Rent a van and drive them up here with you. If you rent a house then you can keep potted plants in your garden or driveway. If you're going to get an apartment that makes it harder, I'm not sure what to do in that case.

I wonder how they are going to adapt to cold, wet, dark weather? I assume you keep them outdoors in SoCal? How many do you have? I once rented a couple of hundred square feet of outdoor space from a shrub nursery, for my plants while I was moving. It was even irrigated.

I have about 15 large pots. I think the plants will be much happier up there--they are outdoors here, but fry in the heat. Our moving company said he will bring them, but that means two trips. How expensive is it to rent houses outside Seattle? Here a 1 bedroom apartment is over $1000 a month.

Depends on the area and how a large a house. I'm only familiar with the north end. 2-3 bedrooms (~1600sf or so) go for around $1200-1500 in the Shoreline/Montlake Terrace/Lynnwood area, same for Everett. Add a couple hundred more for Richmond Beach, Edmonds or closer to the Sound :-) On the eastside, you are probably looking at $2000 and up.

If you know anyone up here already, perhaps they can plantsit for you until you find suitable acommodations. I am currently tending to several dozen of a friend's containerized trees and shrubs. They were evicted from his apartment balcony - the manager was sure they were going to cause it to collapse :-)

You can search the entire metro area for rentals from this page. The eastside is indeed a bit more expensive but the further out you go, the more likely you are to save rent.

Here is a link that might be useful: NW Rental Search

I would not pay the mover for an extra trip, just for 15 pots. I would rent a trailer and pull it with my personal vehicle. It needs to be a closed trailer, otherwise the plants will be ruined by the time you get to Seattle. Or, place the pots in cardboard boxes, and put them in the moving van along with all your other stuff, if there is room.

dctrlbr, please send me an email, so that I can respond to you privately. Or place an email link on your member page.

I ended up just giving away my potted plants when we moved. We had overstuffed our moving truck anyway, and I was so frazzled that I was ready to give away just about everything. So the neighbors got them.

Mine weren't expensive plants as yours seem to be, so you might feel differently. You also seem to be planning your move much better than I did mine!

BTW, happy belated birthday!

Thanks for everyone's advice. I've put it all together and will try to rent a trailer to take them to my sister's in Santa Barbara. Hopefully they will then be picked up by the movers on their way up when we are finally settled. I think I'll start a new thread on the buying/selling forum regarding renting vs. buying if moving to a new area. But any suggestions here would of course be welcomed. And minet, thanks for the birthday wishes! Hope your house comes through.

If I was moving to a new area, I would rent before buying to get a feel for the area.