please add your location.. big city name ... to every post .. z5 is half the US and and wildly divergent.. are you in maine or missouri ... big difference there ...

you do what you gotta do.. when you have to do it.. its good you know the odds based on doing it now ...

how big a root ball you have to dig is SOLELY dependent on how much weight and size you can move ... do you have machines to go big ... if not.. then consider the weight of soil.. and dig what you can hoik out of a hole and carry home ...

i once dragged a forsythia with my lawn tractor about the length of f football field and rolled it into the new hole because of a neighbors project.. i didnt really want it.. but he already had it dug... i think we did it in august.. about a 3 foot ball ... all the sand fell off on the way.. it took about 3 years to recover ... thank god it was 400 feet from where i might be looking at it ...

frankly .. id tell the thanks but no thanks.. and save yourself a bunch of backbreaking labor in high heat.. well.. its hot here in my MI ...

i dont know current prices.. but if you can buy a W for 20 bucks.. what the point of an hour digging a new hole.. 2 or 3 hours digging out the plant.. then figuring out how to drag it home.. really.. is your time and effort not worth 20 bucks ...

ken

btw: after you move it and position it.. i might consider cutting back the canopy by at least half .. or even before you drag it home.. its totally abborant to the usual rules.. but since it july.. it might not hurt to remove half the leaves... they would probably fall off anyway from severe stress ... no spell check offer on aborant... go figure .... apparently because i dont know how to say it properly. .lol ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=aborant&ia=definition

Just added some pics, hope this helps. Location is near Toronto, Ontario. Planning to do the work on Monday when its predicted to get cooler, supposed to stay in the low 20's all week.

We have no machine, only a dolly, a trailer and some muscle.

Weigelas root mass can be divided into sections and the pieces planted separately.

Not a good time of year I know but you could cut the tops down, plant the sections and after a while the roots will send up new shoots.

You'll just have to make sure you don't let them get too dry and they'll take a while to reestablish themselves but so would potted plants that you have to pay $$ for and plant. With a large root mass like that you could put in a whole long row of multiple new shrubs.

Some will look at this as an opportunity and others as too much work, you'll just have to decide what camp you belong to. :-)

Since the chances of success with mature plants at this time of year is at best 50-50, I'd factor that into my decision of whether this is an opportunity or too much work :-)

And while the species weigelas are caning shrubs and theoretically can be divided, most varieties currently on the market are hybrids and less adaptable to that treatment.

Rescued free plants are not always the bargain you imagine them to be :-) Not every plant has to be saved!

Well, there you go doriswk, you may have more productive things to attend to. :-)

If the owners are redoing their landscaping won’t somebody else be pulling out the shrubs? If you do it you are basically doing the work for them for nothing. Even if the shrubs are damaged I’d take a chance on rescuing them after they’re pulled out rather than put in all that effort. Weigelas are tough.

We decided to move only the one shrub shown on the left side of the 1st picture above. It was planted into a corner and hence it's roots would not be intertwined with the neighboring bush. My husband managed to dig out a fair size root ball, but had to break several tap roots. The first few hours the plant was a bit droopy, but now after having been planted in its new place for two days our new weigela is looking fresh and alive, see pics just taken . .. I cut out most of the dead wood but left the rest for now. I wonder if I should let it settle in a few weeks before pruning the branches that had been or are still blooming. There are several thicker old crooked stems that I want to remove as well, but think I should wait till early spring. My hope is to see new straight shoots come up from the bottom, sooner or later, so it will grow in at the bottom and won't look so bare....otherwise I will figure out what low growing plants would enhance the picture.

Thank you Partim for mentioning the sale in Toronto at Victoria Park and Lawrence. We live now in Oshawa but were in T.O. yesterday and picked up two very healthy looking blueberry shrubs for $10 each, normally $ 30 each.

@doriswk Glad you got the blueberry bushes - what are the odds that you would be near that store at this time LOL?

Looks like this is the perfect time to prune your shrub. It looks great. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/weigela/pruning-weigela.htm

I moved 2 mature weigelas a few months ago. They didn't have much of a root ball. Most of the dirt fell off when I pulled them out. They pretty much looked like yours after cutting off the sides so I could get the shovel in there. They're doing fine now. Haven't filled in much of the lower branches yet. I plan to move another 2 in the fall. The thick stems and roots hold a lot of water, so as long as you get some roots, they'll be OK.

Found a picture after move.