do the job poorly and cut off all the roots.. aka.. stored energy ... set back do it in july or august... set back ... when it is supposed to be storing energy for next year ... set back do it either in early spring.. or late fall ... big root ball.. no root injury .... as soon as the ground thaws.. 6 to 8 weeks before they emerge... no problem ... or in fall once they yellow .... after they are done storing energy ... no problem ken

gardens dress accordingly .. and go play in the dirt ... whats this nonsense about too dirty .. if you dont have mud in your eyebrows.. in your hair.. and gritting in your teeth.. you are a gardener.. btw ... this is the type of thing i would do at the very last.. just before heading into to the laundry room to throw everything i was wearing in the washer ... and then up to the shower ... its not the job you want to do first .. lol .. of course.. i only lander the garden clothes.. when they stand up in the corner by themselves because there is so much dirt encrusted on them .. lol .. when too encrusted.. its hard to bend your knees.. lol ... ken

Hi Anne, So your move isn’t going to be a “dramatic change” for the plants! I was wondering if you knew that it’s “illegal” to dig and remove plants when you move out of somewhere—even a rental! What I did when I moved from the rental I had lived in for ten years (where I had put ALL the plants in!) to the house I now live in (own), was to dig fairly small “divisions” off of each plant I really wanted. It was MUCH easier than trying to bring the whole plants, and the landlord (who knew virtually nothing about plants) never even had a clue I had taken anything with me! You might want to consider just taking divisions of most of them too, since it’ll be so much easier for you—and you know how quickly they’ll get big again in their new home! With the Iris and Hosta mentioned, if it were me I’d dig them as soon as possible while they’re still small. If the Iris foliage is already tall, like mine are, I recommend cutting it down to just a couple inches above the soil. You’re not gonna get any flowers this year, but it’ll be much easier on the plants if you do that. Since Iris bloom early, depending on your relationship with the owner/landlord of the current house, you may want to wait till they finish blooming and then cut them down severely and dig them. If they can be replanted in the ground immediately after digging, you wouldn’t even need to repot them. And, if it wouldn’t be more than a couple weeks, you could just clean the soil off of the Iris rhizomes and store them in the fridge (with air circulation) until you could replant them. Just a couple different possibilities. (That's how things like Iris rhizomes are stored by the mail order places till they're shipped!) The Hosta I think I’d dig and pot what you’re taking now while they're still small, and keep them outside in a shady place in the pots till you can replant. Tulips, dafs, Hyacinths, and any other “fall bulbs” I’d recommend leaving them in as long as possible so as much of the foliage as possible can “die down naturally.” Even if you tried to leave the foliage on them when you dig them, I don’t think it would be able to effectively “put energy back into the bulbs” like it does when they’re in the ground, since they’d be busy trying to re-root into the new soil. Or you could dig the bulbs (again, wait as long as possible) and store them in the fridge till the proper time to plant them in the fall—that would probably be way better for them than trying to keep them in pots over summer. OR, you said you could maybe come back in fall to dig things, and if that’s possible, that’s what I’d recommend for any/all fall bulbs. If you can do that, that would definitely be the best for the bulbs. The horseradish! Uhhh! This might be a really good time to consider running away from it! ;-) Whatever perennials you decide to dig and pot to move, definitely keep them outside, as much as possible in the “sun conditions” they had when they were growing in the ground. If they’re going to be in the pots for more than a couple weeks, I highly recommend filling the pots around the “natural soil rootball” with a store bought potting soil/mix—or even knock most of the natural soil off and just replant in the packaged soil. A “synthetic” soil is usually MUCH more easy to work with in pots. Don’t keep them too wet in the pots! Saturate the soil, then let it dry most of the way, then saturate again—and keep repeating. Hosta, of course, you can keep WET!!! (And if there are “other” perennials you want, if you just remove a small start from the side of the clump, nobody will ever know it’s missing!) Hope you’ll decide to hang out around here more when you have time, Skybird P.S. If you're having any problems with the "new houzz site," just ask! We're all still getting used to it too and are glad to help if we have the answer. The "good news" is that if houzz hadn't "taken us over," GardenWeb would have completely disappeared into an internet Black Hole! So at least we ARE still here!

big city location.. zone is simply minimum winter temp ... so it doesnt tell us much in your area the rest of the year ... z6 is rather diverse ... as far as them living.. you can do it any time..the only downside might be how ugly they look the rest of the year.. if you hack them up .. moving a whole clump .. water it well for a week.. then just move it.. and drown it again ... and probably will look just fine the rest of the year .. hmmm.. that reminds me.. there was a brilliant post on this topic.. wonder if i can find it.. lol .. if you are cutting it up ... it depends how far you go with that process ... if in half.. or even quarters.. on a lagre plant ... probably take it well ... if you are going down to small pieces.. then your goal is nice clumps next year.. and you shouldnt really care about what they look like the rest of this year .... just do it .. if need be .. or wait.. really .. its your choice ken note the tape trick ... it really helps https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2000608/moving-a-large-fully-leafed-out-hosta-lots-o-pix