Ken, I forgot about that. The leaving them in the driveway thing. When I first moved out to the S. Maryland countryside and was forced to face the fact that I would be gardening, a friend let me dig up all these hosta that were growing everywhere in her yard. Turns out they were reseeding 'Invincible.' I had a El Dorado trunk full, laying on top of each other, filling the trunk to the top. Went home. Forgot about 'em. Like, what WAS I just doing? Digging HOSTA? I went into the house and wiped them from my memory. Talk about short-term memory issues!!! or... a brain burp. An August week later, (and days of hour-long commutes and parking in the uncovered driveway) I had an OMG moment and ran out to the car. Carefully and fearfully I opened the trunk, expecting dead, brown leaves. Instead, they popped right up, screamed, "HI THERE" and showed me all their new growth. Right on down to the ones on the bottom. I slammed the trunk. Breathing hard, I slowly opened it again and took them one by one out of the trunk, apologized, soaked their roots and planted them. Now I'm overrun with 12 years of Invincibles and reseeding hellebores. Oh, and 82 varieties of other hosta, about 30 heuchera 127 Japanese Maples (all of which are or turn red) 19 varieties of red (not pink) or deep purple crape myrtles 11 American red maples So the Invincibles have company. And I'm going to dig them and the hellebores up and put them on my roadside this year to maybe choke out the (grrrr) ditch lilies. Since they both love my full sun, they're gonna get it. So. Enough about me. Yes, you can easily transplant these puppies.

A planting 'rule of thumb' I learned here on GW with regard to perennials that bloom is as follows: if it blooms in spring, transplant it in fall; if it blooms in fall, transplant it in spring. I'm guessing the logic in that is to allow the plants the maximum amount of time to get established & avoid disturbing their bloom cycle. "...I always thought fall was a good time to plant" You're right--fall is a good time to plant/transplant--the cooler temps & fewer hours of daylight don't cause as much stress for the plants. Considering daylilies can withstand a nuclear blast, I'm guessing you could move them whenever you can work the soil.

NEVER fert any kind of recent transplant ... lets get the roots pumping .... settled.. before we try to burn them off ... in my z5 MI ... i would never fert after july .... i want them going to sleep.. not getting all juiced up.. in fall ... z5 is about half the US ... be nice to know where you are.. with a little more specificity ... ken

You are so very very right about never letting any vegetable get pot bound, and it is even worse for head-producing veggies. That would absolutely destroy them and is probably the most important thing for all veggies. I may have kept peppers in a smaller container too long last year, and one plant must have had just one blossom that I did not see as I planted it. Because of that accident, that plant only grew 1/3 as big, and produced less than half as many fruit all year. It finally had lots of blooms in the fall - when it was too late. I uppot as much as 4 times. You do not have to cover big healthy brassicas if frost. Only if it gets down to 25F. If you are planting smaller seedlings, it may be different. I improve soil temp by heat cables, black plastic, walls a water, and jugs of water around the walls. (By the way, Parks has had Kozy Koats on sale for 3/10.50. Best price I ever saw. No tax from Parks to Ohio and free ship over $49.) Based on the wonderful advice in this column, and trying to minimize postage rates, I will order Blue Wind and Goliath. It is almost time for me to plant them. Thank you so much!