How to Transplant a Rosebush in July
- 1). Transplant your rosebush in the late afternoon when the temperature has cooled and the sun is no longer at its peak strength. This reduces both heat and respiration stress on the rose and will prevent the roots from drying out during the process.
- 2). Prepare a planting hole twice the size of your rose root ball and amend the soil with several pounds of well-aged manure and/or good-quality compost. Place the rosebush in the hole, maintaining the same planting level in the soil that the bush enjoyed previously. Fill the amended soil around the rose halfway up the side of the hole.
- 3). Water in the rose well and allow the water to percolate into the soil. Fill the hole in with the remaining soil and create a moat around the bush with the remaining soil. Fill the moat with water once, allowing the water to soak into the soil. Fill the moat a second time and leave the rose to rest.
- 4). Mulch around the base of the bush the following day with an organic material such as shredded bark or cocoa bean hulls. Lay the mulch in a layer 2 inches thick in a wide ring, starting 6 inches out from the trunk and extending 6 inches beyond the drip line of the bush.
- 5). Refrain from fertilizing the new rose for a period of at least 2 weeks, allowing the plant to focus all of its energy on new root development in the new soil. Fertilizer spurs top growth that diverts critical energies away from root development. Resume with an organic rose food, such as Rose-tone, 3 weeks to a month after transplant.
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