moving azaleas

I have 8 azaleas to move that are up against my house. They have been trimmed back completely to the ground for recent construction work that we had done and are growing back now. They have been there a while and the roots go under the house I'm sure. If I end up cutting some of the roots, will they survive? Also, is it better to move them now, later in the fall, or in the spring?
Thanks,
Kristen

I would wait till late fall to dig them up. If they are well established and it sounds like they are, it shouldn't hurt them. I would try to get all the roots that you can. Good luck

Thank you Smokey! That's my plan then. I'll wait a few more months before I get them moved.

I would wait but I did get a few azaleas that were simply ripped up by a landscaping crew that was replanting. These azaleas were at least 10 years old and very well may have been planted long before that. They just dug out a small ball and rippedthem up. I asked if I could have them and planted them that night, I think it was in the spring. I had no problems with them rerooting themselves.

Oh good news! These were planted right along the edge of the house and kept trimmed. A look I don't like. I prefer them to grow how they like, not how they are shaped with trimmers. They looked too boxy. I was trying to decide what to do with them when we decided to turn the screened in porch into a sunroom and they were in the way for us to get the windows in. We cut them almost completely down so we could get the job done and they are already leafing back out. Figured best to move them now that they are cut small than later when they are 3-4' tall again. I hate killing something on purpose just cause it's planted where I don't want it. It's not the azalea's fault :-)

Being in such a warm zone, the fall is too warm. If you can wait until mid Dec. or later, when they lose their leaves, would be best.

Terryr, no problem. I'll wait till they loose their leaves. Hope the ground isn't too hard by then tho. I may have to wait until the first freeze and then until it warms up again for the ground to soften so I can get as many roots as I can. Maybe I'll predig the new holes now for them while the ground is still soft. We are due for rain at the end of this week. I'll dig after that and have the new spots all ready.

Never thought about it but I thought azaleas were evergreen. LOL.

Some are, some aren't. I moved some large deciduous azaleas this summer (had no choice), they're doing fine.

Ground hard? In Zone 7a??☺☺☺ We lived for a short time in TN, zone 7a. I don't think I ever heard anyone talk about the ground getting hard!! You want to see hard? We moved back home to IL, zone 5a, in Dec. of '04 and I brought plants back with me. Even my only-could-use-in-TN tool, the pickaxe, wouldn't break the snow laden frozen ground! I'm just joking with you of course...LOL Yes, pre-dig if you need to.

LOL...Growing up in Michigan, I can kind of relate to your joking. But, we didn't have clay in Michigan. Even in 90 degrees here, the ground is harder in spots than it is in Michigan when it's 10 degrees out. I only dig after rain or with my hose near by. One thing about digging here tho, I do find all sorts of pretty and large rocks to line my flower beds.

Oh flash back. Every time we tried to dig a hole at my parents house we hit a gaint granite boulder. Always. My dad thought it was great entertainment to watch a couple of my friends and I try to rip these things out of the ground. 200-300 lbs stones. No fun.

hmmm, would love to have me one of them! I need a BIG rock for the corner of my front yard

Head to the mountains with a big truck and some way to get it in the truck.

oh great idea! thanks!

Oh yes, I should of said my nice black dirt here in IL was very hard in Dec.☺ That clay stuff, wasn't all that hard. Except when dry, then it was like busting through concrete! Go to dig a hole in TN, in the summer, using my pickax, and I always hit rock. Remove rock. Hit bigger rock. Struggle to remove bigger rock. Keep picking and hit yet a larger rock, a boulder actually. It never seemed to end. I came home, just before Halloween that year in '04, and was staying with my sister and kids. Oh what fun we had decorating for Halloween. When it came time to stick the pole that held her metal pumpkin head into the ground, I was like a kid in a candy store!! Let me!! Let me!!! WOW!!! It just went in! No pickax, no water, no nothing!! Amazing!!

Hey! Know what? No fire ants here!! None of those nasty carpenter bees here!!☺☺☺

fire ants. grrr. I treat them. they move. I treat them again. they move and build bigger. I swear right now I have "Fire Ant Rome" in the middle of my pasture. At the rate they are building, it's gonna be 4' high by Spring. I've officially given up buying fire ant killer. I now scoop every pile of horse manure I can find in the pasture and dump it directly on the mound. I'll annoy them till they decide they don't like my pasture and move on.
I had a pretty cool carpenter bee last year. He stood sentry in the middle of my deck and chased every other bee and wasp away.

Imagine a Northerner moving down to where she's never seen a fire ant before!! Fire ant= red ant to me. What did I know? I was playing in an area I had completely amended and didn't need a pickax, I never wore gloves in that area and something bit me. Ouch. Felt like something burning me. I didn't have a clue..lol. Then, yep, mounds started appearing. Still didn't have a clue, so I kicked it. What the heck? Little ants scrambling all over the place. I finally asked and then I learned about fire ants. I was on the back deck and noticed this antique bench of mine that's always sat outside, had sawdust under it. What the heck? I got under it and blew the saw dust away. Next day, same thing. That time I investigated and see the hole. A perfect hole on the underside of the bench. Not a clue. Never even heard of carpenter bees before. But I sure didn't want anything eating on my bench! Then whatever it was, moved, and made another hole, in my potting bench! I don't care for pesticides, never have. The pesticide doesn't know what it's killing and it'll kill everything. Good bugs and bad bugs. If it did that to my potting bench and an antique bench, what would it do to the wood deck? Then a friend of mine told me his boss had had cedar siding. I love cedar siding and would have given anything to have that instead of vinyl! But then my friend told me how his boss had to cover it up with vinyl because of what the carpenter bees did to it! I was like Dorothy, but didn't have any red shoes on. I clicked my heels 3 times, spun around slowly and said "I want to go home I want to go home I want to go home" ....ROFL

My hat is off to you who have to garden with any of those grrr insects!!

this is my second full summer here and I'm slowly adjusting. All the bugs are creeping me out far less than they did last year. This year my issue is snakes. Black racers around here and one actually living under my house. He frequents my front porch and around my back deck. Hangs out in my hay barn. I've almost stepped on him a few times now. And I'm hoping it's all the same one. Just the thought that they are all different one's is too much to cope with. I'm still waiting for the day I open the hay barn and one's hanging down from the rafters over the hay and in my face.

It might be a good idea to root prune them now, then finish digging them up & transplanting a little later on. Just dig a trench about 6" deep all the way around each azalea (or, as far around as you can get, if they're up against the house.) This helps them adjust, not having all their roots cut at one time. Samantha

Thanks Samantha. I'll do that this weekend too when I predig their new homes. I think I'm going to try and move one this weekend tho as I have something else I need to put where it is. Former owners planted a very small "something" to the side of the house that my husband has threatened to run over with the lawnmower if I don't move soon. It's too small to weed whip around and the grass is completely covering it. Looks to be some kind of evergreen bush.

Oh jeepers...I wasn't even thinking you were the one who said they grew up in MI! Ya know...sometimes☺ As for those snakes?? Remember all the mice those things eat!! Black racers aren't venomous, but they will bite if cornered. If you leave it alone, it'll move away. I've also heard that like a lot of other snakes, it does rattle it's tail. It's a bluff. So just stand still. Mice are about the only thing I can think of that make me jump. Everything else, I stand still. If I walked into a barn and one was hanging in the rafters at my head? I'd probably be startled. I'd probably even scream. Yep, you're right, I sure would, no probably(s) involved! LOL

I can vouch that they rattle their tail and bite when cornered. My DH removes them with a golf club when he hears me screaming. He pins the head with the club so he can grab it and relocate it. He keeps reminding me that they are good cause they keep the bad snakes away. Yeah, like there's a good snake.
Mice? They don't bother me. I picked up an armload of hay last year that had a mouse in it that jumped in my face to get away. I spent 10 years in Cali with tree rats who had babies bigger than the mice here. I can't stand the mice, but they don't scare me. And my electronic rat zapper kills them quickly. And the mice don't eat all the toads. I like the toads.

I just don't like mice. Never have, never will. You know what's cool? Sitting down in my parents timber on a cool fall night, watching the fire burn down from all the invasive flora we've spent the day cutting down, and listening to the coyotes, the owls, and all the other night noises. So soothing, to me anyway☺

I got small dogs. coyotes and owls and even hawks give me heebee jeebees. barn owl could carry one of my dogs away easily. A hawk probably couldn't but I've heard they kill on the ground too.
DH and I get laughed at because when we burn, we stand right there with the hose. It's the 10 years we spent in Cali. First time my neighbor set his brush pile on fire after we moved here you should have seen us freaking out at him. He just laughed at us cause he knew where we were coming from. Explained this is a different SC than So Cal (which happened to be burning down at that point in time) and it was perfectly safe here. LOL.

Wow devildogs you would not like my back yard. We have every bird of prey around here and they are big if you get close to one. Spook a Blue Heron LOL. They make a strange noise and are not graceful taking off. You have to protect just about anything that is small from attack from the sky. Surprisingly cats never get attacked. At least not that i know of.

BTW leave the snake alone or you will have a barn full of mice.

I'm doing a WOW tooI!! You wouldn't like sitting with me down in the timber, ey? Watching a huge fire that I keep piling invasive stuff onto and watching it all burn to nothing. The hose is up the hill a ways, but not far enough that I couldn't grab it, I've never needed to.

I have a 9 yr. old long-haired Chihuahua, who weighs all of 5.5 lbs. She loves it out at my parents house. We were there today, and man, she was running and having the time of her life! All kinds of birds of prey out there, plus the coyotes, and nothing has ever tried to take her. We've got a Broad-winged hawk that likes to hang out here. It's never taken Zoey (the dog) anywhere. You should see her chasing away squirrels, and then the squirrels thinking she wants to play, so they chase her and scare her half to death! All I do is stand and laugh at all of them...LOL

My dogs are working dogs. Small but they do the job. LOL.

What in the world has your mini caught there?

Our standard is willing to woof and chase but so far has been unsuccessful in her quest to rid the world of squirrels.

My neigborhood peach stealer was caught.

Scooter loves anything that's small and moves fast, fairly good at getting them. My other dog has a good nose so the two seem to work together hunting small animals.