Oops, this new spell check is driving me nuts! Gotta figure out how to turn it off.

Thanks. My car is a teeny 4 cylinder which in all likelihood could not tow anything but a party balloon. It's about 200 miles distance to travel. I would not make an extra arduous trip back to NYC, no way. I was thinking of putting the plants in their grow pots within plastic bags to keep them from baking. I am exploring different movers. Perhaps a smaller company would not combine my stuff with that of others on one big truck and then have to drop off the contents for each family, perhaps they just move one family at a time and so could go direct. For me to have to hang out in Baltimore waiting for my moving truck for 5 days would be heck; I'd have to stay in a hotel and eat out every meal.

I'm sorry to say this, but I would guess your plants will fry. Maryland is hot in August. A moving van is not air conditioned, so you're looking at 100 degree temps for an extended period.

I never order mail order hosta in the summer for that reason.

The hosta people try to ship on Monday so the plants won't be in semi-trailers or a mail van over the weekend. You won't have that much control, since you aren't going to tell the movers about the plants.

Have you considered hiring a small delivery service to move them. They could possibly be moved in a cargo van.

bkay

is there anyone in baltimore.. who will foster your plants for a month or so ... they wont have to do anything with them.. other than give you space ....

you could take some each trip down .... etc ...

many... if not most mail order places.. dont ship in august .... you would be bucking that trend ... sept is a crap shoot as to heat ...

or vice versa ... someone here ... who could hold them ... so you could ship them once you have possession ...

ken

Agree with bk. It will be worth the extra expense to have live healthy plants show up in Baltimore considering all the preparatory work you’ve done. Be creative looking for alternate ways to get them there. Good luck!

If it were me I would rent a truck/ van and take the plants to your new home and at least they will be safe . The plastic bags on the plants will make them sweat and then fry.

And you could tow your car.

I am looking into apartments with balconies to hold all my potted hostas, and moving companies who move your stuff the same day. The giant moving companies like North American Van Lines combine the belongings of several clients on one of their giant vans after using a smaller truck to shuttle the household goods to a central transfer station. That would not work well for me.

My realtor has recommended a mover he's had successful moves with. If they could move my stuff down (thinking, September 10) to Baltimore in one day and have it in my new apartment that night, I don't think it would be too bad. I already see that I'm going to have to repot all my hostas which are in ceramic containers and put them in the fabric grow bags, too, because the containers+soil+plants would be heavy and hard to pack securely. Would the kind of mesh which surrounds bags of oranges be useful in bundling up the hostas' leaves without overheating them like a plastic bag would do?

One of my friends in Baltimore called this morning to see how my preps are going. She made a very kind offer; she was willing to take all my indoor house plants and keep them in her large breakfast room, which has an entire wall of glass (the patio door leading to her deck), suggesting I bring them down when I make my reconnaissance drive down there in very early August. I have a small car, and can't bring my potted hostas down then, as there just isn't room--either in my car or in her breakfast room. Gotta be careful, she gets deer in her yard.

Wish I had words of wisdom for you. Good Luck with the move, and I hope you end up with a nice shady balcony.

If you can find wide velcro tape, maybe you could tie up the hostas with that. Some stores have it in the gardening section. I use it to tie up hydrangea bushes and hibiscus. It should work on hostas

Personally, I would buy some cheap nylon pantyhose or stockings and use that to tie up the hosta leaves gently (kind of like the process ken recommends for transplanting hostas) -- less damage potentially. I would also rent a larger car/vehicle to make onedrive to your new location with all the plants as your car is small. Also I would place the plants carefully in cardboard boxes for support, leaving them unsealed for air and less heat damage during travel.

Good luck however you manage the move!

Gonna call Greyhound Package service tomorrow, too. Might be a cheap way to ship hostas in several boxes.

Do what many professional nurseries do. Bare root them, wrap them in wet newspaper and bring them with you or send them overnight.

KEN: Way ahead of you, darlin'. A month or so ago, I contacted the Maryland Hosta Club, or whatever it's called. The guy answering me could not think of anyone with space to store my hostas. So, as we say up here, Fugetaboutit! My new plant is to find an apartment with a balcony (have a very good lead on one being renovated as we speak, in the middle of the neighborhood I want). I could put the fabric pots cheek to cheek (leaf to leaf?) on the balcony and adjust the amount of sun with an umbrella or something.

JON: Of course I considered shipping them bare rooted. But then, I'd have to also pack my fabric pots, get some more container potting soil, and re-do all the intensive potting up of 40 or so plants. If I were already well established in my new apartment, I'd just go to the appropriate closet, get out my trowel, find the box with the fabric Gro pots in it, and go to work. But it's going to take me months to unpack, find stuff, etc. So I think I have to ship them in their fabric pots. I called Greyhound Package shipping today; I think it would run me about $300 to ship them that way, under the bus and take a couple of days. Important--I would not be shipping them until September or even early-mid October, so there would be less chance of them being fried by summer heat. The hostas average about $15 or more each, plus the Gro pots, coming to $600 or more, plus the potting labor. And, the plants, with the exception of 2 or 3 of them I bought last year, are very large compared to the babies I originally purchased. It would cost me a lot more than $300 to replace them. I can bring the pots, packed in boxes, to the Greyhound station in Hempstead (a nice neighborhood) and have them dropped off at my new apartment. It would be a little cheaper to have them dropped off station to station, but downtown Baltimore is NOT a nice place; it's rather high crime, and my life/safety is worth more.

Well, $300 to ship. Fabric pots would nest nicely. I would dump the soil (or put it in a garbage bag) new soil and repot couldn't hurt, bare root them, wrap them in wet newspaper, put them in the trunk (or seat) and take them to the new location where I would have a new bag of potting soil and repot them. Each to their own. I could have complete control, save over $250, have fresh soil and have $250+ to splurge on something......new hosta maybe. $250 divide by $17.50, 14-15 new plants and no chance of problems. It's your money and that's just me; cheap.

- Jon

JON: I have a teeny car. It is a hatchback, no trunk. On my journey down to my new apartment, I will be carrying a very large wheeled suitcase taking up a lot of the cargo space when I fold the back seats down. It will have my immediate needs stuff in it, so I can exist without packing any boxes for a day or so (although of course I will start right away). I will have a large cat carrying case with 2 cats in it on the front seat, plus bags of cat food and litter and a container of valuables too valuable to leave to the movers. In other words, will be crammed to the gills. When I arrive at my new bare apartment, I will not have my handy gardening tools available for digging and transplanting. I'll be lucky to get to those, compared to unpacking pots and pans, clothes, and other essentials, for a few days. There will be something like 40 boxes of stuff to unpack and put away. You are completely correct that I could save a lot of money shipping bare root, but I would not be able to deal with the repotting and stuff of 40 plants for days. When I compare that with getting the box of already potted hostas from Greyhound and plunking them down on the balcony, ready to go, it just seems a whole lot more feasible.

Sound like you got it figured out. Hope it will all turn out as you hope it will.

This moving is gonna cost me like $5000 when all is said & done, between the mover, shipping the hostas, and assorted expenses. I may be able to get away for a thousand less, but not more, depending on the mover's estimate (he is coming over Monday to eyeball the contents of my home). But hey guys---no more devastating actions by the "Landscape Workers"! No more spraying weedkiller on my garden, trampling plants, bending plant I.D. stickers, no more destroying the beautiful brick and stone border fence. Even with my desperate covering my garden with plastic this year, out til 1 a.m. doing it, there was STILL significant damage to 2 heucheras in the front row and minor damage to my beautiful Royal Tiara hosta in the back row.

Esther, wishing you all the best in your new place. It is indeed a lot of preparation and hard work to move. I am sure you will figure how to handle it. You have a few good ideas on how to do handle your Hostas. With that said . Good luck and hope they survive the move.