You might want to get the holes dug first. When does your ground freeze?

For a day or week here and there this year so far. Ground never stays frozen for very long anymore. We've been yoyoing all over the place. Down in the teens then up to 76F last Saturday. More days in the 40s, 50s and 60s than normal. But lots of rain and mud.

Thanks for the link zkathy. Ken's hosta he shows moving is a baby compared to these brutes I have! I think I am going to have to just halve and hack and halve again to get them out of the ground as they are so packed together. It's probably better planting something smaller than a washtub size anyway under those trees.

my solution to humongous hosta... was to figure out a plan that involved moving everything else.. and just leaving the monsters there... lol ... work smart.. rather than work hard ..

i dont think you really explained why it is the hosta that have to move from the old spot ... or i missed it due to the intense coffee buzz ....

good luck under the trees ... you might want to look into spin out bags ...

if you could not put a shovel in the ground under the trees ... putting new soil on top of the area ... will only encourage the trees to invade the fresh now soil ... especially if you start watering and fertilizing it for new plants ...

trees are not stupid ... and they put their roots where the good stuff is .... sorry for the anthropomorphizing ... of course it happens in tree time... so you might get away with it for 5 years or so ....

ken

ps: nothing wrong with quartering the old plants... and dont forget to throw them on the driveway for a bit... make them understand who is in charge ...

ken - you didn't miss the reason, I failed to say since it was obvious to me and y'all should have been able to read my mind! Haha! These three hostas were fine until our temps started to get hotter and hotter 15 years ago. We are in the mid 90s by the end of May and that stays until October. These hostas are fried and faded to white and shot with tiny holes by June and are disgusting the rest of the summer. I put the dirt right alongside the fence to level it from the downward slope. I kind of wish the tree roots would take in it a bit as I'm losing dirt downhill with all the rain we have had and all my work was for naught. I've never fertilized my hostas. They live on benign neglect. Guess I better find out what spin out bags are....

Tex-R Agroliner Spin Out bags are now discontinued......

Moving established plants always seems to be a much larger, complex chore than it appears. Even plants with relatively shallow roots like Iris can really take the wind out of a person. I'm pretty sure this is why people started creatively using pickup trucks with tow straps. My only real suggestions are to soak the ground with a slow drip for at least 24 hours before trying to move and using a fork rather than a shovel. Other than that, sometimes I just resort to more muscle. Aka hire out the job . Had to do that with an old rosebush last year. That thing just didn't want to budge no matter what I did to it.

Lkayet, you can still buy the fabric for a spin out bag, you just have to sew the bag yourself. It’s actually better, because the bags were not Hosta friendly sizes.

If it’s above 90F in z5 all summer, I’m moving!