Wilmington, NC

I will be moving to Wilmington and have to give up my garden in Washington DC. I would like to take some of my favorites with me and woudl like to find a fellow gardener in the area that can approve or nix my plant choices since some of my plants probably do not want to leave their cooler home. I am terrible with plant names and will probably come up with one or two at a time. My first question is (because they are blooming so lovely right now) can I bring my Anemones?

I'm not in the area, altho I lived just outside DC for a while. I'm in Ark now and I'm in zone 7a. The great thing about 7a is that you can grow just about anything. It's the best of both worlds. You can grow tropicals in pots and carry them in for the winter. You can grow heat loving, drought resistant perennials. And you can grow most plants that benefit from freezing winters. Your anemones will be fine and should bloom again next year for you. I grow them too.

Enjoy your new home.

NancyAnn

Most everything that grows in DC will do well in Wilmington. They get just enough cold there to be able to grow all the best plants. Also, you might want to post this on the Carolina forum; I am sure you will meet some of your new neighbors there.

Gosh, I thought I posted a message to thank you all for your responses. I hope there will be more :>)) Maybe I will even find a Dave's Gardener actually in Wilmington. Thanks all.

Knees, I thought I read your post thanking people! I'm sure it was here. Maybe you ESP'ed it and I caught it. LOL I could have sworn it was here.

I thought of a few specifics I want to take with me: I understand tulips and other spring bulbs are ok. Again, my anemonies I would like to take, and what about my Blood Root. I have a beautiful stand of bloodroot I hate to leave behind. I know they are finicky about being transplanted even in the same area. Worried. What about peonies. I finally treated myself to a tree peonie, just days before I found out we were moving.

I was in the garden this afternoon, raking and cutting and it struck me that I am not preparing for next year. Oh my!!

Most plants will transplant with no problem if you can dig them up without disturbing the roots too much. Just dig around them and dig them up with a big dirt ball attached all around the roots. It helps if the ground is damp so it will stick to the roots. Have pots ready and just plunk them into pots with soil already in the bottom. And you may not have a problem. Most plants will shock, but they'll send up new plants from the roots.

Now is a great time to transplant most things. Just put them in pots until you move. Bulbs are easy. Get some brown lunch sacks and you can write the name of the bulbs on them and stuff them with your bulbs. Bulbs do fine out of ground for months as long as they don't get moist.

This message was edited Oct 11, 2006 4:19 PM

You are keeping me calm :>)) Thanks, ButterflyChaser

That was supposed to be "dig them up withOUT disturbing the roots." I edited to add "out" to "with". LOL

When are you moving? Have you started already?

Butterfly, we are expecting to move in Feb. or March. I have decided to dig out the bulbs as they are at that time and plant them in their new home. If they make it to bloom that year, fine. If not,not. The other perennials are more a matter of will they like the new climate zone. We are visiting in about two weeks. Maybe there will be enough gardens left so that I can make some comparison. I haven't really seen "gardens" like up here. Most people seem to have mostly bushes (azaleas and orleander) rather than flowerbeds like I have here. We'll see. I have started packing a bit: summer clothes, books, but am taking my time.

Most of your plants will do fine in NC. In fact you may be able to grow even more plants than you can in DC.

Most of the gardens you've seen there, with just shrubs, are low-maintenance gardens. That's mostly what you'll see in my town too. Many people are not really interested in gardens. They just want a few low maintenance plants for color, so they pretty much stick with shrubs and maybe a few stella d'oros.

I doubt you'll have any problem growing your plants in NC. I bet most of them will really thrive and you can show your neighbors what a garden really looks like. LOL

Good luck with your move.

NancyAnn

You've probably moved by now, but ... I moved here FROM Wilmington, and I can tell you that my herbs and tomatoes did wonderfully well down there. If you end up near the beach, of course, you'll have to be wary of the salt. The summers are longer, but not that different otherwise... and of course, the winters are milder. I don't know about flowers, since I never grew those; I had a condo and only grew container herbs and tomatoes. Rosemary grows spectacularly down there, and at UNCW they have an entire herb garden growing out front of Hoggard Hall for the nursing students. Echinacea and Chamomile thrived in that garden, too.