Thanks, Skybird

I was active on GardenWeb 10 years ago, and have found this new format slightly confusing.

Moving from East Baseline (Boulder) to North Longmont. Our large garden here will be reduced to raised beds, but the property will allow me to transplant tubers, bulbs ( and my horseradish ha ha ). I'm just worried about timing. I have a very large window in which to move plants, and cam probably come back and dig in the fall. Maybe I want to know about a little pre-planning.

Thanks again! Anne

Hi Anne,

So your move isn’t going to be a “dramatic change” for the
plants!

I was wondering if you knew that it’s “illegal” to dig and
remove plants when you move out of somewhere—even a rental! What I did when I moved from the rental I had
lived in for ten years (where I had put ALL the plants in!) to the house I now live in (own), was to dig fairly
small “divisions” off of each plant I really wanted. It was MUCH easier than trying to bring the
whole plants, and the landlord (who knew virtually nothing about plants) never
even had a clue I had taken anything with me!
You might want to consider just taking divisions of most of them too,
since it’ll be so much easier for you—and you know how quickly they’ll get big
again in their new home!

With the Iris and Hosta mentioned, if it were me I’d dig
them as soon as possible while they’re still small.

If the Iris foliage is already tall, like mine are, I
recommend cutting it down to just a couple inches above the soil. You’re not gonna get any flowers this year,
but it’ll be much easier on the plants if you do that. Since Iris bloom early, depending on your
relationship with the owner/landlord of the current house, you may want to wait
till they finish blooming and then cut them down severely and dig them. If they can be replanted in the ground
immediately after digging, you wouldn’t even need to repot them. And, if it wouldn’t be more than a couple weeks, you could just clean the soil off of the Iris rhizomes and store them in
the fridge (with air circulation) until you could replant them.
Just a couple different possibilities. (That's how things like Iris rhizomes are stored by the mail order places till they're shipped!)

The Hosta I think I’d dig and pot what you’re taking now while they're still small,
and keep them outside in a shady place in the pots till you can replant.

Tulips, dafs, Hyacinths, and any other “fall bulbs” I’d
recommend leaving them in as long as possible so as much of the foliage as
possible can “die down naturally.” Even
if you tried to leave the foliage on them when you dig them, I don’t think it
would be able to effectively “put energy back into the bulbs” like it does when
they’re in the ground, since they’d be busy trying to re-root into the new
soil. Or you could dig the bulbs (again,
wait as long as possible) and store them in the fridge till the proper time to
plant them in the fall—that would probably be way better for them than trying
to keep them in pots over summer. OR,
you said you could maybe come back in fall to dig things, and if that’s
possible, that’s what I’d recommend for any/all fall bulbs. If you can do that, that would definitely be
the best for the bulbs.

The horseradish! Uhhh! This might be a really good time to consider
running away from it! ;-)

Whatever perennials you decide to dig and pot to move,
definitely keep them outside, as much as possible in the “sun conditions” they
had when they were growing in the ground.
If they’re going to be in the pots for more than a couple weeks, I
highly recommend filling the pots around the “natural soil rootball” with a
store bought potting soil/mix—or even knock most of the natural soil off and
just replant in the packaged soil. A “synthetic”
soil is usually MUCH more easy to work with in pots. Don’t keep them too wet in the pots! Saturate the soil, then let it dry most of
the way, then saturate again—and keep repeating. Hosta, of course, you can keep WET!!! (And if there are “other” perennials you want,
if you just remove a small start from the side of the clump, nobody will ever
know it’s missing!)

Hope you’ll decide to hang out around here more when you
have time,

Skybird

P.S. If you're having any problems with the "new houzz site," just ask! We're all still getting used to it too and are glad to help if we have the answer. The "good news" is that if houzz hadn't "taken us over," GardenWeb would have completely disappeared into an internet Black Hole! So at least we ARE still here!

What a great reply! No legal issues here as property will be a scrape-off and there is no way I could take all the iris I have planted over the years. Very interesting info, though.

Not taking any large perennials, really only Hosta and maybe lavender.

Laughing about horseradish! There's pasture land over the back fence of new property so maybe...........just a tiny root........little tiny root

Thank you for encouraging post. I will learn to adapt to houzz, and am glad that GardenWeb can live on

Anne

Heh, heh, heh, she said sneakily!!! Is there any chance you'd like to join us at the swap??? I'm sure there are lots of folks who'd be delighted to have some "hastily pulled out of the ground" Iris rhizomes--or some "carelessly dug bare root" perennials--that are gonna get "scraped off" anyway! And, who knows, you just might find Something You Can't Live Without at the swap to get you going at the new place!

If you're at all interested, check out the "spring swap" and the "swap plants" threads!

We'd love to have you come--even if you don't bring any plants!!!

Skybird

P.S. About the horseradish! Think WAY out in the pasture! And then Whisper when you're near the fence so it doesn't hear you and try to come back home!!!

I love the advice about horseradish.....it is a love/hate thing want the roots, but they do take over. Horseradish roots are a gift to friends @ Christmas

Maybe spring swap

Lots of Iris, Mostly Bronze bearded.

Anne