to make 45 degree cuts with sharp by-pass pruners, remove all dead wood (cut to where the center of the stem is white).  Apparently I should prune in the spring, when the leaf buds on the roses begin to swell.  Well, I'll give that a try...if they live.