My husband, Rod, and I bought a home in Sequim, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula.
This is a dry area (annual rainfall averages 15"), but we have a year-round
irrigation ditch running across our property. We are planning to move in
mid-May.

I would like to move some of my perennials from my Wilmington, DE garden. I am
planning to divide the plants, and leave half in their current locations, while
bringing half with me. Specifically, I would like to bring daylilies,
goldenrods and irises.

Questions:
1. Would these plants do well in Sequim?

2. The weather has warmed in Wilmington, and the leaves are beginning to grow.
Would it be better to divide the plants now (before really vigorous growth
starts), or wait until just before we move?

3. What is the best way to transport them? Earth is too heavy. Would bare roots
be better, or packed in moist peat moss, shredded newspaper, or other media?

Suggestions appreciated.

Wendy
Wilmington, DE (Zone 7)

Wendy B G wrote:

My husband, Rod, and I bought a home in Sequim, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula.

Congratulations, new neighbor!! (sort of...)


This is a dry area (annual rainfall averages 15"), but we have a year-round
irrigation ditch running across our property. We are planning to move in
mid-May.

I would like to move some of my perennials from my Wilmington, DE garden. I am
planning to divide the plants, and leave half in their current locations, while
bringing half with me. Specifically, I would like to bring daylilies,
goldenrods and irises.

Questions:
1. Would these plants do well in Sequim?

Yes!

2. The weather has warmed in Wilmington, and the leaves are beginning to grow.
Would it be better to divide the plants now (before really vigorous growth
starts), or wait until just before we move?

That depends on how you intend to transport them. Ideally, I'd divide them now
before too much growth occurs and pot up in small containers. If you do the bare
root thing, timing is the key - divide as close to moving day as practical, wrap
roots in damp sawdust or peat and pack up in plastic bags. The plants you mention
are all very tough and durable - I doubt they will have any problems with a
relocation.

I understand your desire to bring treasures from your current garden, but I would
limit it to what you know is rare or unusual or has particular significance for
you. There is such a huge volume of plant material in this area, you will quickly
fill in a new garden with all sorts of wonderful things that were not readily
available in your previous location.

We'll have to arrange a meeting once you're settled. I have all kinds of things I'd
love to share with you for your new home. And Sequim is a great drive from Seattle
on a summer's afternoon!!

pam - gardengal

In article ,
(Wendy B G) wrote:

My husband, Rod, and I bought a home in Sequim, WA, on the Olympic Peninsula.
This is a dry area (annual rainfall averages 15"), but we have a year-round
irrigation ditch running across our property. We are planning to move in
mid-May.

I would like to move some of my perennials from my Wilmington, DE garden. I am
planning to divide the plants, and leave half in their current
locations, while
bringing half with me. Specifically, I would like to bring daylilies,
goldenrods and irises.

Questions:
1. Would these plants do well in Sequim?

Sure & dandy.

2. The weather has warmed in Wilmington, and the leaves are beginning to grow.
Would it be better to divide the plants now (before really vigorous growth
starts), or wait until just before we move?

3. What is the best way to transport them? Earth is too heavy. Would
bare roots
be better, or packed in moist peat moss, shredded newspaper, or other media?

Since I've never (yet) had to move an entire garden, this is partly just
surmise from a lot of reading, & others who reply may have better
specifics from first-hand experience. Mostly clumping & tuberous
perennials should be moved in autumn or just before spring regrowth, &
bulb perennials not moved until leaves begin to die back late in spring or
early summer. If you can't look up all their individual transplant
preferences, but need to move all at once, & especially if you needto do
it outside the ideal season & take none of their surrounding soil, I'm
thinking "last minute" is best so they're out of the ground a minimum of
time. Bulbs will not do well the rest of the year after the shock but
should come back just fine by spring. Clumping perennials would probably
hate most being moved in summer, but anything not remarkably fragile ought
to bounce back for a bit of early autumn regrowth, then be completely fine
for next spring. Irises might take two or three years to resettle, but
they have to be divided periodically anyhow & it never kills them. Any
perennials with long taproots, don't bother trying to move those, collect
seeds but snapping that taproot in an attempt to dig it up would likely do
it in. If you're moving any little shrubs you should really consider
keeping some of the soil, but if it's out of the question, here's a
method. Get a shovel & cut a circle around as much of the root area as you
can reasonably preserve, but don't dig it up yet, let it recover from
having all its surface roots shortened. Immediately before the move,
finish digging it up, shake out the soil, &amp wrap the root in moist
cloth (if you could burlap or temporarily pot the root with some soil or
damped shavings, it would be better). This'll work on shallow-rooting
flowering shrubs & on tiny shrubs &amp if they're back in good soil
quickly, probably going to do fine. Permitting them to recover from the
first brutal root-shortening before digging them up entirely is the
important factor. Even more important is moving them during dormancy in
mid to late autumn, but if that can't be done, reducing the shock to the
roots by pre-shortening the roots is going to help.

If it's a LOT of plant material, you might want to get a load of wood
shavings prepared ahead of time at the new location. Put the shavings in a
temporary raised bed (or in a future compost area) & moisten fully. Get
all the plants into this temporary but moist medium so they will not
dehydrate while waiting for their permanent locations around the gardened
areas of the new house. The shavings need not go to waste afterword as
they can be composted, or even just worked into gardening soils without
composting, as the shavings will function much as does peat, but better
than beat because the shavings dispersed through soil with good nitrogen
break down into very fine nutrients encouraging beneficial microorganisms
during their decay process. Bared roots though dehydrate so rapidly, harm
can be done in scant hours; & getting them into a moist temporary medium
is going to reduce losses dramatically.

An added idea based on things I've had shipped to me from somewhat distant
growers. Rather than moist peat moss or shredded newspaper, you might see
if you can get some whole sphagnum. It holds moisture but stays loose thus
won't weigh too much even when wetted. It can be wrapped & tied fairly
close around roots in a very compact manner, then the whole plant rolled
in newspaper for stacking & boxing, if the move is going to be swift
enough to get them back into the light very soon.

Good luck in Sequim. It's a nice place, though getting to be too suburban
sprawly in places. The real estate people tend to boast of the low
rainfall even when selling houses outside the rain-barriered zone, so if
you were strongly hoping to avoid rain, I hope you're not actually going
to experience the residue of the nearby rainforest (though I'd like it
just outside the dry zone better). I'm sure it's coincidental, but every
time I've gone to Sequim, it has rained, at least a sprinkle, sometimes a
good hard rain, though nothing like a trip to Grayland which sees the sun
very rarely & is like being in the bottom of a bowl of weak potato soup.
There's an excellent source of affordable flagstones in Sequim, & not far
from good crabbing if you're not a vegetarian like me -- wading out with
the outgoing tide at Dungeness is an amazing experience, feels like the
sea is rushing out to a mile -- just don't get trapped when it rushes back
in.

-paghat the ratgirl

Suggestions appreciated.

Wendy
Wilmington, DE (Zone 7)

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/