Newbie with questions...

I grew up in NYC, where I never learned to grow anything, and then moved to central Texas when I was about 20. Our area in TX. was riddled with scorpians and fire ants, so I left all landscaping duties to my Husband. We moved to DH's hometown of Charlottesville, VA. about two years ago. The colors here are glorious and I have really gotten the gardening bug, but don't really know what I'm doing. For instance, last spring I planted a lot of Lantana which were practically carefree, and certainly perennial in TX. Not so much, here in zone 7a. Now I know better, but still have a lot to learn.

So, I have a few questions; Is it too late to divide and transplant now? Most flowers seem to be transplantable in spring, but isn't there a difference between early and late spring?

The house we moved into has 5 flower beds filled with an abundance of three things; Azalea's - 12 in total, 10 of which are mature, Compositae - Ecinacea & Black Eyed Susan, and tons of Spiderwort, mostly white. The problem is that one bed is teaming with Compositae, and another with Spiderwort. The other three beds are sparse by comparison. Can I move things around w/o damaging them?

I LOVE our Azalea's, but am truly saddened when all their beautiful blooms fall off and I have to wait a whole year to see them again. Does anyone have any experience with Encore Azalea's? I am considering moving our current azalea's to our property line, where we want to have a privacy hedge, and replacing the old one's with the new Encore's. However, I am aware that this would be a huge undertaking, and don't want to do it if the results are not worth all the trouble. Thought's? Please remember that I am a newbie with roots in the concrete jungle, so go easy on me.

Hello, and welcome to DG. We will be nice, we all had to learn too. LOL I have been gardening for many years and I am still learning. I have azaleas but have never moved any. Aren't yours still blooming? Mine are in 7b. You can move the spiderwort now. I have (had) two very large ones next to our back fence. My DGS and I dug up one plant, cut it in half. Then I took the half and cut it into thirds. I planted them in the front flower bed and they are doing great. I still have one and a half plants to move. I will try to get that done in the next week or two. I just read in a magazine today about the Encore azaleas that bloom all summer. Boy, that would be wonderful. I also saw a web site
www.endlesssummerblooms.com that I want to check out. I hope this has been some help. Good luck

If you do plant some Encores, be sure to leave the root ball slightly above the soil line. Azaleas are shallow rooted and need to get some air to the roots. If they are planted too deep, they either won't thrive or, more likely, will die. They prefer acid soil so I always mix lots of peat moss into the soil when I plant them. I also add some root stimulator (I use Miracle Grow Quick Start) to the water I use at the time of planting (this helps them to develop a good root system). Don't use regular fertilizer for the first year as it will burn the new roots. Keep them well watered, but not real wet, for the first summer or two (they don't like "wet feet"). And I agree with Smokey, we would not dream of being mean to newbies--we all have to start at the beginning. We enjoy helping folks get started in the wonderful world of gardening :-} Always remember, the only dumb question is the one you don't ask. Good luck!

I transplanted 4 azaleas in the middle of summer, I had no choice they had to be moved then (they were in full sun anyway so they were barely hanging on) 3 of the 4 are doing ok, one got some weird thing, all the branches turned black and the leaves dropped off and I thought it had a disease and I whipped it out of there. I only remembered to hit them with water every week because I was busy with other areas. They're still doing ok, they have buds on them. I think they're still recovering from being planted in full sun for all that time.

I love the Encore azaleas! Have them both at our office and the house. I don't seem to have any pictures, though.