Help with moving perennials

[FayeC]

Hi,

I am moving on August 15th (have access to the plants until September 1st) and after having invested a lot of time, energy and TLC on my garden I am not about to leave all my perennial behind..... I planted most of the perennials from seed and only had one flowering season after 3 summers from most of them. That's why I am thinking of taking some mature plants with me so I can enjoy their flowers next year instead of growing them from seed all over again. The thing is.....I never transplanted any perennial before. At least not my own I mean so I have no clue of what to do to ensure both the root ball that is staying and the one that is going live through it. I would appreciate your help in learning the right way to transplant these plants and also if this is the best time for them or not. Some are in full bloom right now..... The plants I am talking about are: Coreopsis (pink), Galliardia, Agastache, Cupid's Dart, Lupin, Blue Flax, Clove, Evening Primrose and Snow in the summer. There are a couple more but I don't remember their names as I got the seeds from a friend and she didn't mark the packages. I would like to leave some of the plants behind if possible as the garden is very pretty as it is and I would like to leave some of it to grow next summer. On the other hand if splitting the root system will cause the plant to die then I rather take it all instead.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I appreciate any tip, link, personal experience you can send me.

FayeC

[David J Bockman]

Hi Faye,

I'll presume you're in a cooler clime than mine, nevertheless it's a pretty poor time of the year to transplant. I understand the necessity, so if it were me, I would go out immediately and spade around the perennials I was going to lift, but leave them in place. Observe them over the next couple of weeks for signs of wilting and water accordingly. I would wait until the last possible moment to lift and replant them.

Dave

[William Brown]

When my mother sold her house to move to a smaller one, she got the permission of the buyer to come back and remove some of her favorite plants at the appropriate season. I think transplanting in the heat of August is a risky proposition.

I d> Hi,

[Layne]

Hi Faye,

Make sure to dig up all or most of the root ball and place in a plastic bag and tie it up so it doesn't lose any moisture. Leaving the plants in the plastic bags is okay for a day or two as long as the roots don't dry out. If you can't plant right away and notice the roots drying out spritz them. If you can't plant them for a while it might be a good idea to poke holes in the bags and water accordingly.

My father who lives in Hawaii (where it's pratically summer long year long) moves specimen trees for his bonsai this way. The important thing is to keep the root ball moist and not let it dry out during the move.

Hope this helps,

Layne

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[William Wagner]

I'd just add that if you have a place to plant your plants or at least hill them in as soon as possible it is a good thing. Lose is related to time spent in unfavorable environment. I like the idea of doing transplant on a small scale which may not be possible.

Also this is a good time to wonder if some of your mistakes should make the move.

Good Luck!

William(Bill)

[Warren]

Plants in the ground are considered part of the real estate. Unless it was part of the deal that plants would be dug-up, and taken away, the buyer has every right to the plants that were there, in the ground, when their accepted offer was made.

The new owners could sue for either: The value of the plants taken; The cost of replacing the plants taken; The change in value of the property with the plants removed.

If the house was a rental property, and you're moving out, as long as the property is returned to the condition that it was in when you moved in, everything is fine. Any enhancement may not be viewed by the owner as an enhancement. (It may be harder to rent the place if the new renter has to take care of a nice garden, for example.)

Either way, it's not just a question of how to do it, but it's also a question of if you're allowed to do it.

[gregpresley]

I agree with the person who said that you probably ought to get the permission of the new buyers/owners to remove some plants. But if getting that permission makes you nervous, the other option would be to divide and replant - i.e., put a spade down the middle of the clump producing perennials, then dig around the entire plant, take one half of the clump and replant the other half in the same spot. (So that the new owners are still getting the same garden that existed when they bought). If you have access to the plants until Sept 1, I'd do all of this on August 31st. or August

[madgardener]

1st)

and after having invested a lot of time, energy and TLC on my garden I am not about to leave all my perennial behind.....

I planted most of the perennials from seed and only had one flowering season after 3 summers from most of them. That's why I am thinking of taking some mature plants with me so I can enjoy their flowers next year instead of growing them from seed all over again.

The thing is.....I never transplanted any perennial before. At least not my own I mean so I have no clue of what to do to ensure both the root ball that is staying and the one that is going live through it.

I would appreciate your help in learning the right way to transplant these plants and also if this is the best time for them or not. Some are in full bloom right now.....

The plants I am talking about are Coreopsis (pink), Galliardia, Agastache, Cupid's Dart, Lupin, Blue Flax, Clove, Evening Primrose and Snow in the summer. There are a couple more but I don't remember their names as I got the seeds from a friend and she didn't mark the packages.

I would like to leave some of the plants behind if possible as the garden is very pretty as it is and I would like to leave some of it to grow next summer. On the other hand if splitting the root system will cause the plant to die then I rather take it all instead.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I appreciate any tip, link, personal experience you can send me.

FayeC

Well, Faye, I've said it before, and to respond in kind to you..........I lived in Nashville, Tennessee. I had some mature perennials. (zone 6a at the time). I moved to Eastern Tennessee, to RENTAL property, (the house in Nashville was mine). I moved my WHOLE YARD IN LATE JULY. I watered very well three days in a row, then proceeded to hysterically dig up every perennial I came across, including clumps of bulbs that were doing at the time and sliding the clumps of perennials into plastic grocery bags with the handles. The larger plants were put into some larger pots, one huge Helianthus was placed in a garbage can, along with some other larger plants. It was July 30th. It was also around 98o F at the time.........and dry that year.

I dug up HUNDREDS of perennials. I even dug up the area I was sure was the bleeding hearts but they'd died down and I kept a 5 gallon bucket of soil until they emerged the next spring reassuring me that's what they were.....watering before I dug them well helped a lot.

I understand the attachments to these plants grown from seed. They've acclimated to your enviroment and yard. Lupines in the late summer?? Wow. I'd say try that, and let us know your success rates. You'll do fine. madgardener Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." Chief Seattle

[Pen]

Coreopsis is easy to divide and so is snow-in-the-summer. The others are easiest to propagate from seeds or simply take the entire clump of plant with you. If you have several clumps of galliardia (for example) then just take a few. Most lupins are very hard to move, your best bet there is to start over with seeds.

You might want to take some plants as soon as possible so if some die, you can always go back and get more. As others have mentioned, heat and drought stress is your major worry. The plants on your list are pretty hardy, they only need to be watered frequently until established. ;)

[FayeC]

I rent and when we got here the garden simply didn't exist. I planted all of them myself so I think I am entitled to take some (not all) of them with me). I am just splitting the existing plants and leaving them in the garden here. It's just not fair that I spent so much of my time beautifying the house and not be allowed to take some to plant on my next house. The landlady loves what I have done and I don't think she would be upset if I took some babies with me.... When we got here the "garden" consisted of 3 hostas and 1 mums...... Now shehas all the plants I mentioned......and I am not taking anything of the pre-existing plants as I don't think it's fair being that I didn't plant those..... As for moving the plants would late August be better?

FayeC

[FayeC]

I can actally move them straight to thier final home as we will have 2 weeks to move out of here. So I will have time to create a new bed for them at the new house and only dig them up when everything is ready for them to be planted there.

Thanks,

FayeC

[Bungadora]

I suspect from your service provider that you are in Canada, and many of the people I know with that ISP are in western Canada. The issue in transplanting in late summer might not be heat stress so much, but rather whether or not the plant will have time to re-establish a root system and store up any resources before it goes to sleep in the fall. We only have until mid-September/October until the big freeze (only 2 months left, yeeks!), with frost likely any time after late August, possibly earlier. Your survival rate over the winter might not be so good because you are really stressing them moving this late in the season. However, you have nothing to lose. Watch the weather forecast. Just pick the coolest day you can and move them asap. Water well. Put a good mulch down in the fall. Dora (not D'oro)

[William Brown]

[Layne]

She probably could put something over the bed (plastic sheeting) to prolong the season a bit and give the plants some more time to establish themselves.

Layne

[Bungadora]

True. Or she could put them in peat pots right away and just plant the pot.

IMHO a lot depends on the health of the plants at this point in the summer, how depleted they from blooming, and how well the plants are adapted to the zone. As well as where she lives, of course. Different areas within the same zone have differing amounts of snow cover, and that makes a great deal of difference in perennial survival.

I've read before about planting perennials in the fall. The article supported the practise mostly because the author believed that doing so allowed the plant to regenerate its root structure over the course of the winter. (Plus everything is on sale.) Of course, everything I've read elsewhere indicates differently, and in practise have planted in the spring. Incurable top poster, Dora