first....

with a pending sale.. you have no right to start digging up plants.. unless it is in the sales agreement ... has this been discussed with the buyer???? this is between you and your selling agent ... and/or atty .... most buyer dont care.. as long as you dont leave a bunch of holes.. but better to discuss such in advance ...

dig them whenever the soil is is thawed.. put them in plastic grocery bags .. with the tops laid open... the bags are simply for toting them around .... do NOT let them get too dry .... and do not put them in closed plastic ...

and off the property.. if you have a friend where you can store them in the shade ...

or heck.. just flip them on the driveway out of the sun ...

if you know where they are located... it will be easier to dig without the leaves ....

good luck

ken

Huh, I never thought of plastic bags and here I've been hoarding pots for months now. Clever! Good idea, thanks.

The plastic bag idea works great!
I've done it at the last 2 moves I've made and despite overwintering several, in the garage in these bags, I think I've maybe only lost 2 plants.
Don't let them sit in water though and do allow mold to grow.

Ken is definitely right though. Perennials are considered "real property" and are "part of the land. So they convey with the house and land. Make sure your sales contract allows you to remove plants.

pots would require potting media... and that can get expensive..

but if the plants needed to be held in the pots for all summer.. worth the investment..

if you think this can all be turned around in a month from digging.. while basically dormant.. the bags work just fine ... just insure they are kept out of the sun ...

once at the new house.. i would just slam them all in the ground.. ASAP ... and deal with placement and bed development during the summer .. dont leave them in the bags for months while you try to come up with some bed design schemes...

ken

One more comment . . . dividing perennials is a legitimate gardening function. So even if the buyer wants your hosta, you should be able to take divisions from them. But, of course, to avoid a lawsuit, be sure to check with the sales agent and/or buyer.

Did the buyer see them growing in the garden last fall?
If not, right now your garden still looks like plain ol' dirt.

I'd buy many bags of topsoil to fill in the holes. I'd dig them out, bag them, store them in the garage. When the eyes start to emerge, I'd divide a section to put pack in the garden, or if the hosta is too small or too choice, buy some undulatas etc. to divide and put in the empty spots.

The new owners may tear out what you have planted anyway.
What they don't know won't hurt them...or you...unless you tell them..(or get caught ha ha, well, not ha ha)

I would never leaves my hostas behind. I have many very nice shrubs and small trees, and do consider them to be permanent, belonging to the house, I suppose because they are part of the landscape in all seasons.

We moved twice, and every time we had in our selling contract that the two dwarf pear trees my father had bought us 35 years ago, would be taken out. No problems there! One is still living in our garden, reminds us. The buyers never cared.

Ken - did you realize that in your post the word investment now has a link to an ad for Scottrade? Is this something the forum does now?

Dividing plants may be a legitimate gardening function, but unless it was disclosed upfront it is illegal in most states.

Oops! I guess what I meant to say was -

Dividing plants may be a legitimate gardening function, but unless it was disclosed upfront in the sellers agreement it is illegal in most states to remove anything that is in the ground.

I'd bet $50 the new owners will dig up all her hostas, throw them away, and replace them with a bunch of dinky little ugly shrubs or plant grass there. That's been my observation of what most people do when they move into a new place. And if her house was sold over the winter, the new homeowner doesn't know what, if anything, was planted there.

I say go for it.

Deanna

I don't get any ads or banners using Firefox.

Look at the thread about Garden Web and Bing. I opted out, and nothing comes up any longer for me.

Don't blame Ken. I found the link on this new form of advertising at the very bottom of the main Garden Web Forums list. To save you all the time, click on the link belowwhich explains how it works.

-Babka

Here is a link that might be useful: What's with those underlined words?

So I clicked to disable them and they still showed up...until I closed my browser and then came back here. Now they are gone. ;-)

-Babka

"Ken - did you realize that in your post the word investment now has a link to an ad for Scottrade? Is this something the forum does now?"

Babka - I was not blaming Ken just asking a question. Read what I wrote and try to comprehend.

Teresa- I guess you were paying about as much attention to previous posts and GW announcements as I was. We should both know that those in-text links were added for our enjoyment back in February. I've just realized that they put links on every page to explain what they are doing.

-Babka

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous thread on these links

teresa has been on a GW sabbatical ....

and is an old [i mean from the back when.. not age.. lol] GW friend..

i took no ill will from her questions ...

ken

The old house isn't under contract yet... that's why I'm being hasty about getting them out asap. I don't want any misconceptions.

I dug up approx. 30 or so yesterday afternoon. Fortunatly a pretty good amount of labels were still in the ground so I brushed around them until I found the eyes poking out and snatched them up. Everything was going fine at the begining because I started with the most recent gardens but quickly ran out of big enough pots on the older Hostas. Silly me... I forgot Hostas grow out not down, doh!
Some of them really took off since I planted them last spring! I also noticed the ones I received from swaps were more rooted out then the purchased plants planted around the same time. (Note to self: participate in more swaps here!)

So far so good but I'm not taking all of them. I'll leave the doubles and some of the Tiara's behind, often when I order they throw in the Tiara's as gifts anyways.

Easy solution: Always remember, forgiveness is always easier to obtain than permission. ;-)

What do you mean by the "house is not under contract yet?"

He means he doesn't have a buyer for the house.

Good idea, keep digging! Believe me, you won't have time to dig once your house is sold!

Yes what YM said, "keep digging". Also if you don't have a buyer yet you can have an exclusion put into your contract for plants that you want to take.

Absolutely dig any that have eyes emerging now! Your closing is only 3 weeks away. If the old house isn't up for sale yet, you have no legal worries. You can cut the bigger ones in half and put in plastic bags with the tops sticking out in the air. I even dug up a bunch and put the clumps on those plastic carrying trays from the greenhouse, laundry baskets, anything. Don't put so much in the container that you hurt your back lifting it...moving everything else is hard enough on it.

If you'll be moving them within a day or so after digging, you can even throw the clumps in a cardboard box. Water them LIGHTLY before throwing them in it. I moved 300 hostas & perennials 100 miles using just my car (several trips); I laid tarps down so I wouldn't get my car dirty.

Be sure to cover the holes and make the area look nice for curb appeal/re-sale.

Char

I got everything I could find potted/bucketted/trayed up as best I could. Got the roses, hydrangea, lilacs and cone flowers to boot! I moved around some less desireable perrenials for appeal and smoothed out the remaining beds. The ground cover will take over where the hostas were, it was crowded to begin with.

I know I missed several if not 10+. I'll have to wait and see who else emerges and pluck them then.

I can't wait to close on the other house, there's SOOOO much work that needs to be done there that I'm thinking of just tilling up a patch and temporily putting the hostas there until I can soak it all in. It takes years to come up with a landscaping scheme that works for me.

Just plop them in the ground and take your time! I moved at the end of October. I only took about 150 hostas...wish I had grabbed more!I overwintered them in the garage. I am now trying to get together a spot to plant them all The beds will come one step at a time!

I've had the best results digging and relocating them when they had new eyes as opposed to more outgrowth. That's just me.