Moving Plants...

[Kristl Walek]

As I will be moving gardens in late July of this year, I am starting to lay awake nights with a running inventory of plants to be potted in the spring going through my brain...I would rather not risk killing some of these by attempting to dig them. This is the first batch, more to follow.

May I have your comments, thoughts and ideas:

Daphne arbuscula
D. dominii (kosaninii)
Mature Hellebores
Paeonia species (I assume these will all be fine).
Glaucidium palmatum (have never moved these, am assuming they will be fine?)
Clematis species

[Carlo]

Kristl,

Do you really have a choice?

Unless you're selling to someone who appreciates the value of the plants and has the skills to continue to care for them, you risk killing them by leaving them in place. Everyone knows how careful you are with your seed--just apply the same sensitivity to the digging and potting of your plants. For example, do it in cool weather to lessen the stress....

People have said you can't move Daphnes, but I have dug and transplanted (ok, it's only been a half dozen or so shrubs) without losing a plant. Glaucidium should probably be treated the same as paeonia. I think your instincts will serve you well....

[JohnnyD]

I think it is worthwhile to do a 'half' dig early - that is to sever roots on two, three or even four sides but leave the plant in position - as long as possible before moving the plants.
That way the plants have chance to make new roots within the root ball. It also makes the subsequent digging a lot less stressful to the digger as well as the plant.
I am also sure that many plants which are regarded as difficult to move are best dug when starting to grow, paeony for example.
Hellebores may even be rejuvenated by a bit of splitting up.

Good Luck Kristl - be Brave.

[Maggi Young]

I'm with Johnny on the half dig thing.... especially for shrubby subjects.  I know your buyer has horticultural interests, so will appreciate some things, but I think you should dig and move anything womanly possible!! Even if you dig some things, split them and take only a part.... I think there is just too much fab stuff in your place to leave.  Daphnes are much more forgivving to a move at a large size than many give them credit for.

You will see in the Let me Introduce Myself pages, some posts from Simon who has experience of carting around a tonne of bulbs, orchids and alpines from the UK to Bulgaria, so such things can be done! I would think you'll hit rather more than one tonne, though!
Good luck, Kristl! Shame it is so far for us all to join you for a digging party 

[Susan Band]

Kystal,
Don't be tempted into trying to split the Glaucidum. it should move okay if left intact.
Susan

[gote]

Susan just said it.
Glaucidium dislikes moving.
This could be the common woodland fallacy.
Many woodlanders put out new roots in the middle of the season say at flowering time or just after.
That is:  ONLY at that time. The result is that if they are moved at the time the roots start to develop they are fine. (well usually)
If they are moved later, when supposedly dormant, they are set back very much because they do not develop sufficient amount of roots at that season and will be underfed with nutrients and water for nearly a full year. Trilliums may sleep over the next summer entirely and appear one year later.
For this reason I always move Trilliums and Lilium martagon just as the flowers begin to fade  (If possible)
I am afraid that I do not know when Glaucidiums put out new roots Does anyone??
Good luck
Göte

[cohan]

kristl--
where are you moving to--have you found a place out here?
cohan

[Kristl Walek]

Cohan,

My "saga" is outlined in my thread here called "My Bit Of Heaven"...but in short, I spent a good year seriously looking for property in your fair Alberta (which, as you know is where my heart lies), only to find that all I could afford was a very pretty outhouse.

So, I literally turned my body around to face the rising sun instead, and decided that I can very easily live with the ocean in Nova Scotia, and that is where I am heading this summer.

Appropriately, these are the "Flower Pot Rocks" in the Bay Of Fundy, Nova Scotia.

[cohan]

wow! that is a turnabout!
i will have to have a look at that thread..
on the plus side, nova scotia must be a couple of zones at least warmer than here!

[Lesley Cox]

Mature Hellebores will survive being lifted and out of the ground for at least two years although they do root where they're placed and, in effect, plant themselves. I'd go with the half or three quarters dig for them and most others on your list, including the Glaucidium. Where roots are severed, new, fibrous roots are made quickly. I certainly wouldn't leave it to someone else who may not treasure it. What you would be doing is wrenching, a common and successful practice with most shrubs, small trees, trilliums etc etc. I've successfully moved several Glaucidiums, garden to new garden.

[gote]

Lesley,
What time of year - or rather at what stage of growth - did you move the glaucidiums?
Göte

[Lesley Cox]

I moved them in November from Timaru to Dunedin (early summer) and from Dunedin to out of Dunedin in mid winter (July). As well, I've moved the smaller plants into large pots (plastic bags), usually in autumn/early winter, well before top growth starts.

[Kristl Walek]

So that is post-flowering, Leslie, for that first move....
What concerns me is that I have a rather large colony, all growing very tightly together and I assume, with the roots intertwined. They will not be able to be taken with intact root/soil ball, as many (most) will be connected underground. I am assuming they are taprooted?

Trilliums, on the other hand, I have absolutely no concerns about---having moved these at almost every point in their growth over the years, without ever having an issue.

[Sinchets]

Hi there I just noticed this thread. We were lucky to have timed our move to Bulgaria for the end of August, so many of our plants were dormant- or were able to be forced into dormancy. We didn't loose any of the bulbs, corms or tubers we brought. Unfortunately this was all before the accession to the European Union by Bulgaria- so everything had to be checked by DEFRA and given a Phytosanitary certificate- this meant rootstocks had to be scrubbed clean of any garden soil and moved bare rooted. This was our Peony, Trillium, Disporum, Polygonatum .... collection. I knew the majority of my plants would not make it like this so I had been collecting seeds of my alpines for the last 2 seasons to start anew. Heart breaking to leave behind a dozen or so raised alpine beds, 2 alpine houses and an orchid house and several large areas of herbaceous planting to the buyers of the house. They had commented on how much they had liked the garden and I had hoped there would be hope for the plants I had to leave behind. I now know the whole garden was cleared out by a 'landscape gardener' and put to turf. Meanwhile in the back garden a sunny 'Mediterranean' garden is now buried under a conservatory. We spent the last week in England begging friends to take plants from us: young magnolias we knew we would never seen flower; plants we had bought from Crug that just couldn't be taken bare rooted the contents of a tropical orchid house and a cactus/ succulent collection... Luckily the plus side far outweighed these losses we would never have been able to garden on this scale where were outside of a lottery win. If we had been able to move plants with rootballs intact we'd have needed an articulated lorry, so I guess that made some of my choices of what to bring and what to leave easier. In the end our trailer of plants really did weigh 1ton and on the whole most settled in well with only a few losses from plants that couldn't adapt to how dry summers are here. What I would say though is if you can take it ,then take it. I have moments where I remember a plant, and I remember when and where i bought it, how long it took from seed. I remember its first flowering- and rue the fact it never set seed. Then think about how it is now landfill somewhere in rural Lincolnshire!

[cohan]

I now know the whole garden was cleared out by a 'landscape gardener' and put to turf. Meanwhile in the back garden a sunny 'Mediterranean' garden is now buried under a conservatory.

that is heartbreaking, but i guess you have to have said goodbye before leaving! having the space is a great plus, though
if its not too personal, may i ask what was the reason for a move to bulgaria?
luckily my big crosscountry move (summer of 2007) only involved a collection of cacti and succulents that was housed inside an apartment! so i did get rid of lots of things, but brought many along; i should have gone bare root though, the reduced weight would have meant i could have brought some furniture and things...lol