Dig it now before while its energy is focused on rooting and it turns it energy to new leaves and blooms. Or wait until next winter when it goes dormant again. Roses are actually harder to kill than you would think.

You have me intrigued now about your Undoubtedly Famous Named Red HT. You must take a pic next spring and let us see its bloom. Who knows, maybe we can even identify it for you. Wouldn't that be cool!

Kate

I doubt I will get around to moving it this year. I will need to gear up for it mentally and then wait for a wet stretch so the ground will be easier to dig. I am slowly preparing some of my side yard for roses, so I can reserve a spot for it over there.

Kate, I have tried to ID this... can't really narrow it down. I'm assuming it's a Famous Name because the other three roses planted by the previous owners were the Putative Peace, an unmistakable Fragrant Cloud, and a (labeled) Perfect Moment. The red thing is a lovely rose and I assume it's another AARS winner. I remember I ruled out one of them because the new growth on the one I ruled out was really different looking than mine. Big help, I know. I will try to get a picture posted come springtime.

Roses are actually one of the easiest shrubs to transplant, from the roses' point of view. Their thorns can make matters difficult from the transplanter's point of view. I can tell you what I would do here in my zone 5 garden:

I would proceed a step at a time (one day for each step, with maybe a day off between steps on the veranda with the eyeshades and mint julip) and I'd choose a date in early Spring with cool temps but warm enough to work the ground, around late March or early April here.

1) I'd prepare the hole. I wouldn't make it too big, maybe a foot deep and two feet wide. That gives you an idea of how much of the root system I'd plan on moving.

2) I'd get some lopping pruners with 3 ft handles and cut every cane back to 12 inches or so. I'd use the pruners to pull each cane out into the yard where I could get at it and cut it into manageable lengths for disposal in a bag or whatever you need for disposal. I'd do this right away while the canes are still easy to cut. My reason for drastic pruning has nothing to do with best practicices for transplanting - it's simply to make matters easier for me.

3) I'd dig a trench around the rose, maybe a foot out from the base, and a foot deep using the lopping pruners to sever the roots outside of this circle and eventually free the plant. I wouldn't concern myself with keeping an intact rootball of soil around the rose, simply as a practical matter, I wouldn't want to transport that much weight. I'd move the rose, mulch the stems and keep it watered.

I would do exactly as "mike rivers" says and move it to the side yard where the rose bed will be. How wonderful it would be next year that it'll be all established and ready to bloom its head off! So, move it! This year!

The trickiest bit technically is making the ground workable. This rose is in a plot that obviously was heavily amended at one point, but the underlayer is clay and if it's not WET it's brutal to dig. We don't freeze to the soil much here (usually) so the real issue is water. The ideal day to dig is on a coolish day after weeks of rain. This rose has been there long enough to be rooted well into the clay, so I really have to plan around the rain pattern. Then there's the fact that *I* am battered and broken etc. etc. I have a huge (for me) house project that is higher priority right now, so this may just have to wait until next year. But, I may get an early spring warm storm that opens up the perfect opportunity.

Thanks Mike Rivers for the detailed instructions. It frightens the living daylights out of me to chop back to 12" but at least I'd be trying it on a rose it wouldn't actually kill me to lose....

If it was me, and if you do this you realize it is at your own risk,LOL, I would wrap a strap around the main cane close to the ground, water well, and hook it up to my tractor in my lowest gear and speed, and pull it out of the ground and replant it immediately maybe after pruning it after I saw what it looked like.

If only I had a tractor. I don't think my Integra would be keen on doing double duty.