rose transplanting

Question

I have a couple of roses that were given to me. They were dug out and most roots cut. They suffered in the heat for about a week in soil then sat in water for 2 weeks. When planted, only 2 out of five have had shoots. Two others look like they might survive but one looks dead. Should I wait for a couple of months before giving up on them completely? I have given thrive twice now. These, I suspect, are old fashioned roses that were well looked after originally as the stems are about 3cm in diam. I thought roses were really tough but I suspect the heat shock was too much for them.

Answer 1

Roses are indeed pretty tough and survive some very incredible conditions really. However, the older the rosebush the more temperamental it can be. Transplanting them can be a 50-50 proposition of survival. The real key is getting as much of the root ball as possible, getting not enough root base is the usual killer of them. It sounds like they have had to deal with both heat and transplant shock. The super thrive product helps relieve this shock but may not be enough. I would give them at least another month to see if things start to happen or not. If there is still any green cane material there is still hope. I would prune them back some to give them the message it is time to get to growing, then after a month if nothing happens, they may well not be coming back. Let me know how things go.