I just had to dig up a lot of my roses because of construction going on in my yard. I quickly ran out of pots, so started using litter box pails. You will have to drill for drainage. The hard part is when you dig up an established rose, you have to get the root ball to fit in the pot or pail. I had several large ones that I tried to root prune, but they didn't make it. So be prepared to lose some. If you can do it over the winter when they are dormant, that would be the best time.

I once grew a hybrid tea rose in a mud bucket for two years and it did fine at about 3 x 3'. Buckets actually have as much volume as a "7-gallon" nursery pot--pot sizes are "nominal," meaning in name only.

However, if I were traveling with a good number of roses, I would bare-root them and stuff them in a trash bag. Then they will keep for 2 weeks in buckets of water after unpacking, or probably longer in fall weather. Bagged roses should be kept at 30 degrees or warmer.

Awesome, so they should work and might be large enough for the roses for a while. The roses I'm going to transplant are only a year old. Most of them arrived in April as bands, one was a bare root in a bag, and four came in June in one gallon pots. I'm not taking all my roses with me, mostly because they didn't all impress me, but it's exciting to know I can take the ones I really like! Michaelg that's a good suggestion, but I we won't be moving very far and I don't think it'll be very hard to actually move the roses. I'd also worry about them a lot, heh. How do I know when they need more room? I'm concerned about Kashmir outgrowing her pot quickly.

It looks like what's left for me to do is research potting soil and potted rose care!

Oh! I just rememebered another question. Moonlight Magic is a grafted rose and when I planted her I couldn't figure out where she was grafted. I ended up planting her above the bud union. It took her two months to really put out new leaves and canes but now she's doing just as well as my other roses. When I plant her in the pot, should I plant her at the same level that I did the first time, or should I plant her below the graft union? She hasn't suckered at all, if that makes a difference.

Many thanks!

Use a hole saw (it's a drill bit that drills out a big circle, like the hole in a donut) instead of just a bunch of small holes. Cover the hole with window screen or a scrap of shade cloth to hold the soil in. Drains much better than a bunch of little holes, which can clog.

Some garden centers or nurseries will sell or give you old black plastic nursery pots. One here sells the 5 gallon size for a quarter.

You can, of course, pot roses and they will do fine. Even in a small pot they will do OK for a while. I grew all my roses in dollar store buckets one season while we put in a new bed. They did very well but they did get planted before winter. You don't say where you are now and where you are moving to. What kind of winter are the roses going to have to deal with in pots and what provisions do you have to winterize them?

I live in Virginia, zone 7. Last winter was really bad for here and this winter is supposed to be worse, though obviously neither will be as bad as up north. I had two tiny roses last year and they didn't get much "frost bite" so I'm confident these will live just fine if I keep them in the ground until spring. I might have to think of something next year if they'll still be in pots then, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. We don't know exactly where we'll live yet (we've picked 2-3 towns as possible, but the house itself is the deciding factor) but it won't be more than 15-20 minutes from where we live now, still in Virginia, zone 7.
I'll try to update my info to say that all the time.

This post was edited by Rosecandy on Sat, Oct 18, 14 at 9:28

Uh-oh! Where have you heard this Winter is supposed to be worse than last, Rosecandy?? Brrr - say it isn't so.

Several of my customers heard it on the news. I'm REALLY hoping the weathermen are wrong. I was so tired of ice and rain that when winter jumped into summer (it skipped spring) I cheered...until the humidity came. Urg. Anywho let's all think good thoughts and cross our fingers that this winter is at least as good as normal!

...and that means rain for those of you who need it!

Friend of mine has several roses in 5 gal pots that she cut lovely large swoopy holes in the sides of as well as drainage below, lined 'em with weed cloth or mesh and let 'em rip--and they did! Doing great.

Just make sure you aren't making the side holes so big that the mesh and its glue can't hold the dirt in. :) I suggest a polka-dot type arrangement of 4"-6" and line the entire bucket with the mesh or weed cloth, gluing it around the holes.

I'll use a hole saw and drill holes in the bottom and the side near the bottom. That'll really help me to not accidentally drown them!
Thanks everyone!

That should be plenty of holes. You can also use coffee filters to cover the holes to keep the dirt in. They eventually disintegrate but by then the dirt is so settled that it really doesn't leak out any more.

I've heard both sides on the weather. One group is saying more polar vortexes worse than last year's and the other says it should be a milder, more normal winter. I'm hoping for the latter!

I don't think it is necessary to worry so much about holes and mesh etc. Nursery pots have several holes in the edge of the bottom and maybe a 1" central hole, and they drain just fine. If the soil is damp, it will mostly stay put without mesh. If there are holes at all, it will drain, except the last 1-2" of soil will not drain no matter what you do. It is a matter of physics.

I think paper would retard drainage. Do not use a "drainage layer"--these are counterproductive.

We moved in May and managed to transplat 48 roses and only lost 1-a lady banks that I didn't get enough of the root ball.

Cut your roses back hard, at least 1/3 maybe more.
Where do you live? If you live in an area that has mild winters like Texas, I would go ahead and directly transplant them if that is an option. use the buckets just to move them.

We staked some of our bigger roses when we moved them to make certain the roots didn't move around too much from the wind and were able to get themselves established. I had read that wind shake can cause roots to struggle with getting established.

We don't have a new house yet, otherwise I probably would directly transplant them.

That's good info about wind shake, thank you!

the media is more important than the shape or form of the pot ...
IMHO ...

i would spend more time worrying or thinking about that ...

and i would insure it is lightweight enough .. that you can lift the pot ...

and its not the weight of one pot that is important... its the sum total of all of them ...

what starts as just a little heavy on a single pot.. can become back breaking over a large volume.. trust me on that ...

then there is the actual problem of moving them.. when you move ... even worse with thorny canes sticking out the top ...

and your pail might be hard to move.. if the plant is taller than the handle .... thats a lot of dead weight from ground level ....

think about all your variables.. not just one ...

ken