Hello George :-) Nice to see you! It's been a quiet winter here on the forums this year. Thanks very much for the encouragement. My oldest son is planning on helping all week to dig dig dig. :-) We are going to start this morning. He is not a gardener and has this unreasonable expectation that once you plant a plant in the garden you are done. He had such a look on his face when I told him how many plants I need to move this spring. LOL I had to confess to him, that I am not as good a designer as he evidently thought I was. I have only recently come to that conclusion myself, which was a surprise to me, too. :-) I have finally understood that I do not have the ability to visualize, which is a necessity to be a designer, I believe. I can imagine and have creative ideas, but I cannot see in my mind what something will look like. The only thing that allows me to keep trying, is that I know good design when I see it. So much more work for me, to play musical chairs until I find something that looks good to me. I would just love to choose the plant material and have someone else figure out where it is all going to go, then enjoy it and take care of it. I even hired someone to consult with last year to help with that, but found I didn't agree with one suggestion she made. So, I guess I am stuck with me. [g] I do have high hopes that a few of these moves will stick. :-)

Hey Radd, Those shrubs are, likely, dead. Unless everyone involved knew (and did) exactly the right things ... when moving these shrubs, ... it was quite a risky venture. I halfway know what I am doing planting and caring for more than 200 trees and shrubs ... but I've watched some 20 or so die on me. The good news is ... you can replace these dead shrubs ... with live (and healthy) replacements. Take some time to go and see what's available at the plant nurseries around town. Even box hardware stores like LOWES and/or Home Depot ... might have something you would like. I also recommend getting yourself some books on landscape trees and shrubs. This will help you to see what's available to you ... and will enlighten you on proper planting and care for the plants. You might take a look at this one. You can get it cheap as dirt at the link provided below. Lots of folks get interested in landscaping ... after they've put something they liked in the ground ... and watched it die. Don't think of it as a loss ... think of it as an opportunity. Here is a link that might be useful: Tree/Shrub book

Hi Steve, Welcome home! Believe it or not I was thinking about you a little over a week ago! I collected seed from the Lavatera this year, and when I googled it to be sure I was remembering the right species, guess what popped up! Your site! Was glad to see you were posting more again--and wondering how your Commuting Relationship is going--and, do you have gardens on both ends now? I really just came to say, hi! Not sure I can help you with your question since I'm not a Shrub Person, but with perennials, they can be planted absolutely any time the soil's not frozen, so I'd be inclined to say that if they're not too big, I don't see why you couldn't move them now. If it were me I'd probably watch the weather and look for a time when you should be getting at least a couple nites that will be above freezing right after you transplant them, but I'm not sure if that would make any difference or not! Hopefully somebody with a little more shrub-sense will show up with some additional/better advice! Hope all is going well with you, and that we'll see you around here a little more, Skybird

In USDA 7 this should still be prime autumn planting time. (In my part of USDA 8 the curtain drops in November - the stormiest month of the year - and December is the coldest month of the year. Nevertheless landscape contractors and others who work in the rain may transplant etc. right through the winter, whenever the ground is not frozen). The only thing is you will have missed the chance to have new plantings root well out into the new site right after planting in any cases where particular kinds have already extended their roots (60% of root elongation for the whole year occurs in fall, after the overwintering stem (or crown, in the case of perennials that do this, such as peonies) buds have been set. But any hardy plants you already have on hand should still go into the ground now instead of being kept trapped in pots until next year. Also any root-bound woody plants - these are very frequent on the market, unfortunately - should have their roots cut and/or pulled open at planting time anyway; any circling roots that have been cut will not elongate to the same extent again until the following autumn. Spring: Winter buds open, causing new roots to form - but emphasis is on new shoot growth, flowering Summer: Top still gets most of the energy Autumn: Winter buds mature, causing existing roots to elongate - the only time of the year when plant's energy is concentrated on root growth Winter: Plant effectively hibernates, except for minimal root growth which may happen when soil temp. in 40s F. or above