I'm doing some yard work for my grandmother and was asked to separate a small tree from what i'm told is a rose bush. the tree isnt particularly old, only about 3 feet tall, and thin enough that if i wanted i could just cut it down with some clippers. id prefer to be able to relocate the tree instead of killing it or the rose bush though.
i think the tree is a "spring snow crabapple tree" and it already bloomed for the year if that matters.
Appreciate the help, hurray for ignorance.
You can try to get the tree out, but you seem to be saying it and the rose are very close together. If they're really close, say only six inches apart or less, chances are you won't be able to do it with its roots intact if it's big enough to have flowered, and particularly not without seriously disrupting the rose root system, so in that case, it's a choice between the rose bush and the tree. Simply cutting the tree down won't kill it, it will just grow again, you will need to apply brushwood killer to the stem at the base, after cutting down. Not sure where you are, but in the UK, I'd cut the tree down to soil level, clear away some soil, split the remains of the tree stem downwards and apply SBK, very carefully, without spilling it anywhere else, then cover with an upturned small pot and push the soil back around.
It really all depends on just how close the rose and tree are...
I guess you are in the northern hemisphere, aren't you? In that case, May is not a good time to move the tree. But you can do the following: with a spade, cut the ground in a circle of 25 cm radius (50 cm diameter) around the tree - where you can, between the rose and the tree just cut along the middle line between the two. Actually, make a narrow channel with that cut. Cut as deep as you can. Than leave that (cleaning from time to time the channell) until the next February. And then move the tree.
