Moving Plants...

[nicheplanthead]

I've seen some peony roots go down 3 feet on very old plants. I don't know how much of the root is needed for regeneration but look for new offsets.

go wide first looking for root edge as they can go off at an shallow angle.

[nicheplanthead]

g lutea look for smaller self sow seedlings maybe something of a few years

if trenching mark cuts with bamboo sticks so u won't severe rerooted roots.

dig one mature one up for a practise dig... getting the root ball intact is the trick to moving things

there is a rule of thumb for woody plants one inch trunk per one foot root ball or something like that.

[Kristl Walek]

Hi Stuart....didn't realize you were a member of this wonderful forum.

I've managed it with the Gentiana lutea (dug 4 out of 12 mature plants in the garden---all alive and thriving after 2 weeks)....in fact, no catastophes with any plants
(so far).

I am a firm believer in digging early and deep; when the plant is just coming into life. And also digging on cool to cold days and in the rain is ideal.

I am sure I will not be as successful later on this month, as temperatures start to rise and plants are more advanced.

[Kristl Walek]

this is how the Glaucidiums look today---all have bloomed in their pots---and I actually believe they are proceeding to the seed stage as well.

[Maggi Young]

They are looking good, Kristl..... great to see all your hard work is paying off.

[Paul T]

Kristl,

Contragulations.  They certainly do look like a spectacular plant.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Do you have the white flowered glaucidium, Kristl?

In my opinion, it's far superior to the usual mauve/lavender/whatever. It's a good clean white, not at all washy (as they say).

However, my white flowered form dwindled and died where at least one mauve specimen has thriven. I suspect the whites are less robust.

[Kristl Walek]

I *do* grow the white form as well, Rodger.
And while it is certainly elegant, I would not trade it for the species.

They have both been equally vigorous in my garden --thriving on total neglect-- and it has also been dug for the move, without issue.

[Kristl Walek]

It's been too sunny and hot to continue to dig plants in the past while, so it seemed like a good idea to begin dismantling the collapsed greenhouse, take down signage, birdhouses and plant supports, take apart the wrought iron benches, organize pots.

On cleaning out one of the birdhouses, I discovered it was full of squirrel babies (6)...
How this happened is beyond me---the holes in the birdhouse are not very large.

The garbage piles are bigger each week.

The greenhouse by the end of today was only end pieces, leaning precariously. These will get hauled to the fire area and soon I will have a huge bonfire, adding to it all my business records for the past 20 years!!!! Better than a shredder.

All the 4 Gentiana lutea I dug are still alive in their pots; today I noticed that one of them is sending up a flower spike!!!!

This has nothing to do with my move....but the garter snake that took up residence in the rock garden last year is still with me. I was quite thrilled when I saw him emerge from his hole under the limestone this spring. These days he prefers to lie in troughs on top of semps to sun himself.

[Lesley Cox]

How will the squirrel babies get OUT?

[Kristl Walek]

How will the squirrel babies get OUT?

Lesley,
How do I answer your question 

Most of the bird houses have bottoms that slide open to clean them out. I held the birdhouse over a wheelbarrow, opened the bottom and out tumbled a heavy mass of straw and living things. I jumped (gross understatement), dropped the birdhouse and only then looked at what was in my wheelbarrow. My first thought was rats or mice.

I really did not know what to do. 5 out of the 6 squirrels seemed at the almost-ready-to-launch stage. So I made a decision to let nature take it's course; drove them back up the hill in the wheelbarrow to the approximate area where the birdhouse was taken down; and let them go. 5 out of 6 scurried, the runt stayed in the straw (he was gone the next morning).

[Kristl Walek]

Just a quick visual update on the dug plants in pots: Gentiana lutea (all still alive, with one in flower). And the Glaucidium *did* proceed straight from being dug, to bloom to seed pod production.

[Lesley Cox]

That's excellent news Krystl. Shows one just needs to take heart in hand together with the spade, and go for it.

[gote]

I do not want to make anyone unhappy but when I have lost Glaucidiums and Gentiana lutea after moving they died in the following winter. They looked OK until then.
A plan B might come in handy
Göte