If you can lift the entire clump w/o doing much damage to the roots, you may not even need to transplant the foliage. Whenever I have to lift a plant and remove all the dirt from it - YES - trim the foliage, but if you can lift a clump and plop it right down into another freshly dug hole, you shouldn't need to cut back.

What I'd do: Wait until just before or after first frost to dig & pot the hosta. Use a porous mix to fill in & around the root ball. Move to an unheated shelter to wait for the move. (Any place where they won't get rained on.) As to how you actually transport them will be weather dependent. If it's unusually warm, I'd forgo the rooftop bag where they'll get heated up by the sun. (Weight on the car top also a concern?) Have on hand some ice, frozen in 1/2 gallon plastic milk jugs to pack in between the potted hosta and tuck a couple of blankets over them to keep them well chilled--if you transport them inside a heated car. Another thing you might consider doing--before you load the hosta, put down some large pieces of reflective mylar (cheap tanning blankets), load the hosta & cover with more mylar & then cover with blankets. The mylar will work to reflect heat away from the 'package' and help keep the cold in. Might want to insulate underneath the bottom layer of mylar, too, to protect from any heat rising into the car from the exhaust system. Use recycled styrofoam packing or get a sheet of the cheap (white) beadboard from Home Depot or Lowes. Aim for packaging them in a sort of free form ice chest. Once you're at your destination, transfer to a place in the shade (but not next to any heated structures.) As soon as you can, pop them out of the pots & heel them in somewhere shady (but dry) and maybe consider lightly covering them with something like pine boughs to keep them from getting too wet. Then maybe the easiest thing to do would be to just leave the MA hosta in MA & replace them with southern grown hosta. Spring comes really early in Alabama so you won't have long to wait!

Hi Belkys, I have some plants in that age too. My daisy wilcox is 3 yrs old, was waiting for the bloom started an inflo, but it is triple branching instead..so no bloom this year on that one. Just bought another Daisy that is 4 years old and double the height, hope it blooms, want to see that bloom! suppose to be fantastic dern it. ha ..warmth has a lot to do with it too. On mine, have found some bloom and skip a year..some each year..so as they say on here, its up to the plant!! ha Just keep feeding and hope they bloom.. me too!! Am excited, my yellow aztec gold is about to open. I haven't had a lot of blooms, young plants..so one to bloom is so exciting. Karen B

Great minds think alike! I also planted VQ to co-mingle a bit with my ND. :) I think the difference in colour and bloom form is just enough to keep it interesting. Regarding transplanting now vs. waiting, I would let it finish its flush and then move it if it's an established plant. However, your cool temps would be perfect if it's fairly young. I'm also a newbie to general rose growing, but have had 75yr old ND for years and have now transplanted them multiple times, most recently this Spring. With the help of everyone on this forum it was very successful. I got as much root ball as possible and dragged them on a tarp to their new location, having already dug and amended the new (huge) hole. I water in after adding ~half the soil and again at the end. I also make a little berm around it to keep the water from flowing off. Lots of compost, but no fertilizer. I watered well until established. Two of the transplants didn't miss a beat, and the other lost its first set of leaves to shock, but