Digging them up immediately before the move is the best strategy. Less ways to mess it up. Storing a large tree can go wrong. December is a bit late to plant trees, but in Zone 7 you have a decent chance of the ground NOT being frozen. One catch is I heard magnolia don't like Fall/Winter planting. Expect there to be some casualties.

I'm sure you'll get some responses as to the best way to accomplish your intentions but my question would be why bother?

First, selling a home includes everything that is in the landscape as well, unless your sales contract specifies certain plants that are excluded. Second, moving is such a busy and stressful activity anyway, so why add to the burden? And finally, mid-December in your area is about the worst time to consider moving/transplanting relatively established trees and shrubs, especially if you plan on/need to wait until to spring to plant.

Providing your sales agreement even allows it, most would suggest you leave everything in situ other than plants that are extremely rare or have great sentimental attachment. Can't speak to the sentiment, but the trees and shrubs are not particularly rare and could be easily replaced. And a new landscape may very well call for a new plant selection as well.

Containerized plants are different - considered 'furnishings' rather than 'fixtures' - but will need some sort of winter protection as well in your climate. Maybe that's enough to worry about?

you are focused too much on dormancy ... its just not a relevant issue in my mind ...

you biggest concern is the media in the pots ... dirt may or may not work ....

do you have any place... you could just put them.. so as to not be a moving issue ... as you are really complicating a house moving .... somewhere to just store them until next april ...???

is there snow cover in your area .... its the best and easiest insulator ...

winter storage would be to keep the black pots out of sunshine ... so the media stays cold ....

the real key is: GET THEM DORMANT.. AND KEEP THEM DORMANT ...

if at any time during the winter.. the pots heat up.... and they start to come out of dormancy.. that will be when you trouble starts ...

where are you more specifically [and do you look like george jefferson???]... is there constant snow cover ... i dont know NYC well enough .... to understand .... does the ground freeze????

perhaps i am presuming a colder zone ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks for the response! You guys bring up good points, BUT:

- I currently rent, and planted these trees with the understanding I'd be taking them with me. Moving them really isn't a hassle. And moving itself won't be stressful or complicated - I don't have much else in my one BR apt!

- Some have sentimental value (wedding gifts), but more importantly, they won't last long in their current location as they will get too big and be too much maintenance and come up against stone walls and wooden fences.

So it looks like the consensus is leave them in ground as long as possible? No need to transfer to containers before winter?

I'm trying to resize some photos so you can get an idea of what we're talking about here.

Dogwood & Magnolia:

Japanese Snowbell:

Nothing bigger than these.

Snowbell.

Ahhh! Renting makes a difference :-) As does the size of the plants in question. Still not sure I'd bother about the rose......but that's your choice.

I garden in a substantially different climate, but if I were contemplating a winter move, I'd dig up the plants as soon as they entered dormancy (lost their leaves) and store them until the move date. I also would not worry about specific potting media (or pots, for that matter) but just dig them out of the soil with the full rootball as intact as possible and put them into large garbage bags. For a temporary storage solution, these are ideal - no need to find an appropriately sized container or mess with potting soil. And if soil is properly hydrated at the time of digging, little concern for a lot of additional watering through the winter. Just make sure a small hole or two in the bag for drainage if watering does become necessary.

If the plants are out of the ground you will need to address winter storage and freezing concerns. Roots tend to be more vulnerable to cold damage than topgrowth and without the insulation provided by the ground's soil mass, you'll need to accommodate that concern. If you group all the trees together and surround with bales of straw (commonly available at this time year for harvest decor), you should be OK. If the temperatures drop radically, you can use whatever additional insulation you can muster - bubble wrap, space blankets, etc. Do the same thing after the move until weather warms/planting time.

GG - thanks again. Yeah, the rose and everything else stays, just taking the trees (was only pic I had on hand).

I'll wait for the leaves to fall, perhaps see if a couple trees can go in the ground in December, and a couple in spring. Hedge my bets, so to speak.

I'll report back!

Thanks.

Well, there ya go! Give it a try but realize it may not go 100% as hoped. Nothing ventured, nothing gained :-))

When you get them to the new house, you can temporarily plant them all together to hold over until spring when you have determined where everything is to be planted.

Where is the new house?

The city is a solid zone 7. During a remotely normal winter the ground only freezes sporadically. However, depending on exactly how far north, and exactly how high up, things can get a lot colder very quickly. So while digging the trees up is probably not going to be a problem, digging holes to plant them might be.

no place to store them NOW .... for winter... no local friends.. family.. etc???

ken

One tip often recommended here (your climate may be different! ) is to pre-dig the plant you are going to move--take a nice sharp shovel and dig around it to cut the roots you have to cut to get it out, but then leave it where it is for a while to recover a bit before the actual move. This reduces stress on the plant because it suffers two traumas (1. root cutting 2. moving) at different times, rather than all at once.

Now again, this may not be recommended for your climate. It is something that works here.

I think the problem is the time of year of your move in date.

When I moved, I took some of my shrubs and trees with me...one Southern Magnolia, Aucuba japonica, hostas, bamboos, Yuccas, and iris with me. Must have had them all containerized in late Autumn...hate procrastinating. Overwintered them in the containers outside. I moved here on the first day of Spring, and was transplanting from Spring into Summer of that year. All survived.
(It was a normal Winter w.o. polar vortices btw.)

Just wanted to post an update and a thank you for all the advice. Moving was a giant pain in the neck (you guys were right on that), in the face of some rough weather, cold, flooding rains and snow, multiple trips back and forth into metro NYC with the U-Haul..... We also got our closing delayed a little bit. So these guys endured a stressful move but are hopefully not much worse for wear. Rootballs intact, no major breakage.

They did spend some time out and exposed, in burlap and plastic, but we didn't have any really sustained periods of freezing, and now I got them barricaded and insulated (leaves) so we'll see how they all do.

Thanks again for everyone's help and I'll report back in the spring.

One further question, these are currently located in a convenient spot for me, but it is south facing and gets morning sun. Some subsequent reading is leading me to believe I might be better to move the operation to a north facing side of the garage to avoid bigger temp swings. Or am I overthinking things?

Thanks again for everyone's input.

I only spotted this thread now.
" And finally, mid-December in your area is about the worst time to consider moving/transplanting relatively established trees and shrubs, especially if you plan on/need to wait until to spring to plant. "

No, mid spring to late summer would be much worse. You can just never predict when there will be a long stretch of 90s. It can happen in May for cryin out loud, even as far north as NYC. For generally hardy plants, winter is fine as long as you can keep them from drying out. Fall is best for most things.

Yes, it would have been better to put them on a north wall. But I think they are probably fine as long as we don't have a repeat of last winter. Fingers crossed.

Moving was a giant pain in the neck (you guys were right on that),

==>> bazinga on that ... lol ...

the key to success is GET THEM DORMANT.. KEEP THEM DORMANT ....

you issue is keeping them dormant.. until the END of winter ...

on the south side.. a few warm sunny days in a row.. and you might break dormancy ...

so yes,,, do it.. out back.. in full shade of the house .. so they hold dormancy.. later into spring ...

there is no need for convenience.. as dormant plants.. with pots protected from the wind.. like you have.. should need nothing from you ...

put a few ice cubes or snowballs on each pot.. if they seem like there are drying... the plant does not need water.. but we dont want the media going bone dry ...

the hard parts over.. now the worse part.. waiting to see if they live.. and it was worth it ... lol ... and thats going to be a few long months ...

ken

Moved. Added bonus - there are nice little habitat for my new pets.

Well done and here's hoping for full leaf out come spring! Looks like they're getting a nice new home.

Barb

Hey all, just wanted to update and thank everyone again for all the advice. I moved 11 trees and a few shrubs and so far (knock on wood) it looks like we've only lost one! I think the combination of excellent snow cover and solid cold all year and a very slow and late spring helped out. Still getting the last few in the ground, but all are leafing out nicely. Moving them around to the shade side of the garage was also key, thanks for motivating me to do that. That spot (above pic) is such that the morning sun doesn't hit it until maybe mid-March. The snow and ice cover stayed here longer than anywhere else. But once it hit, look out, those plants woke up in a hurry and were raring to get in the ground.

The only loss was a pawpaw. It was in the smallest container, and really never looked great even before the move. If I had to lose one, it's the one I'm least bummed about. I am gonna stick it somewhere just in case though.

It was also great to have some stuff ready to go, as the neighbors watched me move in and almost immediately start slashing and burning (no one wants to cut down trees to plant more, but we're talking about Norway maples and dead / hollow locusts towering over the garage, so they had to go). Anyway it was good to have sort of a symbolic peace offering that announced I wasn't going to pave the woods in concrete or anything.

They still think I'm weird for leaving snags... but I have pileated woodpeckers and flying squirrels and all kinds of cool stuff back here!

Over the next several years I'll be further thinning things out and adding other things. Thinking about a nice 'screen' of mountain laurel and rhodies going up the hill here (my yard is on the right, neighbor on the left, road at top of hill in back behind the MOUNTAIN of wood chips).

At the top of this hill in the middle it flattens out quite nicely and has a great vantage point. Thinking of something majestic to overlook the yard. Ken - scarlet oak?

Thanks again for the advice and encouragement, and happy spring to all.

(PS had to create a new name when Houzz took over).

congrats ....

ken