Did the buyer agree to let you take the plants? Was the correct verbage to remove your plants in your agreement? If not, you are breaking the law.

I agree with Teresa.
Real estate law specifies that perennials, if planted, are part of the real property. If you are removing the hostas without them specifically being excluded in the purchase contract (not just the listing), you are, in fact in violation of the contract as you are altering the real property.

You need to have a discussion with your realtor or you could be a world of hurt if the buyers call you out on it. They would have every right to not go thru with the purchase because of it.

she is not breaking the LAW .... she is breaking the contract of sale ....

big difference ....

but we digress..

do you have any friends or family in driving distance.. that will loan you 10 square feet of soil ??? maybe their veggie garden in late fall ..

if so .. just stick them in the ground..

it can be done with pots.. but if there is any chance that you can let mother earth protect them .... then that is the easiest and most successful option ...

now .... have your agent contact the other agent.. and ask if the buyer wouldnt mind sharing some plants.. you take half the hosta .. leave half ... they might not look pretty for the rest of the year.. but there is no reason they should fail ...

if they complain.. flip them a $100 and ask them .. respectfully .... to chill ...

only an idiot would break an otherwise pending sale.. for lack of a couple hosta ... or spend 5 grand suing over the loss of the sale.. or plants ... atty's cost money ...

ken

PS: i would probably not admit upfront.. that you already took some.. present it as a request to take some .. yikes.. lol ...

I was in the process of selling a house with the intention of leaving most of the plants. I had accepted an offer but it wasn't closed yet. These people came into the yard with their friends and family and started removing plants while I was not home. I called the police and broke the deal.

You are better off keeping things upfront. What are their hopes or intentions for the gardens? Do they expect it to be the way it was when they first saw it? Some people will tear out a garden if they think it is too much work to maintain.

For overwintering, a local hosta grower puts all of her pots in trenches then covers with leaves here in zone 5a. I had about 100 pots sitting on my driveway against the house covered with leaves and I lost very few last winter.

Since they are hosta, if I could suggest a middle ground why don't you just do a 50/50 division of all plants rather than taking them all? This leaves the plants in the ground, but you get a good start on the next garden. done carefully, watered in and mulched, everybody wins. I agree with Ken that if you can stick them in the ground somewhere that would be best, but if you stick them in just about any container, keep them well watered and pile up some leaves over them, they should make it.

back to your original post... I don't want the tarp comment to get by us...

I, too, would try to put them in the ground... no need to "plant" them - more or less dig trenches and lay them in a foot apart and close up the trench. If so inclined, you could toss a foot of straw or leaves over them, but in zone 5 that might be overkill. For containers on the ground, it seems to work best to let them freeze solid before covering them with the mulch... the mulch is more to keep them from thawing and freezing multiple times. In the ground, the thaw happens slowly and steadily even though the weather fluctuates above ground. But pots get really warm on sunny days, and cool down really fast in cold nights... poor plant don't know what to do.

tarps are very likely a bad idea. They don't breathe, so they create an atmosphere that collects moisture and mold and fungus - and it is like creating a big habitat for a variety of varmints to be able to build their nests and burrows with waterproof protection from the elements.

If you do end up wintering them over in pots on the surface, and you need to stack them and cover them in tarps, make sure you put varmint baits under the tarps to poison them... and make sure you put them on and take them off at the right time. A tarp can collect heat so you can create a whole bunch of extra thaw/freeze cycles that can really damage the plants.

Best suggestion - find a nice friendly local nursery owner who winters over stock... find out how they do it... I know one nursery owner here in Minnesota I would ask if I had to do it... I know he does it well, because he's lost so much stock over the years by making mistakes. I remember him opening his pyramid of 50 stacked Great Expectations and having precisely 1 survivor - and this is a well-respected horticulturalist and author. I know he used to let the pots freeze, then stack them, put out baits, covered with the tarp, then covered the tarps with a foot of straw... not sure what he does now, but I think he decided it was best just to go with baits and mulch, no tarps...

I was in a similar position. I had a Sum and Substance that took me 3 days to dig out. At one point I thought about leaving S&S and Sagae because I did not think they were going to come out. LOL

My best friend was styrofoam coolers. I punched holes in the boxes filled with garden soil and planted the hostas. All survived the winter. S&S and Saga was moved in garbage bags the others that would fit were moved in pots but they were planted in the coolers when they arrived at their winter home.

I did not show my home until I had all the plants out that I wanted. My agent told me to down size the garden because many people did not like full beds. Just as they say de-clutter your house I was told to de-clutter the gardens.

I've had Cherry Berry in a pot because it would get so snail ridden for years now. At that point, I didn't care if it made it or not. Every year it comes back strong as ever, and I don't do a thing for it. No mulch, no turning on its side etc.

simcan "do a 50/50 division of each plant."

If it is not in the agreement and the buyers don't agree to it - you cannot remove anything that is in the ground.

The buyers could back out of the sale. How do you know that they are not buying the house, in part, because it comes with a beautiful garden???? Landscaping and curb appeal often are the deciding point.

Thank you for your responses.

I have no fear about the sale continuing. The house and garden were sold at the beginning of March when nothing was showing and the new owners have no idea of the wonderful treat in store for them. I hope they enjoy it as much as I have.
I have taken some duplicates, split some and have so many plants left that it is impossible to tell.
Naturally I would not dream of denuding the garden and the sale could fall through for other reasons; nothing is over until the signature is on the dotted line.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying taking care of the garden until the very end. I want it to look lovely on the day of closing: bittersweet though.

We have been down this road a few times. Your comment about selling last March..it is more likely the buyers want no gardens/maintenance. Where theresa may be right curb appeal is a factor, most often new buyers come and change much. The gardens/yard not excluded. Note franknjim's experience. The new owners planned to get rid of his hosta,so they even started early! I would for sure take a part of all your favorites chances are good in a year or so they will be removed for something the new owner prefers anyway. Having said that, you are risking your sale. Best practise is remove before the first showing, after that one should ask after a sale agreement is signed.

I drove by a house I used to rent where I left beautiful perennial gardens and they had ripped them all out and planted lawn where there were beds. I did not dig those beds but it still hurt to see it. Some people do not garden.

buyorsell88's experience has been what I've observed most people to do. I wouldn't assume they'll view your hostas as a treat. Grass, little green globe bushes, and orange ditch lilies are what the majority of people consider desirable landscaping. Ick!!

Since the hostas are mature, you could divide them and take the divisions with you. And next year, don't drive by your old house because you might be heartbroken over what they've done with your hostas.

Deanna

Years ago we lived next door to an 80+ year old woman, she had fantasic gardens. She died and the house was sold. I went to work one day and everything was there, and came home and everything was GONE, totally gone. They ripped everything out. I was sick about it, still am, and it's been years. I have heard many people talk about seeing the samething. When you have the closing, tell them if they ever "don't" want anything to call you, before they rip it out. Then go get it, unless you will be too far away. I would take half of everything that I wanted now though. That way you are not removing the whole plant, just a start. They probably would never guess. Good luck!

I think that I shall ask them if they are disposing of plants to consider me. I shall meet them on closing day and I shall try to be diplomatic and not make unfair assumptions. As many of you point out not all gardens are viewed as a positive. Oh how I hope they love gardening!

I also had to leave all my plants behind when we moved years ago and I made the mistake of driving by the house a year later. They took out everything!

I think it's a good idea to let them to know they should call you if they plan on removing any plants so that you can come get them.

The same thing happened to me. However, we moved in the dead of winter and I was not able to remove anything. I figured I would just forget them.

The house stood vacant. The following spring, I found out that they were not going to live there, but to develop the property and plow everything level for surveying. My calls to the new owner were not returned, so one Sunday afternoon, DS and I went over. Sure enough, there was a pile of uprooted hostas in the driveway, over 10 feet tall. I almost fainted. We had some plastic bags with us and decided to take some of the hostas. Well, wouldn't you know who would happen to drop by? Yes, the new owner - LIVID. I gave him a series of sob stories and he let me leave with what I had in hand. I KNOW I was in the wrong and could have gotten in big trouble, but I think you can feel my pain. It was a very bad scene.

That said, I live in zone 4a and have had hostas that over-winter outdoors in pots. Any kind of tarp, mulch or covering should be helpful. Another option would be to take small divisions, wrap the root in wet paper towels, place in a plastic bag and refrigerate - If you can get access to a big, old fridge.

OR, just call and ask the buyer, straight out.
Good luck to you.
-Sprout

Moved 2 1/2 years ago, had 14 flower beds including about 275 hosta, had hosted benefit garden tours twice. Young buyers did not want any plants, planned to seed everything to grass, so we dug, moved, dug, moved, until we wore out. Left huge hostas on the large berm as we were sure they wouldn't want grass on a berm. Wrong! Anything we left is gone, we don't drive by anymore. People from our former town tell us they are sad to see the property now.
Life goes on...we are scheduled to be on the garden tour next year in our new city.

And I've had the problem of the seller comming back and "borrowing" several of the peony's, fern leaf and tree, and several others in the night. I ended up with a restraining order on them to keep them out. I still miss the tree peony's that they managed to kill, and you know, its hard to replace a mature plant.

All of these stories freak me out. My heart goes out to everyone who has gone through this. I have done a lot with our garden since we moved in 8 years ago. When we moved here there were absolutely no beds, no back patio, grass/weeds 3ft high and a large portion of the yard had 10 ft tall blackberry bushes which once we knocked down had been covering a huge pile of garbage and we cleared it all out. Since then I have put in raised veggie garden, many large garden beds throughout, revitalized the lawn and installed a flagstone patio just to say the least. I have admitted to having a addiction/obsession of growing plants of all kinds. Recently I have worried about what I would do if we had to move. If and when we plan to move I will be dividing plants and/or digging them up before the house is on the market.

I agree with Ken. If you are going to keep some, I would find a place to plant them in the ground until you are ready to plant in their new permanent homes...friend, neighbor, family, work, a little of all the above, etc...if it's worth your time and effort.

I'm also in zone 5 and I tried some in pots several times. No good luck at all, but then I was not interested in mastering the art of containers in our zone. Lots of hassle, work, and worry. I will not do containers.

I would either find a temporary planting bed or accept the fact that you will let them go, move on, and start over.
Good luck!
Gayle

I am currently on my third garden. My first was done through my 20's and I don't mind going by that house now because I took all of the plants with me when I moved. Close to a thousand pots. My second garden I left while only taking a couple dozen starts. I will not go by that house now because I already know it would be disappointing.

If we ever sell this house the plants will be excluded from the sale. I would rather pay to have new sod put in after I removed all of the plants and beds.

If a buyer thinks that the garden is valuable to you, money wise or emotionally, they may use it as a bargaining chip. Even if a garden is left, it will never be the same because the one thing that made it special to begin with is you.

My back neighbor had a beautiful woodland property, with hundreds of hostas and perennials. It was often referred to as the secret garden. The elderly owner's adult children decided to put their father in an apartment and sell the house, so they could have some money. The elderly man use to chase squirrels all day and that made him happy. He now looks out an apartment city window depressed by the loss of his house and gardens that he and his deceased wife started together.
A young couple just bought the property and bullzoned every single tree on the property. All of the hostas and plants were ripped out and put in a dumpster. Sod was put down, along with ten outdoor floodlights and videcameras. The house bakes in the sun and has lost the soul of its existence. I wish someone had saved the plants, but more importantly, I wish someone would have saved an elderly man from heartbreak.

Franknjim said,

"Even if a garden is left, it will never be the same because the one thing that made it special to begin with is you."

YES!

-Babka