Cold temp of the air do not always reflect soil freezing. Your soil in zone 7 might remain workable all year long?

Baltimore is zone 7b, the same as Queens. Don't know how that happened; must be related to both being coastal cities. I don't know if our ground freezes many inches below the surface, but what I was referring to is trying to dig up plants when the soil is frozen hard, maybe even snow covered. All my hostas and heuchies have I.D. markers stuck into the soil next to them, but if there's snow, they would be hard to find. I have 3 dozen small hostas, some in pots, plus 10 heuchies.

Hopefully you'll know soon whether the sale will go through or not... so you will probably have a bit of time (before hard winter weather) to prepare once you find out. If you know definitely, and have a timetable for the move, you can decide what's best. My son lives in the Baltimore area, and we used to live in Northern VA.... I know it can be pretty wintry there. We were out there last Christmas (mild weather) and earlier that year in March (and then had quite a bit of snow). If it were me, I guess I'd pot them up (and maybe combine in pots, as Ken said). It may not be easy to get them in the ground in Baltimore once you get there, so you might have to hold them in pots until spring.

One major question is, to pot them when it gets colder or to put them into wet newspaper and plastic bags. Potting them--in what, 1 gallon pots for larger ones and 6" pots for smaller ones? Would potting them after they die back and leaving the pots above ground hurt them? I'm sure (if, please G-d, the deal happens) I would simply leave the hostas/heuchies in pots in Baltimore, on the patio adjacent to the garden. There is a tall wooden fence around the patio/garden, so it would be a sheltered location, plus I'd line them up near the patio door as a further windbreak. The patio/garden faces the southeast, which is good for sun.

I might be wrong about this, but I think the goal with overwintering potted hostas is to keep them out of the sun. So I would put the pots in a shaded location. Colder and darker is better I think. Plastic pots that won't break.

I had several on the screened porch last year (NNE facing). That kept them dry, and they were shaded. And I've overwintered in the unheated garage. I'll have pots in both locations this year because I just didn't get around to planting them in the summer. C'est la vie - I'm only human.

But wet newspaper and plastic bags would be great if you're indeed going to have them out of the ground short-term - like if you can dig them up, transport them to the new home, and stick 'em in the ground fairly quickly. (Or - if you want to throw them on the driveway for a while!)

Windy, there is no driveway on the condo I would like to purchase. There is a front patio about 5' x 10' and a backyard patio about 7' x 20', and a garden patch about the same as the backyard patio.