September 5, 2025 • 38 mins
Gardening isn't static—it evolves as we learn, as plants grow, and as our vision for our outdoor spaces changes. Today's episode tackles the art and science of moving plants within your garden, a skill that frees you to redesign without starting over or breaking the bank.
We begin by exploring the foundational principle of "right plant, right place" that should guide your initial planting decisions. Understanding your garden's conditions and matching them to plant requirements can prevent the need for transplanting altogether. But gardens change, and sometimes plants need to find new homes within our spaces.
The timing of transplanting proves crucial for success. The dormant season—November through February—offers the ideal window when plants are less susceptible to shock. Perennials like lupins, verbena, and geraniums can be easily moved during this period, while larger woody plants require more careful consideration and technique.
Mycorrhizal fungi emerges as the secret weapon for successful transplanting. This natural ally forms a symbiotic relationship with plant roots, increasing their ability to absorb water and nutrients. Applied at planting time, it significantly improves establishment rates and helps mitigate transplant shock.
For larger specimens like trees and shrubs, we delve into specific techniques to preserve as much of the root system as possible, reduce top growth to decrease demands on the compromised roots, and provide proper aftercare. Container plants present their own challenges, particularly when root-bound, and we cover how to correct circular root patterns before planting.
Whether you're making minor adjustments to perennial placement or undertaking the significant challenge of moving a mature magnolia, understanding these principles and techniques will transform your approach to garden design. Your plants deserve this second chance, and with our guidance, they'll thrive in their new locations.
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
How's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 292 of Master my Gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode isanswering a listener's question
or, I suppose, a suggestion froma listener to cover the subject
of moving plants within thegarden, and it's actually very
heavily linked to next week'sepisode.
(00:32):
So the the listener, stephenDaly he's a long-time listener
and friend of the podcast andStephen has, you know, off the
back of some episodes that wecovered a couple years ago, has
been growing his own perennialplants from seed and I saw some
pictures of those a while backreally, really successful.
(00:54):
And you know, stephen has takengreat pride from the fact that
and, I suppose, satisfactionfrom the fact that he has taken
these blooms from a packet ofseed right through to full
maturity within his garden.
And there's a sense ofachievement and a sense of pride
that comes along with that, andthat's definitely the case and
(01:14):
that's something that we want totie in to the grow along and
that's what we're going to bechatting about next week.
We're going to talk abouteverything that you're going to
need for that grow along andhopefully as many of you as
possible can, you know, comealong on that, on that journey.
There will be obviously the thepodcast you know instructional
podcast but also videos, so doseparate videos, possibly even a
(01:37):
couple of lives, to show theprocess of what you need to do
and so on.
And it's definitely heavilylinked to next week's because
Stephen's question relates to.
He is growing these perennialplants and I was commenting how
well the bed looks and hereckons he has some editing to
(01:59):
do, as he says, where he needsto sort of move some plants, and
he's asking how to do that.
And again, it's something that Ihaven't covered on the podcast
before and it's kind of aninteresting one and there's, as
I was sort of thinking about howyou would structure the episode
or how you'd go about chattingabout the episode, there was
(02:21):
loads of different things thatwere springing to mind and kind
of all of them were relatedbecause over the last number of
weeks since I've been, you know,asking you guys to to make
contact, to say hello, tointroduce yourselves, there's a
huge amount of people have gotin touch and the trend seems to
(02:42):
be that most people who arelistening to the podcast are, I
suppose, beginner gardeners,relatively novice gardeners, or
people who are finding theirfeet and are finding the podcast
good for getting them up andrunning and giving sort of solid
(03:02):
advice in terms of you know, interms of where to go and how to
start and how to do something.
And that is really heartening,because that's the whole purpose
of it and why that relates toto Stephen's question is that
Stephen has grown all thesebrilliant plants and he's now
looking to make some changes.
(03:23):
He kind of he said that he grewthem and just stuck them in,
and I suppose that's a big partof where you start with when
we're talking about how to moveplants, because what we're
looking to do at the very, verystart, if possible, is to put
the right plant in the rightplace.
And I forget who famously saidthat was.
Was it Bette Chateau orsomebody like that?
(03:44):
I know lots of gardeners aresort of credited with saying it,
but I'm not sure who originallysaid it.
But Helen Dillon was anotherone that said right plant, right
place, but I'm not sure who wasthe original person to say it.
But that's very, very true theright plant, right place.
And there's sort of multimultifacets to that as well, and
(04:07):
again, they're going to be, youknow, for many of you guys who
are sort of learner or novicegardeners, how do you know how
to put the right plant in theright place?
You know that's the thing.
So that got me thinking.
You know that I haven'tactually covered.
We've talked to many brilliantgarden designers on here and
we've talked about how to, youknow, go about laying out
(04:31):
gardens different ideas,different plant combinations.
You know we've talked to opengardens and how they've done
things and so on, but I haven'tactually set out and said, right
, this is how you go aboutcreating a border, and maybe
something like that would.
That will be really useful topeople as well.
You know, I'm starting fromscratch here and growing these
(04:53):
plants.
Where should I be putting them?
So that's kind of going offtopic here, but that's another
sort of thing that we can talkabout.
That will definitely helppeople, another sort of thing
that we can talk about that willdefinitely help people.
But you know and I will get tothe moving of the plants in a
minute, stephen but what you'relooking for at the very, very
start is right plant, rightplace, and that has multiple
(05:18):
sort of explanations behind it.
Number one, right plant, rightplace, can refer to the planting
question and the area thatyou're putting it.
So, for example, if you have,you know, an Acer palmatum.
They famously do not like wind,so you're not going to stick
that in a windy spot or at thewindiest corner of your house.
(05:40):
So there's that element of it.
There's also the element ofazaleas they like ericaceous
soil, so you don't just stickthem into your normal garden and
expect them to thrive, becausethey need certain conditions.
So it's about understanding theground conditions, the facing,
(06:06):
the shade, the sunlight.
You know the needs of the plantand just being aware of those.
You don't need to get toobogged down on it, but be aware
of the needs of the plant, beaware of what conditions you can
provide within the space thatyou're looking to, looking to.
You know, put the plant intoand if they don't match up, then
(06:31):
don't put the plant there,because and that's where the
origin of this right plant,right place comes from Because
it's just the first thing thatwill lead you to, you know,
failure or to need to move theplant afterwards.
So that's why that's why I wassaying I tried to go back a step
before we get to the moving ofit.
(06:52):
So that's, that's a reallycritical piece and I know it
doesn't answer the questionaround moving plants, but if any
of the rest of you guys are,you know, looking at your garden
, planning your garden, andyou're planning with, you know
with as a relative novice, youknow then the simple questions
(07:13):
that you need to ask are whatconditions does this plant like
and does the situation that I'mgoing to put it into match up
with the conditions that theylike?
And if they don't, then that'snot suitable for there doesn't
mean that you can't grow it.
There is other ways of creatingconditions.
You know, you might have anacer, palm, mat and white can
grow on one side of your house,but you might be able to put it
(07:35):
in a in a nice covered area, anice sheltered spot or a little
courtyard, or you know somethinglike that.
Or grow it in a pot where youcan shelter it, where you can
move it.
So it doesn't rule it out, butknowing, when you're going into
your garden beds, what conditionyou have, and then find a list
(07:56):
of plants that will match withthose conditions, and from there
you can start to lay out yourgarden, lay out your plants.
We'll talk afterwards, as Isaid in a separate episode,
about how you would actually goabout structuring a bed and
creating a bed for scratch ifyou're a novice or if you're a
newbie gardener.
What is it that we're lookingfor in order to create these
(08:17):
borders For Stephen?
He's just looking to do kind ofan editing.
It's not looking.
He's happy with the layout andso he should be, as from seeing
the pictures you know.
There's great color in it, it'snice shape, um, everything
seems to be quite well.
But just a little bit of minorediting, as he calls it, little
changes that he wants to make,some colors that maybe don't
(08:37):
match together.
So when you've chosen the rightplant at the right place, then
it's a case of how do you moveand when do you move.
In Stephen's case, what he'sgrown is predominantly
perennials and all grown fromseed.
As I say, a great sense ofpride comes from that.
But within that he has lupins,sea holly, verbena, geraniums,
(09:04):
sedums, delphiniums, rubecchias,steepus which is a grass,
obviously and agelias.
So he has loads of really goodperennial plants and wants to
move some of them, and I supposewith any plant, the first thing
(09:24):
is that the only time you canmove them is during the dormant
season, and the dormant seasonis, depending on frost and so on
, is typically the 1st ofNovember, more or less right
through to the very latest endof March.
Now, sometimes you can, youknow, the likes of bare root can
go on a little bit longer.
Latest end of march.
(09:45):
Now, sometimes you can, youknow, the likes of bare root can
go on a little bit longer.
But for a plant that you'regoing to move within your garden
, you really want to be movingit in that window from, in my
opinion, from the first offebruary through to the to the
end of, or from the first ofnovember through to the end of
february.
That's kind of the time frame.
So completely dormant plant isis the only way.
So for something you know thatis perennial, that completely
(10:06):
dies back, you might need to beusing a you know bamboo cane or
something that identifies whereit actually is in the ground and
then you can move from there.
So let's look at this list thatStephen has.
So all of these lupin, seaholly, verbenas, geranium sedums
and so on, all of these areperennials, with the exception
(10:30):
of one grass in there, and likemost plants, they don't like
being moved, especially whenyou're perennials in the earlier
stages.
But after that, once they getestablished, during that dormant
period, it's really easy tomove either a portion of it or
the complete plant.
So, for example, in Stephen'scase, if he's happy with certain
(10:53):
colors or certain flowers in acertain spot, but maybe they're
just starting to take over alittle bit, he can get the spade
and literally cut out chunks ofthe root zone.
So, for example, if it was ahosta now hosta is not on this
list, but let's say you have abig hosta you can in the winter
(11:13):
period you won't see where theactual plant is, you'll have to
mark it out beforehand, but youwould literally drive your spade
right down through the centreof it, go as deep as you
possibly can you know, want tobe going down 12 or 14 inches
and cut it straight across thetop of the crown and then dig
out one half of it.
(11:33):
So then you can leave one halfthere, allow it to regrow.
You'll have made it a littlebit smaller, maybe shaped it a
little bit, if you want to.
But you can allow that piece tostay there and then take that
other piece and move it to whereelse you want to do.
If you want to take it outfully, then just dig it out
fully and move it, and the samegoes for almost all of those,
(11:57):
all all of those perennials thatyou've that you mentioned there
steven.
So in the in the dormant season, just dig them up completely
and move them the likes of thegeranium that will be setting
roots down in several differentpositions and you can actually
create new plants with any ofthose.
Now, typically they won't thoselittle small ones won't just
(12:19):
move, you know, from one spot inthe ground to another.
You might need to take off someof those root cuttings and
allow them to root into a potand then pot them out again
again next spring.
But generally speaking, you candig up any of those, either in
completion or some of them canbe split and move them to a new
location.
The one thing I do well, Ianytime I'm planting, I plant
(12:43):
using, I use mycorrhizal fungiat the base of everything I
plant.
That includes most of my longerterm veg.
I don't use it on anythingthat's short term, but longer
term veg, like tomatoes, forexample, cucumbers, courgettes,
anything like that.
That's in the polytunnel.
I will use mycorrhizal fungi atplanting time Any shrubs,
(13:06):
perennials, even bulbs, trees,hedging, fruit bushes, anything
like that.
I always, anytime I plant anduse mycorrhizal.
But it's especially powerfulwhen you're moving a plant
within your garden.
Because what mycorrhizal does?
It's a fungi that occursnaturally in forests and things
like that, and it attachesitself to the root zone of a
(13:29):
plant and it can increase theroot zone and the, I suppose,
the plant's ability to get waterand nutrients by up to 300%.
So it can increase the rootzone by 300%.
And what it does?
It acts in a symbioticrelationship with the plant.
(13:51):
So it attaches itself to theroot zone of the plant, takes
from the plant what the plantdoesn't need and gives it back
moisture and nutrients.
So it really is a beneficialally to all plants.
As I said, it's found naturallyin forests and, you know, on a
larger scale, within a forestthis whole mycorrhizal network
(14:13):
will be linked together and youcan have areas, say, of a forest
, where you might have a highbed of rock, for example, and
not much, not much soil, andthose trees in a dry period
could be starting to go underpressure.
Then there might be other treesdown the hill a little bit that
are in a wet zone, wherethere's a stream nearby or
(14:35):
whether where it's a buggy partor whatever, but the mycorrhizal
network can work together toactually transport water from
the trees that are in the wetspot, that are not requiring any
extra water, through thismycorrhizal network up to the
trees on the dry ground.
So they they work together,they act together and they help
(14:56):
the plants.
So it's a symbioticrelationship and that will be
hugely beneficial to any plantthat you're going to move within
the garden.
So it will help with the shock,because there is always a shock
, no matter what plant.
We'll talk about some biggerstuff in a minute, like trees
and shrubs, but any plant thatyou go to move, you're giving it
(15:18):
a little bit of a shock bydigging up that root zone.
So mycorrhizal is definitelyyour friend when moving plants
in the garden.
So in that dormant period, anyperennial plants, you can
definitely just dig them up,move them somewhere else, make
sure you mark them, make sureyou know where you have to put
them back in, mulch them overafterwards and they'll come up
(15:39):
fine in the spring, no issuewhatsoever.
Just make sure that you'redigging down quite deep, that
you're taking a good bit of theroot zone.
Try and take as much as youpossibly can in that root zone
because that will help You'restill allowing that there's
enough there for it to thriveafterwards.
It's still going to sit there.
Once you're moving in thatdormant period it's not going to
(16:00):
do anything at all until nextspring.
But once the springtime comesand once the temperatures come,
then it will start to push outleaves, it will start to try and
root in.
You will have to be careful,particularly in that first year,
because it may not have enoughof a root zone set in and if you
(16:21):
do get a really long, prolongeddry period you might need the
water.
But basically anythingperennial can be moved really,
really comfortably, can also besplit if you don't want to move,
move it completely if you justwant to move a part of it really
, really successfully in thatwinter period.
The other plants that you canmove so let's talk about, say,
bigger shrubs.
(16:41):
For example, at the moment Ihave a Magnolia stellata and to
go back to what I was talkingabout, to start, right plant,
right place it was probably theright plant in the right place
at one point in time.
But what has happened since isthat I planted a hedge which
basically runs right up to itand that hedge is now probably
(17:07):
pushing, pushing the head orpushing the magnolia out a
little bit, and the space that'sleft there.
From it it's going to have toencroach out onto a driveway,
but it's encroaching out rightbehind where the gate opens back
.
So in actual fact, at thispoint in time, with the hedge
now, after maturing, it doesn'thave, it doesn't have the space
(17:29):
to to really, I suppose, reachits potential.
So I'm definitely going to haveto move that Now.
As I say, at the time ofplanting it was a good choice in
a pretty good place because ithad the space to spread in both
directions.
But the addition of the hedgeafterwards has meant that it
(17:50):
kind of has to go one way, andthat way is sort of going to
force it out onto a driveway andinto the way block views and so
on.
So now it's not the right plantin the right place.
So that needs to be moved.
But what am I going to do to dothat?
So, firstly, it's quite big Interms of height.
(18:12):
It's not overly tall.
It's probably five, maybe fiveand a half foot tall.
It's spread quite a bit.
So it's gone, gone reasonablywide.
Now the the challenge withmoving something like that is if
you were in a nursery and yourjob was to sell trees every year
, what you would be doing isyou'd be taking that magnolia
(18:35):
and during the, during thedormant period, you would be
getting a machine or tools andyou would be cutting the root
zone of that plant and you'd bebreaking the few major tap roots
or the few major big roots thatit would put out and you'd be
forcing it by doing that.
You'd be forcing it to createthese more fibrous, smaller
(18:57):
roots, be forcing it to createthese more fibrous, smaller
roots, and when these nurseriesare growing these trees for root
balling, they will do thatcutting process, sometimes every
year, maybe every second year,and, depending on how long the
tree remains on the nursery, itcould have got that root zone
cut several, several times inorder to force this fibrous root
(19:18):
network underneath.
But in my scenario, in thegarden that was just planted in
there and that has grown away,sent out its roots and typically
it'll, you know, send out a fewbig ones and when there is no
need for the plant to put outhuge fibrous root zones, then it
will will put out some, but itdoesn't put out as much as what
(19:41):
you would see on a root balltree bought from a nursery,
because it's not getting thatroot pruning as such.
So because of that.
A tree like this can be trickyto move and then you have the
potential of losing the tree,which obviously you don't want
to be doing.
You know it was quite a nicetree going in.
It has matured into a very nicetree since, in terms of size,
(20:03):
in terms of value it's.
You know it's a very nice tree,it's a very valuable tree and
you certainly don't want to belosing that.
So what we're going to do totry and give it every chance
possible.
So at the moment, as all theleaves come off it, when all the
leaves have come off it, I willgive it a little bit of a
trimming.
So over the next probably monthor so, I'll give it a bit of a
(20:26):
trimming, got to take as muchgrowth as possible off the top
without affecting it too much.
That is just going to mean thatthere's less requirement up on
top, for you know it takes thepressure off the root zone.
And then I will start very,very gently and deeply and try
(20:48):
and cut that root zone.
Now I'm going to meet some bigroots there that are going to
need something quite substantial, maybe like a little hatchet or
something to or little axe tobreak them.
Um, but I'm going to try andlift as much as possible of that
root zone.
So I'm going to keep out maybetwo foot all the way around.
(21:10):
I might be able to do it withwith curbs and so on, but as
much as possible I'm going totry and get as much of that root
out of the ground.
Now I know that the root zone isnot going to be as fibrous as
something that I would buy froma bare root nursery but at the
same time I'm going to try andget as much as I possibly can
out of that during that periodof end of November through to
(21:31):
end of February thereabouts.
I'm definitely going to put itinto right plant, right place,
into a spot where I know it'sgoing to be happy, and I'm going
to put lots of mycorrhizalfungi making contact with the
roots that are there as much aspossible.
I'm going to make sure that theground itself is not so hard
(21:51):
that the roots are going tostruggle to get into it.
I'm also going to possiblystake it, because when I put
this into its new home it's notgoing to have anchored itself in
, it's going to be quite big andas the wind blows it can rock
that tree and you get a thingcalled wind rock where the roots
are just shaken on, you know,or get shook around a bit in the
(22:14):
wind.
They move a tiny little bit inthe wind and that constant
movement means that it doesn'troot in quickly because you're
you know, it starts to send outa root but then the wind blows
and snaps it.
So you're trying to get itfixed so that it actually will,
you know, will bed in and willstart to root in as quick as
(22:35):
possible.
I'm definitely going to makesure that it doesn't dry out
next spring and because, again,even though I've reduced the
requirement for water byreducing the canopy up on top,
the root zone is not spread out,it's not sending out big areas
immediately.
I know I've added themycorrhizal and that will help,
(22:56):
but at the very, very earlystages, if you've got dry
weather, it just may not havethe root zone to sustain the,
the move.
It's getting a shock one way orthe other.
So once you've dug that, it'sgetting a shock, and that shock
and that check can really,really affect plants especially.
You know, bigger stuff likewhat I'm talking about here.
(23:16):
Once you get it established,once it's, you know, looking a
little bit happier then I woulddefinitely give it seaweed as
well.
You can give it liquid seaweed,drench around the roots on,
dilute with water obviously, andthat will help as well.
All of that will help and allowit to sort of get established
and nurse it for a little periodof time.
(23:38):
You won't have to do any ofthat with your little perennial
plants that Stephen is talkingabout.
Just dig them up and move them.
They'll be perfectly happy.
Mulch them over afterwards, useyour mycorrhizal as well, but
they'll be perfectly happy.
The same goes for trees.
So, talking about the magnoliathere, that could be the same
for a know a fruit tree or youknow an ornamental tree or
(24:01):
something like that.
The only thing I would say isthat you know, within a garden
situation, your ability to movestuff is you can underestimate
it.
It's once a plant has beddeditself in and rooted itself in,
it's a difficult job to get itmoved.
So you know, be aware of thatbefore you go starting it.
(24:23):
You know, make sure you have abit of help if you need it.
Um, because they will be wellbedded in and they will put out
big roots and, as I say, theywon't have put out the fibrous
roots on because they the needhasn't been there because we
we've allowed them to just stay,driving out those long, big
roots and when you chop them offthat's going to be a big shock
(24:45):
to them and it's going to be abig challenge to even move it
physically.
So just be aware of that.
But the same principle willapply for moving trees.
Up to a certain point you willneed to get, you know, as much
of the roots on as you possiblycan.
You'll need to be able to movequite a heavy weight of material
(25:06):
, even to get it out of there.
Definitely use your mycorrhizal, definitely water for the first
period of time.
But that's how you move plants.
It's quite simple really inthat it's always in the dormant
phase.
The only other type of movingthat you will see within a
garden and I'd often talk aboutit when it comes to planters,
(25:29):
even if you're doing seasonalplanters, I like to use small
little plants within that thatcan be used afterwards within
the garden, things like Saracoca, using them in Christmas or
winter planters to get thatlovely smell in the wintertime
but then in the springtime ifyou want to refresh that and
(25:50):
switch to a summer containerthat can be moved and into the
garden.
Same goes if you're planting,for example, a Fatsia into a
summer container, goes.
If you're planting, for example, a fat sea into a summer
container, then come the wintertime you're putting something
else in.
You're always able to move thatplant on into a spot in the
garden and always be kind ofeyeing up where you would put
that again, figuring back toyour right plant, right place.
(26:11):
But in that scenario, movingfrom a pot out into a bed, the
same principle will apply youwant to get as much of the root
zone as you possibly can out.
Watch out for if the plant hasbecome sort of pot bound, where,
if it was a round pot, forexample, the roots grow out,
(26:34):
reach the sidewall of the pot,they want to continue to grow,
so they start pushing around thepot and then you end up with a
lot of roots that have just gonearound in a ring and when, when
you put them out into theground afterwards, if you don't
disrupt that growing pattern,they will continue to grow in a
ring when in the ground and thenit just won't have any
(26:55):
stability, won't be able to sendout its roots far.
It'll just end up what theycall root bound and that's not
good for a plant in terms ofmoving it.
So if you are moving from a pot, always try and break that.
You know it can happen in asquare pot as well, just not as
common where they will literallythe roots will come out and
(27:18):
they'll go out as far as thewall of the pot and then trace
the wall around on the insideand you end up with, as I say, a
root bound pot, and what you'relooking to do is you're looking
to disrupt that, cut that, andessentially that can be as
simple as getting your spade andslicing it down the side so
that you're cutting that, andthen you tease out the roots and
(27:38):
sort of make them out into, youknow, anchors in all sides and
then, when they get into theground, that's the direction
they're facing and that's thedirection they'll grow.
If you leave them the other way, going around in a circle,
going around in a square, that'swhat they continue to do and
you just won't get any stabilityand they won't be able to send
out their.
You know they won't be able tosend out their.
(27:59):
You know they won't be able togo out searching for water and
nutrients the way they would beand they wouldn't be able to
serve their function, I guess,for the plant.
So, moving from pots, justwatch out for that Same
principle applies they.
Typically you'll move them,especially if it's a big
something, big.
Move it in that dormant periodas well.
It just gives you a betterchance of success.
(28:19):
You do have the ability, youknow, with something that's
coming out of a pot, to kind ofpot it on at any stage, because
you're going to bring the rootzone that has been sustained.
It is the root zone within thepot and when you pull out a
plant you're going to take allthe growing media that's in that
with it.
So the root zone is stillintact and the only thing that
(28:40):
you need to do then, when you doget it into the ground so long
as you have to get all that rootzone in is to continue to water
it and feed, feed it and carefor it the way it was while it
was in the pot.
So you're, from a timingperspective, you can move pots
within a garden.
You can move plants within agarden coming out of pots for a
(29:00):
lot longer window than you canwith plants that are grown in
the ground.
So typically you could do thatfrom.
You could easily do that fromSeptember through to probably
even May time.
The only exception that I wouldsay is during the summer, when
you're just likely to get longer, drier periods.
(29:23):
It's just a little bit harderon the plants.
So try not to do it duringthose periods.
But then, other than that, youcan pretty much do it at all
times.
But then, other than that, youcan pretty much do it at all
times and just again ensure thatwhen you do move it from the
pot to the ground that it is,you're replicating the care that
it got while it was in the potand other than that.
That's kind of I think that'skind of the moving of plants.
(29:47):
It's.
It's.
It's simple in theory.
In terms of timing, it's alwaysin that dormant period.
The small stuff, very, verysimple Just dig them up, move
them, plant them, especiallyperennials.
You know a lot of small shrubs.
No issue moving any of those.
It's just when you get tobigger stuff it's physically
(30:09):
harder and also a bit trickierin terms of, you know, in terms
of making it survive.
And that is the thing.
Like me with this magnolia, asI say, it's quite a big, nice,
valuable plant now and Idefinitely don't want to, you
know, make any mistakes doing it.
I want to make sure that I moveit and move it successfully,
(30:32):
because otherwise you're losinga very, very good plant.
So yeah, keys are move it inthe dormant period, move most of
it in the dormant period.
Ensure you're using mycorrhizal.
That's brilliant for justhelping that root establishment.
I use it, as I say, even evenwhen I'm not moving plants.
I will always use it.
Just helps with rootestablishment.
(30:52):
Almost guarantees success.
To be fair, water, definitelywater in the early stages.
Make sure to get lots of it,because that root zone has been
disrupted.
You're going to need to makesure that the plant is able to
keep getting enough water andnutrients into itself to sustain
it, especially if you've cutoff large chunks of roots.
(31:13):
Take as much root zone as youpossibly can.
The bigger the plant, the harderthat's going to get, because
physically it'll be justdifficult to do it.
But the more roots on you canmove, the better chance you have
of moving plants.
The amount of times that you'llsee people trying to move
plants in springtime, even intosummertime, it just you will not
(31:37):
succeed.
The plant needs to be dormant,and once the plant is dormant,
then it's just a case of whatyou can physically do, and if
you can physically move it andagain getting it into reasonable
ground, then the chances ofsuccess are very high.
If you move at the wrong timeof the year, the chances of
(31:58):
success are very, very slim.
So just follow those few simpleprinciples and you should be
fine with it.
Definitely, the you know, thethought process for that, for
this episode, has been to goback to the very, very start of
it, which is right plant, rightplace, and that, you know, leads
(32:21):
to making sure that you don'treally have, you don't have to
move plants afterwards or, inStephen's case, all you're doing
is a little bit of editing.
So I think that's very, veryimportant.
I know it's kind of taking astep back, but it's also, you
know, it's worthwhile.
It's worthwhile thinking aboutit at the start, getting that
(32:42):
right, and then you'll have less, you don't need to move
anything afterwards.
And definitely it has promptedthe need possibly to do an
episode on how to actually goabout laying out a bed, layering
and repetition and that type ofthing, because you know that is
(33:04):
probably the reason a lot ofpeople end up moving things is
that they don't get either theright plant, right place in
terms of size or in terms oflocation.
So you might have a lovely,lovely plant, stick it at the
front of your border, but itgrows tall and it blocks
everything in behind it.
So that's just the kind of astaging thing you want, you know
(33:26):
, the taller things to the backof a border, mid-tier and so on,
and we might talk about thevarious types of plants that
would slot into all of those andI think that might help people
you know, in terms of that very,very stark piece of right plant
, right place.
So I hope, steven, that answersyour question.
It's yeah, for for the onesthat you're talking about,
(33:46):
moving or editing, definitely noissue, just dig them.
Dig them up, either in it intheir entirety or, where
possible.
If you want to leave some ofthem there things like Achillea,
you can just split them.
Things like Hostas, you cansplit them.
If there's a specific questionon any of them, just shoot it
over.
But I hope that helps and hopethat allows you to move the
(34:07):
plants to where you want them tobe.
The very first message thatStephen sent in relation to this
was about the perennials thathe has grown from seed, and
that's what we'll be talkingabout next week.
So on next week's episode I'mgoing to give you the full list
of what I'm going to grow duringthis grow along and give you a
(34:30):
list of all the you know thevarieties that I have.
I'm also going to be growingsome native plants in that.
So there's basically 10cultivated flowers, all
perennials, or pretty much allperennials.
There might be one in it that'snot a perennial.
Then I'll probably do five orsix native plants as well.
(34:51):
So I'll have a list of about 15.
I'll show you how to sow all ofthose and you just choose the
perennials.
That will that suit your garden.
Again, right plant, right place.
Have your ideas about whereyou're going, where you want to
plant them.
The other thing to bear in mind,just as we're doing this but
I'll talk about it next week isthat you'll have a lot of plants
(35:13):
, or potentially have a lot ofplants, so we might not sow all
the seed.
What we're looking to do ishave for me, like I'm looking to
have, maybe six to eight plantsof each of the 10 that I'm
growing.
That's 80 plants I don't needwithin a packet of.
One of them that I'm growing isAchillea, for example, within
the packet there's going to be250 seeds.
(35:34):
I don't need 250 achilles, butif I have eight or ten I've
loads.
So we'll have to restrainourselves a little bit during
that sewing process.
But I'll give you the full listnext week.
I'll give you the list ofanything that you're going to
need to do it and how to do itstep by step.
I'll also do video I'm not surewhere that's going to be,
(35:54):
probably youtube or instagram orsomewhere.
Post a video on showing you howto actually go about sowing the
seeds and then follow onafterwards.
We'll see a couple of weeksafter.
We'll see the progress, we'llsee the germination fingers
crossed and then we'll do afollow-on episode again showing
the potting on process.
(36:16):
So we'd pick them out fromsmall seedlings into slightly
bigger pots and then maybe oneduring the winter period to show
how we mine them during thewinter, because another listener
had a question on somebeautiful perennials that she
had grown and she's questioninghow to overwinter them, how much
to water them and so on.
So we'll cover that as well.
(36:37):
And then finally, all goingwell, we've got them through the
winter and come next spring wehave these beautiful perennial
plants that are just flyingready to hit the ground and then
this time next year we'relooking at borders full of
flower that we've grown fromseed and you know, over the
course of four or five videosand hopefully get to see you
(36:59):
guys, your pictures, likeStephen's, show the success and
share the success on how youknow, on how this has gone, and
I think that I think that'll bereally good.
So next week's episode is youknow all about what we're going
to need to get this grow alongup and running and then, within
a few days of that, we'llactually start showing you
(37:22):
videos of how to go about it.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
It's hopefully that answersStephen's questions.
It's an unusual one.
I hadn't thought about oneabout how to move plants, but I
guess you know there is alwaysthe.
You know a lot of people do tryand move plants.
So I think there's a few simpletechniques, a few simple tips
(37:46):
and once followed, you will movesuccessfully.
Without that, then potentiallyyou're looking at moving plants
and just watching them die andyou don't want that.
So when we're moving something,we want to give it as much of a
chance as possible to hit theground wherever you're putting
it and to grow on successfullyand hopefully it being the right
(38:06):
plant in the right place atthat stage, doesn't have to be
moved again.
Yeah, so that's been thisweek's episode.
I hope that helped.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
thank you.
How's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 292 of Master my Gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode isanswering a listener's question
or, I suppose, a suggestion froma listener to cover the subject
of moving plants within thegarden, and it's actually very
heavily linked to next week'sepisode.
(00:32):
So the the listener, stephenDaly he's a long-time listener
and friend of the podcast andStephen has, you know, off the
back of some episodes that wecovered a couple years ago, has
been growing his own perennialplants from seed and I saw some
pictures of those a while backreally, really successful.
(00:54):
And you know, stephen has takengreat pride from the fact that
and, I suppose, satisfactionfrom the fact that he has taken
these blooms from a packet ofseed right through to full
maturity within his garden.
And there's a sense ofachievement and a sense of pride
that comes along with that, andthat's definitely the case and
(01:14):
that's something that we want totie in to the grow along and
that's what we're going to bechatting about next week.
We're going to talk abouteverything that you're going to
need for that grow along andhopefully as many of you as
possible can, you know, comealong on that, on that journey.
There will be obviously the thepodcast you know instructional
podcast but also videos, so doseparate videos, possibly even a
(01:37):
couple of lives, to show theprocess of what you need to do
and so on.
And it's definitely heavilylinked to next week's because
Stephen's question relates to.
He is growing these perennialplants and I was commenting how
well the bed looks and hereckons he has some editing to
(01:59):
do, as he says, where he needsto sort of move some plants, and
he's asking how to do that.
And again, it's something that Ihaven't covered on the podcast
before and it's kind of aninteresting one and there's, as
I was sort of thinking about howyou would structure the episode
or how you'd go about chattingabout the episode, there was
(02:21):
loads of different things thatwere springing to mind and kind
of all of them were relatedbecause over the last number of
weeks since I've been, you know,asking you guys to to make
contact, to say hello, tointroduce yourselves, there's a
huge amount of people have gotin touch and the trend seems to
(02:42):
be that most people who arelistening to the podcast are, I
suppose, beginner gardeners,relatively novice gardeners, or
people who are finding theirfeet and are finding the podcast
good for getting them up andrunning and giving sort of solid
(03:02):
advice in terms of you know, interms of where to go and how to
start and how to do something.
And that is really heartening,because that's the whole purpose
of it and why that relates toto Stephen's question is that
Stephen has grown all thesebrilliant plants and he's now
looking to make some changes.
(03:23):
He kind of he said that he grewthem and just stuck them in,
and I suppose that's a big partof where you start with when
we're talking about how to moveplants, because what we're
looking to do at the very, verystart, if possible, is to put
the right plant in the rightplace.
And I forget who famously saidthat was.
Was it Bette Chateau orsomebody like that?
(03:44):
I know lots of gardeners aresort of credited with saying it,
but I'm not sure who originallysaid it.
But Helen Dillon was anotherone that said right plant, right
place, but I'm not sure who wasthe original person to say it.
But that's very, very true theright plant, right place.
And there's sort of multimultifacets to that as well, and
(04:07):
again, they're going to be, youknow, for many of you guys who
are sort of learner or novicegardeners, how do you know how
to put the right plant in theright place?
You know that's the thing.
So that got me thinking.
You know that I haven'tactually covered.
We've talked to many brilliantgarden designers on here and
we've talked about how to, youknow, go about laying out
(04:31):
gardens different ideas,different plant combinations.
You know we've talked to opengardens and how they've done
things and so on, but I haven'tactually set out and said, right
, this is how you go aboutcreating a border, and maybe
something like that would.
That will be really useful topeople as well.
You know, I'm starting fromscratch here and growing these
(04:53):
plants.
Where should I be putting them?
So that's kind of going offtopic here, but that's another
sort of thing that we can talkabout.
That will definitely helppeople, another sort of thing
that we can talk about that willdefinitely help people.
But you know and I will get tothe moving of the plants in a
minute, stephen but what you'relooking for at the very, very
start is right plant, rightplace, and that has multiple
(05:18):
sort of explanations behind it.
Number one, right plant, rightplace, can refer to the planting
question and the area thatyou're putting it.
So, for example, if you have,you know, an Acer palmatum.
They famously do not like wind,so you're not going to stick
that in a windy spot or at thewindiest corner of your house.
(05:40):
So there's that element of it.
There's also the element ofazaleas they like ericaceous
soil, so you don't just stickthem into your normal garden and
expect them to thrive, becausethey need certain conditions.
So it's about understanding theground conditions, the facing,
(06:06):
the shade, the sunlight.
You know the needs of the plantand just being aware of those.
You don't need to get toobogged down on it, but be aware
of the needs of the plant, beaware of what conditions you can
provide within the space thatyou're looking to, looking to.
You know, put the plant intoand if they don't match up, then
(06:31):
don't put the plant there,because and that's where the
origin of this right plant,right place comes from Because
it's just the first thing thatwill lead you to, you know,
failure or to need to move theplant afterwards.
So that's why that's why I wassaying I tried to go back a step
before we get to the moving ofit.
(06:52):
So that's, that's a reallycritical piece and I know it
doesn't answer the questionaround moving plants, but if any
of the rest of you guys are,you know, looking at your garden
, planning your garden, andyou're planning with, you know
with as a relative novice, youknow then the simple questions
(07:13):
that you need to ask are whatconditions does this plant like
and does the situation that I'mgoing to put it into match up
with the conditions that theylike?
And if they don't, then that'snot suitable for there doesn't
mean that you can't grow it.
There is other ways of creatingconditions.
You know, you might have anacer, palm, mat and white can
grow on one side of your house,but you might be able to put it
(07:35):
in a in a nice covered area, anice sheltered spot or a little
courtyard, or you know somethinglike that.
Or grow it in a pot where youcan shelter it, where you can
move it.
So it doesn't rule it out, butknowing, when you're going into
your garden beds, what conditionyou have, and then find a list
(07:56):
of plants that will match withthose conditions, and from there
you can start to lay out yourgarden, lay out your plants.
We'll talk afterwards, as Isaid in a separate episode,
about how you would actually goabout structuring a bed and
creating a bed for scratch ifyou're a novice or if you're a
newbie gardener.
What is it that we're lookingfor in order to create these
(08:17):
borders For Stephen?
He's just looking to do kind ofan editing.
It's not looking.
He's happy with the layout andso he should be, as from seeing
the pictures you know.
There's great color in it, it'snice shape, um, everything
seems to be quite well.
But just a little bit of minorediting, as he calls it, little
changes that he wants to make,some colors that maybe don't
(08:37):
match together.
So when you've chosen the rightplant at the right place, then
it's a case of how do you moveand when do you move.
In Stephen's case, what he'sgrown is predominantly
perennials and all grown fromseed.
As I say, a great sense ofpride comes from that.
But within that he has lupins,sea holly, verbena, geraniums,
(09:04):
sedums, delphiniums, rubecchias,steepus which is a grass,
obviously and agelias.
So he has loads of really goodperennial plants and wants to
move some of them, and I supposewith any plant, the first thing
(09:24):
is that the only time you canmove them is during the dormant
season, and the dormant seasonis, depending on frost and so on
, is typically the 1st ofNovember, more or less right
through to the very latest endof March.
Now, sometimes you can, youknow, the likes of bare root can
go on a little bit longer.
Latest end of march.
(09:45):
Now, sometimes you can, youknow, the likes of bare root can
go on a little bit longer.
But for a plant that you'regoing to move within your garden
, you really want to be movingit in that window from, in my
opinion, from the first offebruary through to the to the
end of, or from the first ofnovember through to the end of
february.
That's kind of the time frame.
So completely dormant plant isis the only way.
So for something you know thatis perennial, that completely
(10:06):
dies back, you might need to beusing a you know bamboo cane or
something that identifies whereit actually is in the ground and
then you can move from there.
So let's look at this list thatStephen has.
So all of these lupin, seaholly, verbenas, geranium sedums
and so on, all of these areperennials, with the exception
(10:30):
of one grass in there, and likemost plants, they don't like
being moved, especially whenyou're perennials in the earlier
stages.
But after that, once they getestablished, during that dormant
period, it's really easy tomove either a portion of it or
the complete plant.
So, for example, in Stephen'scase, if he's happy with certain
(10:53):
colors or certain flowers in acertain spot, but maybe they're
just starting to take over alittle bit, he can get the spade
and literally cut out chunks ofthe root zone.
So, for example, if it was ahosta now hosta is not on this
list, but let's say you have abig hosta you can in the winter
(11:13):
period you won't see where theactual plant is, you'll have to
mark it out beforehand, but youwould literally drive your spade
right down through the centreof it, go as deep as you
possibly can you know, want tobe going down 12 or 14 inches
and cut it straight across thetop of the crown and then dig
out one half of it.
(11:33):
So then you can leave one halfthere, allow it to regrow.
You'll have made it a littlebit smaller, maybe shaped it a
little bit, if you want to.
But you can allow that piece tostay there and then take that
other piece and move it to whereelse you want to do.
If you want to take it outfully, then just dig it out
fully and move it, and the samegoes for almost all of those,
(11:57):
all all of those perennials thatyou've that you mentioned there
steven.
So in the in the dormant season, just dig them up completely
and move them the likes of thegeranium that will be setting
roots down in several differentpositions and you can actually
create new plants with any ofthose.
Now, typically they won't thoselittle small ones won't just
(12:19):
move, you know, from one spot inthe ground to another.
You might need to take off someof those root cuttings and
allow them to root into a potand then pot them out again
again next spring.
But generally speaking, you candig up any of those, either in
completion or some of them canbe split and move them to a new
location.
The one thing I do well, Ianytime I'm planting, I plant
(12:43):
using, I use mycorrhizal fungiat the base of everything I
plant.
That includes most of my longerterm veg.
I don't use it on anythingthat's short term, but longer
term veg, like tomatoes, forexample, cucumbers, courgettes,
anything like that.
That's in the polytunnel.
I will use mycorrhizal fungi atplanting time Any shrubs,
(13:06):
perennials, even bulbs, trees,hedging, fruit bushes, anything
like that.
I always, anytime I plant anduse mycorrhizal.
But it's especially powerfulwhen you're moving a plant
within your garden.
Because what mycorrhizal does?
It's a fungi that occursnaturally in forests and things
like that, and it attachesitself to the root zone of a
(13:29):
plant and it can increase theroot zone and the, I suppose,
the plant's ability to get waterand nutrients by up to 300%.
So it can increase the rootzone by 300%.
And what it does?
It acts in a symbioticrelationship with the plant.
(13:51):
So it attaches itself to theroot zone of the plant, takes
from the plant what the plantdoesn't need and gives it back
moisture and nutrients.
So it really is a beneficialally to all plants.
As I said, it's found naturallyin forests and, you know, on a
larger scale, within a forestthis whole mycorrhizal network
(14:13):
will be linked together and youcan have areas, say, of a forest
, where you might have a highbed of rock, for example, and
not much, not much soil, andthose trees in a dry period
could be starting to go underpressure.
Then there might be other treesdown the hill a little bit that
are in a wet zone, wherethere's a stream nearby or
(14:35):
whether where it's a buggy partor whatever, but the mycorrhizal
network can work together toactually transport water from
the trees that are in the wetspot, that are not requiring any
extra water, through thismycorrhizal network up to the
trees on the dry ground.
So they they work together,they act together and they help
(14:56):
the plants.
So it's a symbioticrelationship and that will be
hugely beneficial to any plantthat you're going to move within
the garden.
So it will help with the shock,because there is always a shock
, no matter what plant.
We'll talk about some biggerstuff in a minute, like trees
and shrubs, but any plant thatyou go to move, you're giving it
(15:18):
a little bit of a shock bydigging up that root zone.
So mycorrhizal is definitelyyour friend when moving plants
in the garden.
So in that dormant period, anyperennial plants, you can
definitely just dig them up,move them somewhere else, make
sure you mark them, make sureyou know where you have to put
them back in, mulch them overafterwards and they'll come up
(15:39):
fine in the spring, no issuewhatsoever.
Just make sure that you'redigging down quite deep, that
you're taking a good bit of theroot zone.
Try and take as much as youpossibly can in that root zone
because that will help You'restill allowing that there's
enough there for it to thriveafterwards.
It's still going to sit there.
Once you're moving in thatdormant period it's not going to
(16:00):
do anything at all until nextspring.
But once the springtime comesand once the temperatures come,
then it will start to push outleaves, it will start to try and
root in.
You will have to be careful,particularly in that first year,
because it may not have enoughof a root zone set in and if you
(16:21):
do get a really long, prolongeddry period you might need the
water.
But basically anythingperennial can be moved really,
really comfortably, can also besplit if you don't want to move,
move it completely if you justwant to move a part of it really
, really successfully in thatwinter period.
The other plants that you canmove so let's talk about, say,
bigger shrubs.
(16:41):
For example, at the moment Ihave a Magnolia stellata and to
go back to what I was talkingabout, to start, right plant,
right place it was probably theright plant in the right place
at one point in time.
But what has happened since isthat I planted a hedge which
basically runs right up to itand that hedge is now probably
(17:07):
pushing, pushing the head orpushing the magnolia out a
little bit, and the space that'sleft there.
From it it's going to have toencroach out onto a driveway,
but it's encroaching out rightbehind where the gate opens back
.
So in actual fact, at thispoint in time, with the hedge
now, after maturing, it doesn'thave, it doesn't have the space
(17:29):
to to really, I suppose, reachits potential.
So I'm definitely going to haveto move that Now.
As I say, at the time ofplanting it was a good choice in
a pretty good place because ithad the space to spread in both
directions.
But the addition of the hedgeafterwards has meant that it
(17:50):
kind of has to go one way, andthat way is sort of going to
force it out onto a driveway andinto the way block views and so
on.
So now it's not the right plantin the right place.
So that needs to be moved.
But what am I going to do to dothat?
So, firstly, it's quite big Interms of height.
(18:12):
It's not overly tall.
It's probably five, maybe fiveand a half foot tall.
It's spread quite a bit.
So it's gone, gone reasonablywide.
Now the the challenge withmoving something like that is if
you were in a nursery and yourjob was to sell trees every year
, what you would be doing isyou'd be taking that magnolia
(18:35):
and during the, during thedormant period, you would be
getting a machine or tools andyou would be cutting the root
zone of that plant and you'd bebreaking the few major tap roots
or the few major big roots thatit would put out and you'd be
forcing it by doing that.
You'd be forcing it to createthese more fibrous, smaller
(18:57):
roots, be forcing it to createthese more fibrous, smaller
roots, and when these nurseriesare growing these trees for root
balling, they will do thatcutting process, sometimes every
year, maybe every second year,and, depending on how long the
tree remains on the nursery, itcould have got that root zone
cut several, several times inorder to force this fibrous root
(19:18):
network underneath.
But in my scenario, in thegarden that was just planted in
there and that has grown away,sent out its roots and typically
it'll, you know, send out a fewbig ones and when there is no
need for the plant to put outhuge fibrous root zones, then it
will will put out some, but itdoesn't put out as much as what
(19:41):
you would see on a root balltree bought from a nursery,
because it's not getting thatroot pruning as such.
So because of that.
A tree like this can be trickyto move and then you have the
potential of losing the tree,which obviously you don't want
to be doing.
You know it was quite a nicetree going in.
It has matured into a very nicetree since, in terms of size,
(20:03):
in terms of value it's.
You know it's a very nice tree,it's a very valuable tree and
you certainly don't want to belosing that.
So what we're going to do totry and give it every chance
possible.
So at the moment, as all theleaves come off it, when all the
leaves have come off it, I willgive it a little bit of a
trimming.
So over the next probably monthor so, I'll give it a bit of a
(20:26):
trimming, got to take as muchgrowth as possible off the top
without affecting it too much.
That is just going to mean thatthere's less requirement up on
top, for you know it takes thepressure off the root zone.
And then I will start very,very gently and deeply and try
(20:48):
and cut that root zone.
Now I'm going to meet some bigroots there that are going to
need something quite substantial, maybe like a little hatchet or
something to or little axe tobreak them.
Um, but I'm going to try andlift as much as possible of that
root zone.
So I'm going to keep out maybetwo foot all the way around.
(21:10):
I might be able to do it withwith curbs and so on, but as
much as possible I'm going totry and get as much of that root
out of the ground.
Now I know that the root zone isnot going to be as fibrous as
something that I would buy froma bare root nursery but at the
same time I'm going to try andget as much as I possibly can
out of that during that periodof end of November through to
(21:31):
end of February thereabouts.
I'm definitely going to put itinto right plant, right place,
into a spot where I know it'sgoing to be happy, and I'm going
to put lots of mycorrhizalfungi making contact with the
roots that are there as much aspossible.
I'm going to make sure that theground itself is not so hard
(21:51):
that the roots are going tostruggle to get into it.
I'm also going to possiblystake it, because when I put
this into its new home it's notgoing to have anchored itself in
, it's going to be quite big andas the wind blows it can rock
that tree and you get a thingcalled wind rock where the roots
are just shaken on, you know,or get shook around a bit in the
(22:14):
wind.
They move a tiny little bit inthe wind and that constant
movement means that it doesn'troot in quickly because you're
you know, it starts to send outa root but then the wind blows
and snaps it.
So you're trying to get itfixed so that it actually will,
you know, will bed in and willstart to root in as quick as
(22:35):
possible.
I'm definitely going to makesure that it doesn't dry out
next spring and because, again,even though I've reduced the
requirement for water byreducing the canopy up on top,
the root zone is not spread out,it's not sending out big areas
immediately.
I know I've added themycorrhizal and that will help,
(22:56):
but at the very, very earlystages, if you've got dry
weather, it just may not havethe root zone to sustain the,
the move.
It's getting a shock one way orthe other.
So once you've dug that, it'sgetting a shock, and that shock
and that check can really,really affect plants especially.
You know, bigger stuff likewhat I'm talking about here.
(23:16):
Once you get it established,once it's, you know, looking a
little bit happier then I woulddefinitely give it seaweed as
well.
You can give it liquid seaweed,drench around the roots on,
dilute with water obviously, andthat will help as well.
All of that will help and allowit to sort of get established
and nurse it for a little periodof time.
(23:38):
You won't have to do any ofthat with your little perennial
plants that Stephen is talkingabout.
Just dig them up and move them.
They'll be perfectly happy.
Mulch them over afterwards, useyour mycorrhizal as well, but
they'll be perfectly happy.
The same goes for trees.
So, talking about the magnoliathere, that could be the same
for a know a fruit tree or youknow an ornamental tree or
(24:01):
something like that.
The only thing I would say isthat you know, within a garden
situation, your ability to movestuff is you can underestimate
it.
It's once a plant has beddeditself in and rooted itself in,
it's a difficult job to get itmoved.
So you know, be aware of thatbefore you go starting it.
(24:23):
You know, make sure you have abit of help if you need it.
Um, because they will be wellbedded in and they will put out
big roots and, as I say, theywon't have put out the fibrous
roots on because they the needhasn't been there because we
we've allowed them to just stay,driving out those long, big
roots and when you chop them offthat's going to be a big shock
(24:45):
to them and it's going to be abig challenge to even move it
physically.
So just be aware of that.
But the same principle willapply for moving trees.
Up to a certain point you willneed to get, you know, as much
of the roots on as you possiblycan.
You'll need to be able to movequite a heavy weight of material
(25:06):
, even to get it out of there.
Definitely use your mycorrhizal, definitely water for the first
period of time.
But that's how you move plants.
It's quite simple really inthat it's always in the dormant
phase.
The only other type of movingthat you will see within a
garden and I'd often talk aboutit when it comes to planters,
(25:29):
even if you're doing seasonalplanters, I like to use small
little plants within that thatcan be used afterwards within
the garden, things like Saracoca, using them in Christmas or
winter planters to get thatlovely smell in the wintertime
but then in the springtime ifyou want to refresh that and
(25:50):
switch to a summer containerthat can be moved and into the
garden.
Same goes if you're planting,for example, a Fatsia into a
summer container, goes.
If you're planting, for example, a fat sea into a summer
container, then come the wintertime you're putting something
else in.
You're always able to move thatplant on into a spot in the
garden and always be kind ofeyeing up where you would put
that again, figuring back toyour right plant, right place.
(26:11):
But in that scenario, movingfrom a pot out into a bed, the
same principle will apply youwant to get as much of the root
zone as you possibly can out.
Watch out for if the plant hasbecome sort of pot bound, where,
if it was a round pot, forexample, the roots grow out,
(26:34):
reach the sidewall of the pot,they want to continue to grow,
so they start pushing around thepot and then you end up with a
lot of roots that have just gonearound in a ring and when, when
you put them out into theground afterwards, if you don't
disrupt that growing pattern,they will continue to grow in a
ring when in the ground and thenit just won't have any
(26:55):
stability, won't be able to sendout its roots far.
It'll just end up what theycall root bound and that's not
good for a plant in terms ofmoving it.
So if you are moving from a pot, always try and break that.
You know it can happen in asquare pot as well, just not as
common where they will literallythe roots will come out and
(27:18):
they'll go out as far as thewall of the pot and then trace
the wall around on the insideand you end up with, as I say, a
root bound pot, and what you'relooking to do is you're looking
to disrupt that, cut that, andessentially that can be as
simple as getting your spade andslicing it down the side so
that you're cutting that, andthen you tease out the roots and
(27:38):
sort of make them out into, youknow, anchors in all sides and
then, when they get into theground, that's the direction
they're facing and that's thedirection they'll grow.
If you leave them the other way, going around in a circle,
going around in a square, that'swhat they continue to do and
you just won't get any stabilityand they won't be able to send
out their.
You know they won't be able tosend out their.
(27:59):
You know they won't be able togo out searching for water and
nutrients the way they would beand they wouldn't be able to
serve their function, I guess,for the plant.
So, moving from pots, justwatch out for that Same
principle applies they.
Typically you'll move them,especially if it's a big
something, big.
Move it in that dormant periodas well.
It just gives you a betterchance of success.
(28:19):
You do have the ability, youknow, with something that's
coming out of a pot, to kind ofpot it on at any stage, because
you're going to bring the rootzone that has been sustained.
It is the root zone within thepot and when you pull out a
plant you're going to take allthe growing media that's in that
with it.
So the root zone is stillintact and the only thing that
(28:40):
you need to do then, when you doget it into the ground so long
as you have to get all that rootzone in is to continue to water
it and feed, feed it and carefor it the way it was while it
was in the pot.
So you're, from a timingperspective, you can move pots
within a garden.
You can move plants within agarden coming out of pots for a
(29:00):
lot longer window than you canwith plants that are grown in
the ground.
So typically you could do thatfrom.
You could easily do that fromSeptember through to probably
even May time.
The only exception that I wouldsay is during the summer, when
you're just likely to get longer, drier periods.
(29:23):
It's just a little bit harderon the plants.
So try not to do it duringthose periods.
But then, other than that, youcan pretty much do it at all
times.
But then, other than that, youcan pretty much do it at all
times and just again ensure thatwhen you do move it from the
pot to the ground that it is,you're replicating the care that
it got while it was in the potand other than that.
That's kind of I think that'skind of the moving of plants.
(29:47):
It's.
It's.
It's simple in theory.
In terms of timing, it's alwaysin that dormant period.
The small stuff, very, verysimple Just dig them up, move
them, plant them, especiallyperennials.
You know a lot of small shrubs.
No issue moving any of those.
It's just when you get tobigger stuff it's physically
(30:09):
harder and also a bit trickierin terms of, you know, in terms
of making it survive.
And that is the thing.
Like me with this magnolia, asI say, it's quite a big, nice,
valuable plant now and Idefinitely don't want to, you
know, make any mistakes doing it.
I want to make sure that I moveit and move it successfully,
(30:32):
because otherwise you're losinga very, very good plant.
So yeah, keys are move it inthe dormant period, move most of
it in the dormant period.
Ensure you're using mycorrhizal.
That's brilliant for justhelping that root establishment.
I use it, as I say, even evenwhen I'm not moving plants.
I will always use it.
Just helps with rootestablishment.
(30:52):
Almost guarantees success.
To be fair, water, definitelywater in the early stages.
Make sure to get lots of it,because that root zone has been
disrupted.
You're going to need to makesure that the plant is able to
keep getting enough water andnutrients into itself to sustain
it, especially if you've cutoff large chunks of roots.
(31:13):
Take as much root zone as youpossibly can.
The bigger the plant, the harderthat's going to get, because
physically it'll be justdifficult to do it.
But the more roots on you canmove, the better chance you have
of moving plants.
The amount of times that you'llsee people trying to move
plants in springtime, even intosummertime, it just you will not
(31:37):
succeed.
The plant needs to be dormant,and once the plant is dormant,
then it's just a case of whatyou can physically do, and if
you can physically move it andagain getting it into reasonable
ground, then the chances ofsuccess are very high.
If you move at the wrong timeof the year, the chances of
(31:58):
success are very, very slim.
So just follow those few simpleprinciples and you should be
fine with it.
Definitely, the you know, thethought process for that, for
this episode, has been to goback to the very, very start of
it, which is right plant, rightplace, and that, you know, leads
(32:21):
to making sure that you don'treally have, you don't have to
move plants afterwards or, inStephen's case, all you're doing
is a little bit of editing.
So I think that's very, veryimportant.
I know it's kind of taking astep back, but it's also, you
know, it's worthwhile.
It's worthwhile thinking aboutit at the start, getting that
(32:42):
right, and then you'll have less, you don't need to move
anything afterwards.
And definitely it has promptedthe need possibly to do an
episode on how to actually goabout laying out a bed, layering
and repetition and that type ofthing, because you know that is
(33:04):
probably the reason a lot ofpeople end up moving things is
that they don't get either theright plant, right place in
terms of size or in terms oflocation.
So you might have a lovely,lovely plant, stick it at the
front of your border, but itgrows tall and it blocks
everything in behind it.
So that's just the kind of astaging thing you want, you know
(33:26):
, the taller things to the backof a border, mid-tier and so on,
and we might talk about thevarious types of plants that
would slot into all of those andI think that might help people
you know, in terms of that very,very stark piece of right plant
, right place.
So I hope, steven, that answersyour question.
It's yeah, for for the onesthat you're talking about,
(33:46):
moving or editing, definitely noissue, just dig them.
Dig them up, either in it intheir entirety or, where
possible.
If you want to leave some ofthem there things like Achillea,
you can just split them.
Things like Hostas, you cansplit them.
If there's a specific questionon any of them, just shoot it
over.
But I hope that helps and hopethat allows you to move the
(34:07):
plants to where you want them tobe.
The very first message thatStephen sent in relation to this
was about the perennials thathe has grown from seed, and
that's what we'll be talkingabout next week.
So on next week's episode I'mgoing to give you the full list
of what I'm going to grow duringthis grow along and give you a
(34:30):
list of all the you know thevarieties that I have.
I'm also going to be growingsome native plants in that.
So there's basically 10cultivated flowers, all
perennials, or pretty much allperennials.
There might be one in it that'snot a perennial.
Then I'll probably do five orsix native plants as well.
(34:51):
So I'll have a list of about 15.
I'll show you how to sow all ofthose and you just choose the
perennials.
That will that suit your garden.
Again, right plant, right place.
Have your ideas about whereyou're going, where you want to
plant them.
The other thing to bear in mind,just as we're doing this but
I'll talk about it next week isthat you'll have a lot of plants
(35:13):
, or potentially have a lot ofplants, so we might not sow all
the seed.
What we're looking to do ishave for me, like I'm looking to
have, maybe six to eight plantsof each of the 10 that I'm
growing.
That's 80 plants I don't needwithin a packet of.
One of them that I'm growing isAchillea, for example, within
the packet there's going to be250 seeds.
(35:34):
I don't need 250 achilles, butif I have eight or ten I've
loads.
So we'll have to restrainourselves a little bit during
that sewing process.
But I'll give you the full listnext week.
I'll give you the list ofanything that you're going to
need to do it and how to do itstep by step.
I'll also do video I'm not surewhere that's going to be,
(35:54):
probably youtube or instagram orsomewhere.
Post a video on showing you howto actually go about sowing the
seeds and then follow onafterwards.
We'll see a couple of weeksafter.
We'll see the progress, we'llsee the germination fingers
crossed and then we'll do afollow-on episode again showing
the potting on process.
(36:16):
So we'd pick them out fromsmall seedlings into slightly
bigger pots and then maybe oneduring the winter period to show
how we mine them during thewinter, because another listener
had a question on somebeautiful perennials that she
had grown and she's questioninghow to overwinter them, how much
to water them and so on.
So we'll cover that as well.
(36:37):
And then finally, all goingwell, we've got them through the
winter and come next spring wehave these beautiful perennial
plants that are just flyingready to hit the ground and then
this time next year we'relooking at borders full of
flower that we've grown fromseed and you know, over the
course of four or five videosand hopefully get to see you
(36:59):
guys, your pictures, likeStephen's, show the success and
share the success on how youknow, on how this has gone, and
I think that I think that'll bereally good.
So next week's episode is youknow all about what we're going
to need to get this grow alongup and running and then, within
a few days of that, we'llactually start showing you
(37:22):
videos of how to go about it.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
It's hopefully that answersStephen's questions.
It's an unusual one.
I hadn't thought about oneabout how to move plants, but I
guess you know there is alwaysthe.
You know a lot of people do tryand move plants.
So I think there's a few simpletechniques, a few simple tips
(37:46):
and once followed, you will movesuccessfully.
Without that, then potentiallyyou're looking at moving plants
and just watching them die andyou don't want that.
So when we're moving something,we want to give it as much of a
chance as possible to hit theground wherever you're putting
it and to grow on successfullyand hopefully it being the right
(38:06):
plant in the right place atthat stage, doesn't have to be
moved again.
Yeah, so that's been thisweek's episode.
I hope that helped.
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
thank you.
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