I have had success transplanting raspberry volunteers in April and May. I like to dig them up and move them when they have just begun to leaf out, with a few small leaves emerging. If possible, I will transplant during overcast weather, at the beginning of an overcast period, so the transplant will get 2 or 3 days to develop roots before the sun comes out. If I was obliged to transplant during the summer months, I would use a sun shade for several weeks to provide the plant with reduced sunlight.

leafy02: Remember that Ken grows in sand in Michigan. That's quite a bit different than the heat/humidity and heavier soils found in our little bit of paradise. I'm in Scott County. I have grown Clethra here for years, six or eight different clones. Don't let them dry out unless you like the look of crispy leaves. Best: if these are still young (read: easy to move) plants, move them to a spot that gets preferential runoff from rainfall or is regularly wet due to other watering you do. I find that Clethra (along with species like Itea and Ilex verticillata) make great "downspout" plants, since you'll always have rainwater guided to your plant there. Near a faucet is also good, as is in a rain garden situation. In fact (and in opposition to Ken's advice), I'd water more on your severely stressed plants as we move into fall. Sept/Oct are two of our driest months, but soils remain warm enough for root growth to continue. You'll want those stressed shrubs to continue to take up all the nutrients and moisture they can so that healthy buds are set for next year's growth. I would not add any nitrogen fertilizer at this point, but you could use something with soluble phosphorous or potassium and low N to give them a boost. Good luck with them, and post some pictures of results. Note - I've no comments for the cotoneasters. I don't think they are a great investment for KY landscapes. Too many far better plants to spend your efforts on.

Hi Brandy, I'm glad you decided to start posting here on the forum. I looked at the planting calendar on the website you linked and couldn't see anything explicitly wrong with their planting dates, but they are so vague and nonspecific that I'm not terribly comfortable with them either. When we first moved here, I used the dates on the OSU planning guides that Carol mentioned, and I still recommend them to folks almost every week, and sometimes every day at this time of the year. If you use the OSU-recommended keep in mind that a specific date range for the spring garden might say "Feb. 15th - March 10th" and that means that if you're in southern portions of the state, you plant on or near Feb. 15th, if you're in northern portions of the state, you plant on or near March 10th, and if you're in central OK, you choose a date somewhere in between. I still start my seeds indoors based mostly on OSU-recommended planting dates, but the actual date I do the in-ground transplanting or planting may vary a bit. We are in our 13th year here now so I have "customized" the recommended dates to suit our specific microclimate in our specific county, and it has been a very gradual process. I've based that customization on a fairly complex process that is derived partly from the OSU recommended dates, partly from recommended dates for Gainesville, TX, which sits across the Red River from me (our weather at our house is almost identical to theirs), current soil temperatures, current air temperatures and the 10-day forecast. I know that sounds very complicated, but it really isn't once you've gardened in an area for a while and have learned what to expect in your specific location. When we first moved here, I jotted down brief notes on a wall calendar that I bought only for that purpose so that my garden notes wouldn't clog up the family calendar in the kitchen. On each day's square I'd jot down the high temperature and low temperature and, if I had planted that day, a brief note detailing what I did. So, for February 12th, I might have an entry like this: "Planted onions. H: 53 L: 36" or an entry for March 29th might say "Planted sweet corn. H: 65 L: 42". Then, if we had a significant weather event like hail or thunderstorms or a freeze or frost, I jotted that onto the calendar as well. The following year, I'd look at the calendar from the previous year and adjust my planting dates accordingly. That method of planting by the calendar worked fairly well from about 1999 until about 2006. Then, here in our county, we seemed to have an abrupt climate change that began giving us frosts and freezes and cold nights much, much later in the spring. So, with an "average last frost" date of March 27th, we were consistently having a killing or damaging frost on/around May 2nd, 3rd or 4th. How in the world do you plan for that? Realizing I couldn't rely on "average" dates any more, I began paying more attention to soil temperature, air temperature and the long-range forecast, all of which has helped a lot. Now, no matter what the calendar says, I won't plant until the soil temperatures are staying consistently at the minimum temperature each type of vegetable needs, and even when the soil temps are right, I look at the air temps and long-range forecast to try to make sure a huge cold front isn't lurking out there. Since I switched from a calendar-based system to a hybrid calendar/temperature/forecast-based system, I've had much better success with keeping my plants from freezing and also the plants have performed better, often giving me earlier yields from a later planting because the plants didn't stunt or stall while temperatures remained a bit too cold for them. We walk a very fine line in our state with planting dates because some years the weather goes from "too cold" to "too hot" almost overnight and planting a specific crop a week or two "late" can severely impact your harvest. So, my suggestion is that you use the OSU-recommended planting dates as a "suggestion" only, and also keep an eye on your soil temperature (you can check it with a meat thermometer with a metal probe or you can spend quite a lot more money for a "soil thermometer" that is virtually the same thing), air temperature and 10-day forecast. Also, since you're in zone 6, all you really have to do is watch this forum and note when other people are planting. You'll generally see people planting in the ground a bit earlier in zone 7 parts of Oklahoma and then you'll see folks planting a week or so later in central OK, and then maybe a few days later in northern OK, with there being some degree of variation because folks in NE OK often can plant a bit earlier than those in far NW OK. It really pays off to plant by soil temp/air temp/forecast. I have an old farmer friend here who prefers to plant by the calendar and he often loses some or maybe all his early plantings to a freeze or frost 2 or 3 or 4 weeks later. He gives me a really hard time about me planting later, but since my plants tend not to freeze, I often get an earlier harvest than he does. Even in years when his early plantings don't freeze, my later plantings catch up with and even surpass his because my plants never grew in the colder soil and air temps. It took me a while to wean myself off planting by the calendar, but once I began having better success with planting guided by temperature info, I began having more consistent garden success and almost no crop failures. I'll try to come back in a while after I do my morning animal chores and list some temperature data that might be helpful. By the way, the average weather data like "last average frost date" info is based on 30-year averages, and the current data we see is based on weather data from 1971-2000. Sometime after 2010 that data will be reworked to give us new average weather data from the 30-year period from 1981 to 2010. It will be interesting to see how or if the average weather data changes. Dawn

Hardy plants in cold climates effectively hibernate over winter. Like bears these store energy before entering hibernation and then live off it during the winter, "emerge" in spring in a depleted condition. So when there is cutting of the roots and digging of these plants in spring they are being impacted at a time of the year when they are low in energy. However it is also true that the opening of stem buds in spring is what prompts the growth of new roots from cut root ends. So if dormant plants can be moved right before the tops come to life in spring then new roots will be generated immediately afterward. As with fall planting opportunity for success is maximized by timing it with specific relation to what state the stem buds are in. Winter: Activity minimal or effectively non-existent, depending on how cold it is Spring: Winter stem buds open, new shoots appear and may flower, new roots are formed Summer: Flowering or fruiting may occur, roots grow some Autumn: Fruiting may occur, winter stem buds form, existing roots elongate markedly (60% of annual total) Spring shoot and root growth is caused by the opening of the winter stem buds. Autumn root elongation is caused by the maturing of the winter stem buds. At both times hormones are sent from the buds to the root ends which cause these to grow. For modern, research based information see the print publications of Carl E Whitcomb (Lacebark Inc) - present at colleges with horticulture programs, including my local community college - the print publications and web pages of Linda Chalker-Scott (Washington State University), and the Garden Professors blog.