You can hack this thing to bits, move it, move it again, hack it some more and it will be fine. Just make sure to give it enough water as it is getting established, and, as Al noted, your chances of success are best if you wait till winter to move it. You can train to a multi-trunked tree, leave it alone, coppice it yearly to keep it small, etc etc. Great plants for so many purposes. I like to have at least one near a window as they generally flower all winter long and attract hummingbirds, always entertaining to watch from inside. The insects you are seeing are likely bees and native wasps gathering nectar. They are also pollinating. They're not interested in you, they're busy foraging. As long as you don't overly disturb them, they'll leave you alone. Have fun! Sara

If Perennial Grace is close enough for you, then you should easily be able to go a few more miles and go to Autumn Hill Nursery on Earney Rd; they had an awesome selection the other day. They had one gallon sizes and also they had the same variegated one that Mann's had in a 3/4 inch pot for $2.90, I think. Didn't notice the one gallon price, but they had several colors. Perennial Grace is closed on Mondays. Perennial Grace is on Birmingham Hwy which intersects with Batesville Rd; Autumn Hill is on Earney, which intersects with Batesville.

In my yard, they like the different aloes that I have growing, and these bloom mostly around winter, from November through January or February. They love the neighbor's bottle brush tree across the street, which attracts swarms of hummers. They also like my bromeliads and tillandsia, but the tillandsia flowers do not last very long. I have one bromeliad (which has multiplied) that will tolerate full sun, and they especially like that one - photo below. Lars

To follow up on our discussion of Helleborus foetidus with Karen and Judy at timestamps April 1-2. Our concern was to what degree the problems with dividing it extend to transplanting as a reflection of possible sensitivity to root disturbance. We are pleased to report that the extracted single plant that we obtained from Judy has done very well. It was first kept in a pot in deep shade the whole summer and watered well, even putting on some growth: It was planted out in the first week of November slightly raised with an extra layer of soil added around it (because of root competition in that bed). It is blooming right now: A couple of additional backup plants, obtained in that same batch but kept together in one pot, didn't make it through the summer, indicating that they are still quite sensitive to growth conditions, similar to the earlier batches that were planted out immediately in spring and died. In addition our plan B, to scatter in a number of locations the seeds obtained from Karen plus collected from local sites, turned out fully successful: we got germination of multiple seedlings at each location. So we may finally get some H. foetidus growing.