Dear Friends,
I am moving in mid June to a house with a front bed facing south east and a back gardening area facing northwest. I want to move as much of my garden as possible -- I have spring flowering bulbs and perennials. I also have peonies (which maybe I should not move?) and Iris. A rose bush.
The new house is in Western Massachusetts and I am in the Boston area. The current yard also faces northwest, which until now has provided its own set of challenges to avoid the shadow of the 3 story building itself. The new house has a lot more limited gardening area as it is a condominium -- I have a small area around my patio in back (northwest) and a small bed at the front door (southeast). But at least the house itself is smaller -- a 2 story semidetached.
I need advice! What can I hope to move successfully and how should I go about moving them?
The new house has limited space, so what I cannot move I'll be giving away to some friends and relatives.
Thanks for any and all advice.
Moving plants to a new house facing northwest
I have had very good luck moving peonies from Nantucket to southern Vermont. I dug the holes and prepared the soil in Vt before I dug up the peonies in Nantucket. They had broken the surface when I dug them up and I put them in a plastic garbage bag and put them in a suitcase and flew to Hyannis and then the 4 hour drive to Vt and planted them. I gave them lots of water. All three bloomed that summer and every year since. Just make sure you get the eyes at the right depth. Looking at my peonies today, I would say this is about the time when I moved them. I also moved a very old one in Vt to another location in the yard and it too has done fine. Bulbs, spring flowering ones will be trickier, as you want to wait until the leaves yellow but June should be OK for you to lift and store the bulbs in a cool, dry place until fall replanting. Any summer bulbs that have broken the surface will be fine to dig up now and pot them up for the trip west in June. Perennials can all be dug up now and also potted up as if you were a garden center and then transported with ease in June. I would keep them under a tree and well watered. I would also clip them back to encourage root growth If you can't pot up the plants now you can do an instant move of your plants like I do between my homes all the time. I dig them up and usually put them in the small plastic grocery sacks with notes written with a marker to identify them. Then I put a mess of the bags in a box or big garbage bag for the trip. I give them a good misting of water before the trip. I have the garden site already prepared for a quick planting when I arrive and again the success has been excellent. Iris usually don't get dug until after blooming but I would pot them up now and they will be ready to replant when you move. If you don't have the final plan for where you want everything, just prepare a holding bed for the plants at you new house for the summer and then move the plants to their permanent home in the fall when you figure out how you live in your new space. Where in western Ma are you moving . best, Patti
I moved from Pa to CT in August, unfortunately to a rental, while our new home was being built. I used old nursery pots and lots of potting soil and dug up as much as I could, rose bushes perennials, small shrubs. Watered well and put them in my bf driveway temporarily, then moved them to my mother's under a very large blue spruce for 2 months, and then to Ct, where they remained in a detached, wet garage until we moved into our new home in March. I losted 1 pot I had a couple of perennials in. Everything else is doing well. I was so worried I'd lose everything, but the majority of it made the move better than the rest of us. I wish I had taken more of my garden from Pa as the new owners really aren't into it and have let things go. Good luck with your move. Patti
Start potting, ASAP.
The bulbs will do better if you wait as long as you can. Spring has been early this year and they may be going dormant by June. Just mark where they are so you can find them.
Andy P