I have good success treating them like an out-of-season bareroot planted in a pot. It's best to get a 6-8 inch piece of root. Forget about the feeder roots. Look for the anchor cane plus suckering rhizomatous stuff. I plant the sucker quite deep to keep the cane(s) hydrated until feeder roots develop. I keep it in the shade by the kitchen door. I mist it often (couple of times a day if it's hot) until I see new growth buds. I wouldn't mist during the rainy season. I don't cut the sucker back. I don't use any fertilizer. You do have to be patient. I dug suckers in late July, and I wasn't confident that they were rooted until early October. The Gallica did not re-leaf those portions that dropped leaves, which was the whole think except for the top 4 or 5 leaf nodes on the big cane and the top two on the little cane.

This is an optimal sucker. Believe me, I've had much much worse, including a 4 foot tall cane with about 4 inches of root that I dug out of hardpan in the middle of summer, and it lived.
{{gwi:318973}}

That's good advice. I haven't tried it yet, but someone mentioned here one time, and it makes sense to me, to sever the feeder root from the mama plant and then wait awhile before digging up. That way the sucker has time to adjust getting fed with it's own feeder roots and while it forces itself to make new roots. Can't remember how long, but seems to me a month wouldn't hurt...

I do pretty much what Cass does, except I do cut the top back a bit (so the sucker isn't so top heavy, in most cases) and I keep the suckers moist using a mist system in the shade. I dig my suckers in the fall, as the leaves begin to drop off the roses and I can see what I'm doing a little better. This is also a good time, in my experience, to try to propagate some of these suckering roses via cuttings, so I usually slice the top of the sucker into cuttings while I'm at it.

Right now, I have Apothecary Rose and Banshee and a couple of others planted in small pots under the mist, and a large pot with a Celsiana sucker that I got at a plant exchange. I have more varieties to dig in the next week or so.

Connie

I have also had good luck severing the sucker but leaving it undisturbed in the ground for a while. Later I did it up as the separate plant it now it.

This works for own root rugosas too. If I just dig them up without rooting them, they usually die.

Rosefolly

A small clarification for lagomorphmom. Feeder roots are the tiny hair-like roots, not the big root that connects to the Motherplant colony. To leave the sucker to root in place, the root to sever is the big root that connects to the Motherplant colony, which is what you described.

Good advice here. The thing to remember is you can't ever expect to get enough feeder roots to support a leafy top. So either coddle in the shade as Cass suggests, or sever the connecting root around 8" from the sucker and wait 4-6 weeks. I haven't tried this yet, but it might work to dig the sucker in late winter before growth starts, plant it and mound it as you would a bareroot.

With some varieties, offset stems that come out a foot wide of the crown can also be forced to root in situ by severing at the crown and waiting.

I have so many typos in my comment that I don't think anyone could understand what I was trying to say. Where was my brain this morning? Anyway, MichaelG described the procedure perfectly.

R

Berndoodle, my bad, that's what I meant to say.

Great advice from all, thanks!!!!

Would the following work? (I'm always for the easy way if only it will succeed.) I have a year old sucker of 'Leda' that I would like to sever then immediately plant in its permanent site. We're approaching the end of the rose growing season and my thinking is that the sucker will have through April to grow roots before it begins to leaf out. Out winters are generally wet and chilly but not terribly cold (Zone 7-8): good conditions for growing. Feedback?
Melissa

I'd do it, Melissa. Fall is prime root growing season. Do it soon but don't let it dry out if the rains are delayed.

I agree with everything said above.

I have successfully removed/transplanted suckers from The Mayflower (Austin), Rotesmeer (Rugosa), (Portland) and Sweet Bouquet (Hybrid Musk). I have had the best results when I sever the connecting root and wait a few weeks as Michael suggests. This method forces the new plant to produce a nice root system. If I can get a root ball I am assured success.

I have also just ripped them out of the ground and planted them in the lawn.