Probably not much that thrives in Utah will survive down here. Sorry to bring you bad news. But look at it this way - Texas has some great plants that you couldn't have had in Utah. What plants do you have and maybe we can give you some tips, but I would suggest you start anew when you get here. Will you have a balcony in your studio apt to grow things on? Or are you just dreaming for when you get you a new home here? Where in Texas will you be moving to? Big state, lots of different soils, some parts dry, some parts humid, and several zones represented. And don't let the heat get you down when you first get here. No offense, but you haven't seen hot in Utah like you're going to see here.

Y'all come! List the plants you love most and that you are willing to move. We can go from there.

When are you moving and where in TX is you apartment? Do you already know which direction you sun will come from? Big difference between a South window and a West one.
c

Hey, I've been to Utah, and it is beautiful, but nothing like Texas. You might want to check this tread that we recently had about importing-exporting plants into and out of Texas. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/txgard/msg0513384212995.html?9.

Good luck!

If you have daylilies, they are easy to move. Anything you plant here will need lots of watering for it to get over the shock of the heat we're having now.

Hi everyone and thanks for your great help.

Utah and Texas don't seem that different to me in degree of heat - Utah gets very, very hot, regularly over 100. The difference is that the heat is dry heat, and it gets much colder there in winter.

I will be moving to Dallas. Would like to keep plants outside, don't have room inside in my tiny apt. Some can be put into the ground but some will have to stay in pots.

Most things I have are pretty drought and heat tolerant, I'm just not sure about how humidity will affect them.

I'm not in UT to make a list - I'm in TX now - so I wanted to get idea of plant families, etc., I guess.

And how does one actually, physically move plants? I can't see them surviving a U-Haul trailer.

Courtney

Courtney,

You'd be surprised to see that many plants tolerate a big move. I moved from Corpus Christi to Austin with 75 semi- tropical plants, small trees, and rose bushes in a U-haul truck, along with my furniture. For several weeks (around 3) I had to leave them in an outside, unheated, windowless apartment storage room until we could find a house and yard that would accomodate them. Before the move from the Coast, I made sure that they were all in good soil (in those inexpensive, black nursery pots (I ordered a bunch of them online first) and then I watered them well just before the moving truck was packed and again lightly when they were in the storage shed. Fortunately, the weather cooperated as it was still Spring and not yet too hot or too cold. Our first house was a rental in the country with lots of land but no fence; so I could not yet plant them in the ground. My losses can mostly be attributed to deer. I lost a few (mostly baby palm trees) to the sudden freezes that come and go in this part of Texas in winter. I once lived in Utah and recall the snow blanket in winter often protected my plants until the spring thaw. Not the case here in Texas, although Dallas seems to get occasional heavy snowstorms. I kept the most delicate plants in containers indoors from Thanksgiving to Memorial Day. In our new house, I now have plenty of room to garden as well as a fenced yard. My mainstay is roses. They are beautiful AND tough! Even in containers, they seem to tolerate cold quite well; although I would toss a blanket over them if the freeze continues for several days. As I see it, your biggest problem will be keeping plants in an apartment. If you have a balcony of decent size, you can grow a pretty amazing garden (check out some of the many blogs on urban/balcony gardening on the Internet).
Anything drought and heat tolerant is going to do fine here in the summer (Humidity in Dallas is nothing like it is on the Gulf Coast!). Bring all the plants you can stuff in the trailer. If they don't all fit in your apartment, you can always have a plant sale and invite me. LOL

Plants can survive a long trip in a truck. I moved many plants across the country and back for nearly 30 years. If you use a Penske truck, you will get a skylight top that lets light in. IMHO, this is a better way to move than pulling a trailer. If you move with a trailer, you put the plants on last and take them off first and they should be fine. I have done this with a moving van during summer heat and can't recall losing a plant during transport even when the trip took longer than a week.

I always bring at least two of my favorites and try to get them established in their pots first. Make sure they are well watered and put the pots in plastic shopping bags to keep dirt and moisture off the truck floor. Most trucks have a wood floor and if it gets moldy, it will spread to your other stuff (lesson learned the hard way). Use tie downs and bungee cords to keep tall ones upright.

Do you know anyone in Dallas who could keep a few of your plants in their yard until you get settled? I often had the help of fellow gardeners to get through the transition phase.

1st: what part of texas

2nd: what plants do you have

~ freshair

I thought she said Dallas !!!!

I'm really not trying to be argumentative here. I just hate to see you invest a bunch of effort in moving plants in summer only to have them croak soon after arrival. I've not been to Utah, but I don't think you can compare the climate to Texas. I've lived in Dallas all my life. I know it gets hot in Utah, but things to consider are:
How many days a year do you see consistantly high temps in Utah?
How many hours in a day are the temps high?
How much does it cool down after dark?
You may have plants that can withstand high temps for a period of time, but will slowly go down hill here because the summers are so long and can be brutal.
In Dallas it starts getting consistently hot by mid June, and it lasts until September and even into October.
It can be 90 degrees by 10am and stay that and hotter until dark.
Temps at night are consistantly in the area of 75 to 85 degrees, so not much relief from the heat.
Moving plants from Corpus Christi to Austin is a 1-2 day drive with plants that are already acclimated to the hot temps to an area where the temps might be just a tad cooler.
The humidity will, at times, take your breath away. Your plants from Utah will be hard pressed to shake off the mildews, molds, and funguses until established - if they can establish.
Now, saying all that, there might be some of your plants that will make the journey and be OK. But I think I'd do a bunch of research, or at least post us a list so we can see if any of the plants you want to bring do grow here.
And, welcome to Texas. You are really going to like it here once you get acclimated and established ;)

I was really hoping for help with plant families that do well there... like salvias, etc.... but I simply can't inventory my garden for a checklist. But thanks, I appreciate your time.

Well, yes, there are many salvias that do well here, but that doesn't mean that a particular salvia you have will thrive here. Just like there are dayliles that do well farther north, but don't do well here. If you don't want to give us a list of your favorites that you want to bring, I guess we really can't help you.

Hi Courtney,

Try the Texas Smartscape website and the Native Plant Database. The former is a program that started in the DFW area, the latter is attached to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center down in Austin.

You probably have some plants that will handle the move, they might need different amounts of sun/shade and water here. One of the biggest issues I can see, beyond the fact that our nights are a lot warmer than they are in Utah, is rainfall. I haven't checked a map to make sure, but I'm pretty sure we get a lot more rain than you're used to. But, then we can turn around and go weeks without any rain to speak of. We're getting to a case of "Feast or Famine" with the rainfall.

I would identify the most important plants, to you, and concentrate on trying to move those. They may wind up being container plants but that can be a good thing. Fewer plants might make the apartment stay easier--speaking from experience, watering a lot of potted plants using watering cans is a pain!

Maybe you can try thinking of the move not as "I'm leaving all of this work and love and tears behind" but as "I'm leaving my garden for someone new to enjoy" and a chance to learn new things and try new plants. I grew up in San Antonio and had mental lists of all of the plants that I wanted to have once I had a house. Then I bought a house in Lewisville (north of Dallas) and there are whole sections of those lists that I cannot grow here unless I want to treat them as annuals. But, there are other plants that I can grow here that would not do well in San Antonio. And there are a lot of friendly people here who would be willing to share plants and experience to help you get your new garden started!

Good luck with the move!

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Smartscape

I feel the same way you do about my garden. While everyone has given you good advice, how about this way for help:

I live in a city on the north end of Dallas. Roses, all kinds, grow well for me if you give them lots of sun. What doesn't grow well here are plants needing acid soil (gardenias, hydrangeas, etc.) But I imagine that anything you have in pots you can work with if it takes the heat of summer and cold of winter we have here, since you can control sun and water for them.

Good luck!

It's sure worth a try anyway! I'd have such a hard time leaving my babies behind. How many days do you plan to actually have them in the truck? I agree with Rock Oak Deer, let them be last to load and first to unload and try to shade them at first. I'm in the DFW metro area and grow salvias (indigo spires, mexicana, guarantica and microphylla) and they thrive here. It's pretty dry right now, but I'm sure not in comparison with the Utah desert. Dallas soils tend to be heavy clay so anything going in-ground may require special attention to drainage. I grow a few varieties of daylilies and they bloom beautifully in the spring, sulk through the heat and recover in September or October to bloom again. I would think that a dry area like Utah would be alkaline like most of Texas is.

Oh, and Welcome to Texas!!!!

Pam

Just a general type of plants that you have would be helpful. I can grow almost anything here if I baby it. I even have hydrangeas in pots but can't put acid loving things in the ground here. Some things you grow might need the heavy winter snow for insulation or certain chill hours but you might be surprised at the things you can grow here. Orchids hate me but I even have one of those doing well now that I have a greenhouse. If you have good light in the apt. or a balcony you can grow a lot of things in pots. Summer is a bad time to plant anything in the ground so its a good thing they will be in pots for a while anyway. Many perennials will be able to adapt here. It just depends on what plants you have. You can look up the zone you lived in and the one you are moving to for certain plants and that will help.

Thanks so much, everyone, for your help. I'm sorry I haven't responded yet - I've been soooo busy with the move. I'm actually on my way back down to Dallas for interviews. Once those are out of the way I can really focus on this!!! Courtney

I moved from Phx, AZ 5 years ago, and I WISH I'd brought more of my plants! The temps are about the same (maybe a little colder here sometimes), but the plants LOVE the humidity. My biggest adjustment was going from caliche to thin limestone soil, but I adjusted my watering schedule and added a little iron, and they were good to go. Also, I thought I'd be able to buy the same plants out here, as their native range extends from AZ to TX, but they've been hard-to-find and expensive. the common names are different here, so be sure to get the scientific name of anything you abandon and hope to see again.