Broadcasting from Studio A here at proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacey, Hervella me, Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson Stacy. Today's topic plants that like to move and plants that don't like to move. And I've been thinking about this and I need to share with you that I'm not so sure I've ever found a plant that I don't want to move. Wow.
If that's a good thing or a bad thing.
I know I'm not saying it's a good thing, but you know, rejuvenation is a good thing. For years when I ran my business, I always had a small bottle of Tabasco sauce on the ledge because Tabasco sauce always was a good reminder for me that just adding a little bit to a dish can change the whole dish.
Right, That's very true. Yeah.
I think that it's important for people to understand that moving plants is a normal thing to do as a gardener. You know, I think there's this kind of myth or belief out there that gardeners, especially people who have many years of experience like you and I get it right the first time, and newsflash, we do not even maybe we do when we change our mind and it doesn't feel so right anymore. It's not like multiple choice tests. There is an open ended essay exam and so yeah,
you have the opportunity to for most things. There are certainly exceptions, but you do have the opportunity to change your mind and move the majority of different types of plants.
Thank you for saying that. I appreciate that because that gives me permission, and what I'm trying to do is give folks permission to do it. Also because you reach a point, of course with some plants where you need you just simply need to move them. They're too close to the house, or you're sick of them in that location, they're getting too big or whatever. I think the key
is recognizing, number one, you can do this. I mean, they move houses, for crying out, true, If they move houses, you can move some plants and take a shot at it. I think the key from my experience, Stacy, is don't do it during prime time, that is for sure, and that means for both the individual and the plants. So as an individual, don't go out there and move plants when it's sunny and it's beautiful outside. Do it when it's overcast, kind of drizzly, not real nice to be outside.
And the same applies to plants. Don't move them when they're in their prime, move them during their.
Off season, yeah, the dormant season. So I think this is great timing. We did another show back in October called bus to Move that was more about how to move, and now we're going to talk about specifically plants that want to be or that can be moved, and those that maybe are a little more resentful of being moved. But the overall thing, the reason we're doing this is because we are coming up on a perfect time for
moving plants when they are dormant. And of course the ground is not frozen and covered with two or three feet of snow as it is at the moment. So perhaps in another you know, six weeks or so here in Michigan, we're getting into prime plant moving time when those plants are dormant. Is a great time to move things that you have been thinking about switching around.
Exactly, And you know, I guess I think about moving plants. You know, I remember clearly sitting on a Chase Lounge in Las Vegas, sipping on an adult beverage and watching them move trees and large plants from the old desert into the wind resort. They were moving some of these plants with helicopters.
Wow.
And the same applies an interview I did back in twenty ten with individuals who were restoring the tree that survived the collapse of the Twin Times in New York and bringing that tree back to life and then moving that tree to the Memorial Plaza where it stands today. My point is, Stacey, the attitude I take is where there's a will, there's a way.
For the average person, some of those things may be a little out of reach. It's not beat around the bush here.
You know.
Moving trees, I think is one place, especially if they're more mature trees like the ones that you just described, is an area where it is possible, but the expense and effort may not be worth it. And certainly you can find online amazing stories of you know, huge oak trees being relocated, and those are all very very interesting
to see. But you know, overall, unless something has you know, huge historical or esthetic value, it's not easy to do for mature trees, but almost anything else, even young trees, you know. But I think, as with everything else in horticulture, the key is to have realistic expectations about what happens after you move something. An interesting situation from my own garden where several years ago I bought two pawpaw seedlings, so papa are a native edible papaw, and planted them
in my garden and they're fairly slow growing. But it soon became obvious that the way that we had positioned them was not right, so I moved one of them about a year after I planted. Now, poppas are trees with a tap root, so this is something that you need to look for. I'm sure we're going to be going there later. If a plant has a tap root, so think a little bit like a carrot, you know, deep root like that, rather than a large spread out root system. They tend to not take to transplanting quite
as well, and Papa's are one of those. So I dug my hole, I moved the tree, and it is pretty much fine now, But for about two or three years it was pretty surprising to see how two of the same plants planted at the exact same time. One of them was so severely set back from this movie, so it probably took about two years for it to recover. That first year after I moved it, it didn't grow hardly at all.
On top.
It was alive, it leafed out, it was okay, but it was like, whoa, I am recovering.
I'm not growing.
I just need to take a year off and then almost like resetting, you know, sleep creep leap. It was a sleep year for that first year, it was a creep year for the second year, and then by the third year. Now they're almost back together. But you do have to understand that even though we do freely move plants around, there is a little bit of a plant penalty there to pay.
Oh, I agree, And when I say I haven't met a plant I don't want to move, I do say that tongue in cheek. I've done some pretty crazy things in my life. But your point is well taken. We're primarily talking here about perennials and shrubs, not necessarily trees and stacy. A couple of examples rhododendrons. You know, people have said to me, well, you can't move a big,
beautiful rhododendron. Well, you can. The root system is it's not a it's a smaller root system proportionately to the plant, and you can stump it, you can cut it back, maybe sacrifice the flowers for one year. Another example would be p and ees. People have always said to me, while P and e's are a perennial that doesn't like to move, and I'm like, I've moved them almost any time of the year and had success. Sure, you don't want to plant them too deep or too high, because
you're going to have problems with blooming. But again, where there's a will, there's a.
Way, And you know, I think it's important to question some of that quote unquote conventional wisdom about things like moving p and e s or even clematists. I mean, you need to do your research and understand perhaps why those beliefs are in place. And I think the one for penis is primarily because when they're move people do often plant them too deep. It's very easy to plant them too deeply, and we've answered that question in mailbag a couple of different times.
But you know, do your research.
If someone says, oh, you can't possibly move this, think about the reasons why, you know, think about why are they saying that in the I'm sure people say you can't transplant a popa either, And I wouldn't say it was the most well advised thing that I've ever done. But you know, that's the other thing about being a gardener is you if you're willing to take on those risks, risk your investment in the plant, risk your investment in that time and effort, then you know that's that's your decision.
And are you glad you did it?
Stay, I'm very glad I did it, very much so.
And that's the point. So, I mean, you know, again, some things just don't want to move. I'm standing on my deck looking at my patio furniture. I'm saying, you guys got to move, and they're like, no, we're good. We're gonna sit this one up. Bad dad joke. But getting back to the taparate thing that you were diving into. So if you think about some perennials like baptisia, or you've talked often about the roots on clematis yep, yep,
the heart leaf brunera, or coral bells foamy bells. What about our high biscus, like our summarific high biscus.
Well, I just moved a lot of summarific Hibiscus ampaptesia at the end of fall last year, so I am, you know. And it is easier for us to move things living in a sandy soil than people who have clay soil, because it's a lot easier to expose those roots and to get more of the roots. But I am eager to see what might be happening with those pronouns. I have every confidence that they're alive. I'm not worried
about that. But whether or not I'll see flowers this year, and if so, how many will be to be determined. So stay tuned for the update this June and August.
That's very interesting. You know. My general rule of thumb is if it's a clumping plant and divides easily, it moves pretty easily. If it's a single stem, even lavender that acts like a woody plant single stem more difficult than let's say, daylilies or hostas. Yeah, so you know again, and if you have a s situation where it simply has to go and you're facing just eliminating the plant, why not at least give it a shot. It's great exercise and fresh air.
And you learn something.
And that's what gardening is all about, is, you know, taking an educated approach to what you need to need or want to do, making the right decision, acting on it, and then seeing what happens.
Well, let's see how Stacey ties it in and plants on trial. That's coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
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proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the order of the day is plants that like to or can be moved, and plants that maybe are a little bit more resentful of being moved. And Rick, I can't believe you went the whole first segment without your famous saying that your plants have been moved so often they're eligible for Frequent Flyer miles.
Yes, or I just bent over and split my plants now I.
Have to ask you something. It wasn't all that long ago that you moved from a house where you had lived in garden for many years to a new home. And when you did that, did you move any plants?
Yes?
I do, how many? Like roughly, I'm going.
To say probably about twenty.
Oh wow, that's pretty impressive. And was it shrubs, perennials, a.
Mix primarily perennials and grasses? No surprise.
Oh, you were brave enough to dig up a grass. That's uh.
I mean, you know, you know with grasses, they're readily they're pretty easy to divide and move as far as they're being willing to do so. It's whether or not the individual wants to go through the grief. Right.
Absolutely.
There was a condo down the street from me, and last summer I saw some guy trying to dig out some ornamental grasses from the front yard and he caught my eye as I was walking by, and I said, oh, tough job, good luck. Went back the next day nothing had been moved.
He gave up on the whole thing.
I believe it.
So, if you're listening, mister, I understand. But anyway, it is great that we can move plants, and I have often moved plants. And when I moved, I ended I was moving in July, and it wasn't the ideal time to move plants. But I wasn't going to just leave them my rental and not have them at my house, So I moved a bunch of stuff too.
This past summer. You know, you tore out the entire lawn, you had to move some plants too, right.
I didn't have to move too much at the beginning of the project. I saved all the moving really for the fall, Okay, because by the time the whole line project got sorted out, I just said, you know what, it's getting too close to hot weather. So I didn't move that much then. But I spent every single free weekend in September and October moving plants. So I'm also very experienced, and that really is one of the great
things about perennials and shrubs. Now, as we said, you can't really successfully move more mature trees, you can try. We had a question in mailbag not too long ago about someone who had a little Japanese maple that was really struggling. We advise them to move that, and we also advise someone in the last episode to dig up
their gink go that was getting girdling. So you know, within maybe a couple of years of being planned in one two to three years, if you get a kind of a smaller plant, a smaller tree, you can typically get away with it.
But if you're going to do that plan ahead, I still think taking a spade cutting into the roots a month or two before moving it, trying develop some hair roots will help.
If you can do that.
If you can do it, I mean, if if you thought of doing it in time, is really the main thing. So it's great that we can move things. But just because you can move plants that and most plants are very adaptable to being moved, doesn't necessary mean that you should. Because as I said, there is a little bit of a plant penalty to pay. It does set things back, and how much it sets something back can be based on a lot of different factors and the reaction can
be different. So a plant might not flower for a few years, it might grow very little. It might you know, kind of just sitting there and sulking whatever other features you're growing it for. You just might not see that, you know, in its full effect. For a couple of years, and some plants that people say don't like to be moved really just don't ever recover from it. You know.
There's certainly some plants that just they'll never really get back to where they were, and you're better off just starting with something that was grown a container and you can put into your yard. But in all of my years of helping gardeners with gardening questions, I would have to say that the plant that I have been asked the most frequently about whether it can be moved is big leaf hyde hydrange of macrophilla. That makes sense, Yeah,
So I think it's for a couple of reasons. Number one, because hydrange of macrophilla or big leaf hydrangea, is the type of plant that is highly sensitive to its spot.
Uh.
You know, where you plant a big leaf hydrangea, especially if you live in a cooler climate, can make or break your experience. You can have a great experience and feel like you are a rockstar gardener, or you can have a terrible experience and feel like you have You know, you're never gonna have success growing a plant again. It really needs to be in kind of the right spot. Again, because it has its flower buds for the following summer
all winter. It's important that it is kind of more protected in these colder climates so that it's not getting you know, huge blasts of cold air, heavy loads of ice, all of that kind of stuff. So it's got that site sensitivity.
Number two.
I think it's a plant that when a shrub, it is a shrub, it is a true woody shrub. But I think when most people look at it, they got so, you know, what that looks like a plant that could probably be moved. Sure, it kind of looks like a perennial clumpy, Yeah, look clumpy, And so people maybe have the sense that looks like something I could move, compared to something that maybe is really really large or you know, has a trunk and it resembles more of a tree.
And the third one goes back to what we were saying a few weeks ago about dwarf Elberta spruce, which is that when people get their hydrange of Macrophilla at the store, they're like, oh, look at this cute little thing, And especially older varieties of big leaf Hydrangea can easily get to be five feet tall and wide, and it can be very difficult to believe that this cute little one gallon blooming hydrangea that your you know, darling child got you from Mother's Day or whatever, is going to
grow into a five foot by five foot shrup.
I'm with you here. I've seen it, been there, done that, you know. I can't believe if I look back, the number of people I've suggested move a macrophilla hydrangea because it's on the west or south facing of their home and their struggling. Yeah, so it's easy to say, well, you need to move that plant. But I agree with you. I think that because it has this clumping nature, people are willing to give it a shot.
Yeah.
And it does have a shallow fibrous root system, and it is very easy and amenable to moving. And if you have one that hasn't been doing well and you do want to move it, this coming March, when the ground is finally workable again and the plant is dormant, would be a perfect time to go ahead and do that, or to replace it with a higher performing, proven winners hydrange Just saying like let's stance Skyview or Letstance can do.
But those aren't today's plant on trial. No, today's plant on trial is a hydrange of Macrophylla that is so small you won't have to worry that it's going to need to be moved. Oh I love this And this plant is we bit grumpy big leaf hydrangea, so you can guess by the name we bit that it is small. It reaches two feet tall and about two and a half feet wide, So that's a perfect size for you know, landscaping around a condo or an apartment or other small space.
Very easy to incorporate in things like flower beds and perennial gardens. And you know, just one that's not going to outgrow its space or overgrow your dining room windows, because I feel like that's what most people do with big leaf hydrangeas, right plant them in front of their front windows. Think it's going to be great, and the next thing you know, they're five feet tall and they can't see out their windows. So wee bit grumpy small. And you might be wondering about the grumpy part of
its name. It is not because it is a difficult to grow big leaf hydrangea. It most certainly is not just as easy to grow as any other proven winter's color choice big leaf hydrangea. But I like to tell the story of its name, because it's kind of a funny story. So when we get plants in for our trials, whatever that trial group is, it gets a working name. Right, we're humans trialing these plants. So even though it would be probably more objective to give it a number, no
one remembers numbers. I mean, you know, they need like some sort of name, so they have. Our R and D team has used everything from like planets, dog breeds, different things like this, and those become the working names. So with its particular Hydrangea Macrophila trial, there were seven plants and they were named for the seven Dwarfs as their working names from the Snowed and the Seven Dwarf story. And when the trial was complete, we Grumpy was not wee bit grumpy at the time. It was just Grumpy
was the last plant standing. And we loved the color. So it had this like beautiful, moody, dark purple flowers on it, and it was one of those things that every time someone looked at the tag to say, oh, you know, hey, which plant is this and they saw Grumpy, they got a little kick out of it, you know, they kind of chuckled. And so when it came time
to name the plant. You know, we're like thinking about all these you know, conventional plant names like oh, beautiful and pretty and magically, you know, all of these kinds of names, and we're like, let's just go with grumpy. And what I love about the name is it's still making people laugh when they see it. So because everyone knows someone who's like a wee bit grumpy, right, we can all be a wee bit grumpy now, and then maybe it's because of winter, maybe it's because your hydrange
is not blooming. Wee bit grumpy can solve all of that. So it's a great small space HYDRANGEA perfect for someone who maybe is a little bit grumpy. And I love the flowers on this. In acidic soils, instead of being that traditional blue, it turns a deep kind of marbled violet. And a lot of people think that that purple color comes from sort of the perfect pH but actually it's more genetic. So this is one of those hydrangs that will turn more purple than blue. If it's in alkaline's
neutral soils, it will be a beautiful pink. And you know, other than that, it's just as easy to grow as any other big leaf Hydrangea heart Ese zones five to nine. It is not a reblooming hydrangea, so that's kind of you know, the reblooming hydrangeas tend to be larger because they have to put on a lot of new growth in order to actually reblue, so they tend to be a little bit bigger, not as large as the older varieties,
but larger than the we bit series. So if you absolutely need a small, tidy hydrangea that you will never want to or have to prone, that you'll never have to move, we Bit Grumpy is the perfect choice for you.
Our show last week spacing, Yes, plant's perfect, perfect, don't have to worry about spacing, and you know looks amazing in the summer.
So we Bit Grumpy. Look for it at your local garden center this spring. You can find a retailer at Proven Winners Color Choice dot com, or find out more about Webit Grumpy Hydrangea at our show notes at Gardeningsimplified on Air dot com. We're gonna take a little break. When we come back, We're opening up the mailbags.
Stay tuned.
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dot com. Creating's gardening friends and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our pleasure now to help you with your gardening questions and conundrums. Might be a little early, maybe you're having trouble remembering what was you know, causing you issues in the garden last season, But if it happens to come to you and you have a question, please do reach out to us at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. There's a contact form and we would be.
Happy to help you.
And of course if you you know, not every question is easy to answer on air, because you know, sometimes you need pictures. Sometimes it's just a little too complicated for us to fit into this tiny little segment. But if you write us on Proven Winners Color Choice dot com or on proven Winners dot com, you will get a personalized answer, not from a robot, not from an AI, but from a real gardener who cares about your success.
So if you need an answer sooner, not sure we're gonna get to your question, please do you reach out to us there as well?
What do we have this week?
Well, Stacey, you looked at some pictures from Steve and Mary. Something attacked our red crape myrtle. Will it survive or do we need to remove it and plant a new one this spring? They're saying it was beautiful this past summer.
Yes, So if you are on YouTube, you're seeing the pictures that Steve and Mary shared with us. If you are listening to us on radio or podcast, check it out at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. And uh, the something that attacked the crape myrtle here was human?
Uh really?
Yeah?
I have one hundred Did you see it?
Did you not?
Okay, didn't get a chance because iring to you. All right, here's the thing. Let me paint the picture for you. So it's a crpe myrtle in a container and it has pretty thick lower branches, you know, definitely like thicker than a finger or at least finger thickness, if not a little bit bigger, and the branches are cut at a very tidy angle and strewn all over the ground.
Now it would be we do have a video actually, and we will link to it in the description on YouTube or in the show notes of trying to tell the difference between rabbit damage and deer damage. So, first of all, CRP myrtles are fairly deer resistant, so I wouldn't have expected a deer in the first place. But deer also have a very tell tale type of damage. When they chomp something, they don't just make a neat
little cut and it goes away. They tear, they dig their teeth in, and they rip, and so typically what you have, especially with shrubs, is a very kind of ragged, jagged edge that's left after the deer hit it. And you can see that these are very neat. Now, rabbits, on the other hand, have those nice sharp front teeth and they make very tidy cuts at a very distinctive angle. These could potentially be mistaken for rabbit cuts except for
two things. Number One, those branches are about the thickness of a finger and rabbits tend to go for much finer growth because I mean, their teeth are only so big and their mouths are only so big, so they tend to go for thinner, finer growth, or just girdle the bark on the outside to get to that giant, nice juicy cambium below the bark. Plus, as I said, this plant isn't a container. And I have seen rabbits jump into containers before, but it's not common, and I
don't think that those hots. Yes, well, so actually I had a rabbit nest in one of my containers, yeah, because it was like in spring and kind had stuff grouped together and it was like perfect hiding. And I found the nests because you can always tell a rabbit escus has like a big wad of fur kind of plugging the entrance, and so I knew immediately what it was.
And I was like, but there's no way.
So every night we sat out there until we finally saw mama rabbit come up and just whoop leap right up into the containers.
That was pretty amazing.
So anyway, rabbits can do crazy things, but that's a good one. When I like to her picture Stephen Mary there's no question this is human damage. So someone because the other thing about a rabbit human damage. I'm not saying they noded. I'm saying they they brought pruners. They brought pruners and they cut this. Because the other thing is you can see in the pictures that the portions that were detached are just sprinkled all over the ground. And a rabbit doesn't just bite things just for the
fun of it. It bites things off to eat them. And I have no idea. Well, actually I have a couple of theories. Okay, so one theory is a well intentioned landscaper who might have been doing some sort of fall clean up at your house. I hear of plenty well intentioned offspring who you know, come back from college and say I'm gonna help mom and dad out and cut everything back. That happens with big leaf hydranges a lot.
I can't tell you how many people have told me that a well intentioned kid was home from college and cut back their big leaf hydranges. Or I don't know, Stephen, Mary, maybe you need to ask each other. I don't know, all right, but this is definitely pruneer damage. But the good news is that it will almost certainly be fine crate myrtle in the South. In fact, there is a widespread movement known jokingly as crape murder because so many people cut their crpe myrtles back just out of convention,
even though they are generally much better left unpruned. So crate myrtles can easily withstand heavy pruning like this and come back. And if you are in a cold climate, crape myrtles can actually come back from the roots. And because they bloom on new wood, they'll go on to flower as usual, okay, later in the season. So I think it'll be fine. I think you're gonna have to think long and hard about how these branches came to be detached and who was walking around your yard. But
I think your plant will be fine. If you live in a cold climate, don't give up on it too early. If it did die back to the ground because of this extremely cold winter that we are having here in Michigan, give it plenty of time. Give it, you know, several weeks into spring to see if that new growth is going to come from the base, and most likely I think it will.
I think you handled that really well, and I'm so glad that you handled that question.
Well.
I mean, you know, I love being a plant detective, and of course, but you know, I in my many years of playing plant detective, I've learned to pick up on certain clues like deer.
And rabbit damage.
And this is pretty much unequivocally pruned by humans.
And you're so right. The deer damage is telltale. Right now here in West Michigan, we've got a lot of snow and I have some yuccas, big yucca plants that stick up through the snow. The deer have just ravaged them. Generally they'll leave yuccas alone, but they're hungry. And I mean the leaves are just shredded.
Oh, just torn, Yeah, because they're so hungry, right.
They're so hungry. Yeah, so pretty sloppy, all right, Gail writes to us, I need help with the problem of moss taking over the grass in my backyard. I live in northern New Jerseys on seven A. There's a lot of shade. The yard is south facing and the area is about seventy five by fifty feet. Love your podcast, Thanks well, Gail. I think the important thing here to note, Stacey is that plants have roots. Moss does not ye the maw, and same thing with grass. Grass has roots,
moss does not. If the moss is growing better than the grass, then that leads me to believe that the environmental conditions in that area, it's not just shade. Usually it's soil compaction. So raise the deck on the lawn, moward to give the grass a competitive edge. Get yourself a core air rader, air rate the lawn. I you know, obviously I haven't seen pictures, I haven't been on Gail's lawn, but I can almost guarantee you that that lawn is
probably compacted. And Gale's also saying shade, so maybe there's a lot of trees, a lot of tree roots, and so there you go. I mean, moss does not grow on a rolling stone.
No, And you know, the irony of moss that I have found in my career is that everybody who wants moss can't grow it, yes, and the people who don't want moss can't get rid of it. I mean, moss
is sort of nature's cover, I guess. And if moss, and there's so many different types of moss, you know, we talk about moss as sort of this monolith, but there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of different species of moss out there, and there are some that are adapted to dry, sandy conditions like we have out here in West Michigan, even though most people associate them, of course with shade. But you'll find moss in the desert.
There's moss growing just about every condition across the world, and the specific moss that grows in your area is specifically adapted to those conditions. So the fact is that if you have it, it's because conditions are right for it to grow. And even though I think you gave great advice on trying to give the grass a competitive advantage, if it really is that shady, the grass is probably never going to get a leg up on the moss.
It's just unlikely to happen shady and compected. And like you said, the tree roots, you know, the moss can certainly sew itself between the tree roots and soil moisture too, So if you really have a nice blanket of moss going, it's very often because there's enough moisture for it to be maintained that way. So, Gail, I hope you're not gonna hate me for saying this, but my advice is to learn to love the moss, you know, and embrace the moss.
Because there's a lot of people who would love.
To have what you have and can't. So unless you're going to make major changes to the conditions that are enabling this moss to grow, which is to say, the shade, perhaps the soil, compaction, moisture, all of those things, the moss is going to grow. So I would say, get yourself some beautiful poetic rocks, get a path through that moss, and build yourself a beautiful, peaceful zen like moss.
Garden stacy my experience in my career, as grass grows best where you wish it would amen to that right and as far as moss too, I remember putting moss and buttermilk in a blender in my garage and painting porous and overnight the cats came along and licked it all. Just a total failure, so I couldn't get it to grow.
So, yeah, it's a conundrum, Gale. But unless you're gonna take those trees down, I think that the moss, you need to just embrace the fact that the moss is a lush, beautiful green carpet that doesn't need mooing, So we're going to take a little break. When we come back, we're talking more about moving plants, so please stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to
you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're talking about some plants that like to move, and some plants that don't, and some that are well, maybe just a wee bit grumpy, right, Stacey, Yes, And I had a little poem here that I wrote my rule of thumb on moving plants. If it's a clump, make the jump. If it's a trunk, it's no slam dunk. If a stump, don't be a grump. If an annual, you don't need a manual. And that's kind of how I apply it. And I wanted to ask you, Stacy,
you and I both love baptisia. Have you moved some baptisia plants and what's your experience?
Would that I have moved Baptisia plants? It is not fun. It is not easy. And I say this as someone who dug them from very sandy soil cannot even imagine trying to dig them in a clay soil. But the main thing is, you know, Baptizia is a very drought tolerant plant, and that's one of the things that it's known for and one of the reasons that I personally
love it. But generally speaking, the more drought tolerant a plant is, the more that indicates that it has a very extensive root system to find water, you know, maybe a little bit deeper or wider than other plants do. So it has a much deeper root system than other perennials, and it does put out a tap root as well as these really kind of gnarly roots all over the place. So it's hard, but it can be done. I've done it many times. And yeah, I mean this year I probably moved oh gosh, nine.
Baptisias that I had around my yard.
Wow.
And I was prepared for the worst because when I originally moved them to the location I just moved them from because you know, frequent flyer miles. Yeah, change our mind. We re envisioned the space, the first time I dug them was very hard. It was less hard this time, even though they've been performing really really well. But I'm hoping that this is it because I just want to give them a chance to grow and do their thing.
But I would say it probably took them a good three years to fully recover and start growing into that big, beautiful, rounded shape, but they still flowered pretty well in the interim.
I like your comment about drought tolerance as it pertains to the plant's root system and moving again. Living near the beach here in Lake Michigan, we have a lot of oak trees and they're notorious for a tap root, right, And so you have other plants too that can be notorious. I'm thinking Joe Pieweed Goat's beard along with the baptizea
any of these plants. It can be tougher. But the point I've tried to make today is even though it's tough, it may be worth it, and it doesn't mean it can't be done well.
Yeah, And it also just means again to have realistic expectations when you put the effort in, and you know, also don't just write it off right away and say, okay, well, you know this is clearly not coming back because it has been set back, so it needs a little extra TLC. And I think that's another super crucial part of moving plants is you're going to need to keep an eye on them, and you're going to need to watch them, make sure that don't get too much or too little water.
You're just going to need to keep an eye and
make sure that they don't get animal damage. They should not experience any further setbacks after they've been moved, so you need to do your best to protect them and make sure that that environment that they have, especially for that first year or two, basically treat them like a brand new planting sure where you're monitoring them closely and just trying to give them the best start at recovery rather than getting established, because now they're getting re established.
And I don't want to just slide over the fact too, that some folks may say, well, Rick, you're giving us permission to move these plants. Easy for you to say, it's hard work. It can be in some of these plants, it's very very hard work. I remember a couple of years ago, I ran the Chicago Marathon and I crossed the finish line and you start to recover and you're hydrating. It's a twenty six point two mile race. You cross
the finish line. And I was thinking to myself, I did this for a metal and a T shirt because that's basically what you.
Get, right, Yeah, we up bragging rights. Well, I mean, but that's something.
The point here is that when you dig up a planet, it's really hard to do in your yard, but you move it to the perfect location. Now you've got something there that you can enjoy for a long time. And they've been moving plants throughout the ages. We're gonna put a link at the website. Our website is Gardening Simplified on air dot com, and we'll put a link there. I thought it was interesting this past fall when I visited the Arnold Arboretum and I was reading about Wardian cases.
So it's named after Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, a London physician with a keen interest in the natural world. The whole point here is that they developed these boxes that are like miniature greenhouses, and that's how they move plants. They
couldn't send them obviously on an airplane. In the seventeen hundreds, right, sixteen hundreds, eighteen hundreds whatever, and so these plants were subjected to wide variations in temperature on a boat, as you know, they traveled to wherever they're going, from China to London. And he basically was successful in building these boxes where they could move a new plant species. Now that said obviously, Stacy. In the process, they also moved some pests and some pathogens, yes, that were not native
to the area where they were moving. But that's all a part of history. So I think it's a fascinating story. And we'll put the link there from Harvard University and the Arnold Arboretum. Okay, Stacy, are you tired of winter and ready for spring? I know the.
Answer, yes, Sam, thank you very much.
So forcing branches ooh great idea. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you a question. So just going out and clipping some dormant branches, putting them in a vase indoors to enjoy the spring blooms. I listed some plants like Forcythia, mock orange quints, maybe even father Gia, witch, hazel, service berry, et cetera, et cetera, and forcing these blooms indoors into color. There's a plant that I absolutely love, a proven winner's color choice shrub and it's called show Off Forcythya. This
plant is amazing folks. And in working at the greenhouse, helping out at the greenhouse, I'm amazed at the popularity of Forcythia. Everybody comes in asking for You would think that this is a run of the mill plant and it's ubiquitous, but everybody asked for it, and then you take the game and you move it to the next level.
Would show off, Yeah, show off is you know.
I remember when I first got the job here, I was like, why do we offer for Scythia? Like Forcythia there are a dime a dozen and my boss Tim would at the time was like, oh, let me show you why. And you know, these are plants that set far more flower buds on the stem and so much so that they look like a column of yellow. So it's not just like a little bit here and there. It becomes a beautiful, dense column. So you just get so much more impact than a conventional variety. And that's
really what we're looking for. But as far as forcing branches go, at Forsythia is a great choice. But I would encourage everybody to just play around. I mean It's such a fun way to try to get through the rest of the season here and do something interesting. It doesn't even have to flower. Just having some plants inside and fresh green growth makes a huge difference. I actually have some right now. And this is kind of funny.
So when we had our company Christmas party just about a week before Christmas, we had deck graded the tables with some red twig dogwood branches, Arctic firebred red twig dogwood. So we were cleaning up afterwards and I just took a handful home to have, you know, on the table during the holidays. But I put them in a nice silver vase and they are flowering now and looking absolutely
gorgeous with foliage coming out. And it's just been such a cool process to watch them going from this very wintery, you know experience to growing and flowering and looking green and wonderful, and just that like little flicker of hope that you get to see fresh green growth in your house from your plants. It makes a huge, huge difference.
Oh, it is fantastic. And Stacy, you're an individual who got me very excited about Illuminati Tower mockhorn.
Oh.
I love those.
Yeah, that plant in my landscape is sensational. And again years ago in the seventies and eighties, I remember mock orange in the in the garden Center and it really wasn't much. It was a rangy plant. Really wasn't all that exciting. Illuminati like the show off. For Cynthia blooms all along the stem. Do you think I'd have success in forcing that? Inside?
I mean, not to be a downer, but no.
Okay, That's why I'm asking, And.
The reason is that when it comes to forcing these branches, basically the earlier in spring they flower, the better your success of getting flowers out of them.
Indoors will be.
And the mock oranges don't really bloom for us here in Michigan usually like the first two weeks of June, so that's pushing it a little bit late. So I would say anything that's going to be blooming more in like the April time frame is going to be your best bet. So for Cynthia is a great choice. Quince
is Yeah, Quin's forces quite well. Our double takes do flower a little bit later than the more conventional single varieties, and also they tend to flower more on their second year wood, so you have thicker stems and not kind of that more you know, swoopy, elegant look that a lot of people look for enforcing branches. But yeah, the earlier at flowers, the more success you're gonna have indoors. I have some winter honeysuckle, which I think I mentioned
a few weeks ago. Lenisra fragrantisima. Not a very popular plant, but it blooms very very early, late winter early spring smells just like fruit loop cereal. And actually, just yesterday and I got home, I said to myself, I need to cut some of those and bring them in and get that amazing fragrance indoors. But it's always worth trying. And the cool thing about the illuminatis again, you're going to get that really cool sort of rugged corrugated foliage
coming out. It's still something to look at. So it's totally worth just experimenting and seeing what comes out. Because you know, shrubs can take a little bit of pruning. It doesn't matter if you take off three, four or five small branches to do this. We're not talking about like major pruning.
Yeah. All right, well, I don't know about you. I'm inspired. I'm ready to move into spring.
Let's do it all right, I mean none that it's our choice, but we can. Will it sooner maybe?
Okay, meteorological spring, which is a tough word to say, but I tackled it all right.
Well, next episode it starts, so we're ready for it. We hope you are too. So thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and thanks so much to all of you for listening. We truly appreciate it and hope you have a wonderful weekend.