I've never tried transplanting it, but i've tried getting rid of it and that's just about impossible. You don't have 4 million and one seedlings in your garden to fall back on if this one doesn't survive?

Hi Marcia, thanks for your reply. They're all hybrids (sterile?) and I cut them back as soon as they're finished flowering to try and prolong life span. I read somewhere that they tend to be biennial in nature??? It's the first time I've tried verbascum over the years, and I really like them so will be disappointed if I've messed up. I guess I could try to replace from the box stores. HD sometimes stocks them but I promised myself I wouldn't buy anymore plants this year (yeah, sure). Anyways, I checked it again this morning and there's new growth. Maybe the top just hasn't had time to catch up to what I did to the bottom! I did salvage the root and hope to propagate from some cuttings.

I loved my verbascum but it just re-seeded all over the place even if i tried to get it cut back on time. I've been digging out seedlings for two years, and there are still more out there. I've never heard of sterile ones, but if there are, that's great. Mine were from seed - i winter-sowed them.

I make that promise to myself all the time. At least i cut back on winter sowing - only 25 containers this year! LOL

I bet it'll be okay. New growth is a good sign. People told me that about transplanting Sea Holly, with the tap root and the mangling, but it didn't bat an eye. Speaking of seediness, Sea Holly has outworn its welcome in my garden.

I also have Verbascum nigrum and it's very seedy but from what I understand the hybrids are not. I had V. 'Helen Johnson' many years ago and it died but I think it was because I planted it in the wrong spot.

I have discovered so many of my perennials and annuals are incredibly seedy for me (even if I try to deadhead) that another one like Verbascum is not going to put me off them. I have a few chaixii plants in bloom now and have ordered some Phoenicium hybrid seeds. Will I regret doing this?? I love the ones I see in other peoples' gardens. I mean... are the mulleins really any worse spreaders than, say, Anthemis, Campanula, Jupiter's Beard, or Alchemilla mollis? (I also have Campanula rapunculoides if anybody wants some.)

So this post is four years old, and would you believe that i'm still digging out verbascum? LOL I have no idea which variety it is as I had both Chaixii and Phoenecium. Out they come. But on the subject of transplanting things that are supposedly hard to transplant, I dug out several lupines this year and moved them, and they didn't even flinch.