My family and I are going to be moving in the next few months and my mom has some rose bushes.  We're hoping they survive the transplanting but I was thinking about taking some clippings to plant too as a kind of back up plan to increase our chances of having the rose bushes for her.

I live in zone 10 (I'm fairly sure though it may be zone 9) according to a map of the zones with the temperatures listed in the Gardening Essentials book I got when I joined the club (I love this book, and I've only just started to read it).  Any advice and/or tips on propagating roses this way?

Does anyone know if I can propagate roses this way?

Thank you both for your advice.  I'll let you know how the move goes when it happens, though we don't expect to be moving until sometime around Christmas.  For those who are willing we could use prayer that the move goes smoothly and as stress free as possible.

Rose bushes are hard to propagate by cuttings.Use young shoots and rooting hormone.Why don't you just move them? If you buy a rose plant in the store, they are usually bare roots in a plastic bag. As long as you keep the roots from drying out, they will transplant nicely. I don't know where you are moving to but you said that you were already in zone 10. Moving roses in the winter is never a good idea. Moving to zone 9 won't make much difference. You might want to try potting them and bringing them inside until winter passes. If you do choose to transplant them this fall, make sure that they are heavily protected! Mulch them and put a rose cover over them. Roses are hard to grow properly. They have many diseases and don't like change. Depending on the variety, of course. Heck, try all three methods! What do you have to loose?

One other option is to ask the new homeowner if you can come back in the spring and divide some of the plants. They might let you. You'll never know unless you ask. If worst comes to worst, plant new ones! Good Luck!

Del 

     I thank you for your advice gshoemaker.  I'll try to answer the questions and comments you had on my move and my mom's roses.

Why don't you just move them?

     We're planning to move the main plants, but my mom really loves them and I'm trying to increase the chances that her roses will make it in the move.

I don't know where you are moving to but you said that you were already in zone 10. Moving roses in the winter is never a good idea.

     We're moving about three miles down the road and we're not sure exactly when the move will happen, we're just hoping to do it by Christmas.  It looks like it'll happen a little after that though, but we're not sure of that.

You might want to try potting them and bringing them inside until winter passes.

     We just might try that, it'll depend on how much space we have inside when we're done moving our stuff into the new house.

Mulch them and put a rose cover over them.

     Any kind of mulch you recommend, or will any kind of mulch do?  Where would I get rose covers?

Roses are hard to grow properly. They have many diseases and don't like change. Depending on the variety, of course.

     We've never had problems with our roses other than remembering to water them more in the summer and keeping the animals (rabbits when the roses were small, our dogs when the roses got too big the the bunnies) away from them. 

Depending on the variety, of course. Heck, try all three methods! What do you have to loose?

     The varieties I'm sure of that we have are 1 Peace Rose,  and 1 Lasting Peace Rose Tree.  I'll add any others later if I remember the names.  We do plan to move the main plants, but we wanted to propagate them too so we can increase our chances of my mom's roses surviving the move.

One other option is to ask the new homeowner if you can come back in the spring and divide some of the plants.

     Normally that might be a great idea, but the new property owner is going to be planting palm trees on the 20 to 40 acres (the size depends on how things go with other factors that could take a page to explain).  So obviously the roses wouldn't still be there later, though at the rate things are going it'll be January or February before we get totally moved.

If worst comes to worst, plant new ones! Good Luck!

     If we need to we'll definitely plant new ones, we're just hoping we don't have to.  Thanks for the good wishes, it's greatly appreciated.

     I hope this helps to answer your questions and provided you with information that explains why we're looking at propagating our roses in the dead of winter.  Thanks again to everyone for the advice, I plan to file all of it away for future reference should I need it again.

Natuernut/Michael    Life Member: Zone 9/10    Southern California