Hello all. With callouses still stinging on my hands, i've resigned myself to the truth that i've planted these choiysa sundance and daphne odora bushes too close to the foundation. They're 2 1/2 feet away. My question is, can i just leave them there for a year? Move them out next Spring? I'm figuring i'll have to dig them up again either way, and i have so much more on my planting plate for the next couple of weeks, i just don't want another two day setback.
Thoughts?
Here's perhaps a better view of them ...
Hi Estreya,
From what I've heard, Daphne do not like to be transplanted. I'd move all of them ASAP so the plants can get established and make themselves at home. If you wait and move them next year there's a chance that the plants will spend the spring and summer trying to recover from the stress of being uprooted and you will have lost a year of growing time.
Thats what I would do. :) Besides, its a challange to place your other plants when you don't have the foundations plants in a permanent location.
Hi estreya, If you have only JUST planted your shrubs etc, then you wont do much harm moving them right now, as they will not have set out any new roots yet, but Jennifer is right, if you wait till next year, then you will be stressing them, as by then, they should have settled into growing nice new roots and perhaps some top growth, so move anything now, dont wait, it is a busy time trying to make a garden/new bed, but if you dont get it right from the start, not only have you waisted a lot of valuable time, but perhaps a lot of cash as well because you may loose some of your plants by digging them up again later. I note that you have a whole colection of plants under a stairway in the shade, all in pots, IF, these are all to be planted in the same bed, what I do is, sit all the pots/plants on top of the bed where I think they would show to there best advantage (remembering that these are all young plants and will grow a lot taller/wider over the years so keep FINAL hight/width in mind as you place them, also the slope of the bed will add hight to the top of the slope) then once you have them in place, step back and look to see if any need moved around a bit, if you view this area from indoors, go into the room and have another look to check you dont have something too tall in front of windows etc, once happy, start to dig the plants into final spot, add feed and compost to the planting holes as you know they are going to be in that position for a long time, if planting tall shrubs/trees, remember they will need stakes in the same hole for support for the first few years till they get roots spread out, it is also a good idea, as you remove the plants from the pots, to gently tease out a few roots to help them spread out into the new site as they have been in pots a good few years to reach sale size, give the planting hole a good water and the soil once plant is in the hole as this is the most vulnerable time for them. If I have to plant trees or shrubs in the summer months, they dry out so fast and dehydrate at the rate of lightning, I always get some empty juice cartons and cut the bottom off, then place them into the planting hole with the kneck end into the hole as I backfill the soil, them as I water the plants, I can get water down into the roots as it is inclined to just run off the surface of the soil of newly planted shrubs/trees, especially as you are planting on a slope. If you take good care at the beginning, you save yourself a lot of hard work later in the season, Good Luck, take your time and be patient, no garden is instant, hope this helps a bit. WeeNel.
Thank you, guys .... I suppose there's no avoiding it. And you know what? I'm going to look at the bright side - i haven't yet put in the drip lines! So i would have, at the very least, had to pull all that mulch down again anyway. And once that's done, is it really that much more of a bother to lift those plants and move them out? I think maybe not so much ... and as you said, it will serve me well in the long run ...
Those plants you see under the deck, WeeNel, are for other places in the yard. I pretty much followed your process to the T, save that i just second guessed myself about issues of scale and distance. Now that i'm moving them, i realize i also don't care for that utterly straight row, so i've got some redesigning to do!
thank you again for your thoughts ...
e
Good for you estreya, fix things now and save time and effort next year, I hate plants in lines myself, but then, everyone just has to do the best they can, make a list of order for things to do, then if you get distracted or called away, you know where you left off and can just get back into it, dont kill yourself as if you get sickened by all the work, the enjoyment of creating something is gone and it spoils the whole reason for starting it in the first place, better slow, but sure, good luck, show us a pic of the end results, it should look great. happy gardening. WeeNel.
