I mentioned earlier that we moved a sizeable number of plants with us to our new home.

I got the idea for doing this from my work with planting trees last winter and spring. There were a few trees that I never got around to planting and another one that I repotted after a deer or some other creature pulled it out of the ground. I noticed that the potted plants, which were stored in a greenhouse during the winter and in a protected shady area in the spring, were much healthier than those which had been planted. This actually surprised me. At the time I was only visiting the property once a week and both sets of plants were receiving equal amounts of watering. I expected the potted plants to require more care in order to survive but they actually seemed to require less. All of the 8 bur oaks that I planted were dead by the end of June. Of the 5 polymorpha oaks I planted, one died and one is currently on “life support” and three are healthy. I have two bur oaks and three polymorphas still in pots and all are healthier than any of the planted trees.

Although I knew these facts by the first of July I still doubted that we could dig the garden plants and pot them during the summer and expect to have a reasonal survival rate. However, my wife was particularly partial to her roses and I promised to do my best to move them. The last week of June I clipped the roses as much as I could, leaving only a few leaves on each. Most of these were big bushy roses standing four to five feet tall. I dug as much root as I could and removed most of the native soil by spraying with a garden hose. I potted them in five-gallon containers with a potting soil from the local garden center.

I then decided to take some of the other plants, using the same method. In all I dug 10 roses and about 50 other plants. Many were smaller plants but there were some six-foot yaupon hollies. I also harvested about 100 iris bulbs and some other bulbs. Time was the biggest limit on the work. We had to move out by August and we only had evenings and weekends to work in the garden. Not to mention pack the rest of the household.

The plants were kept outside in the shade of a pecan tree until time for moving, then were set on the floor of a moving truck for a two-hour journey in 100-plus temperatures the last week of July. Remarkably they did not seem fazed by the trip. Immediately on arrival they were placed in a protected shady spot and watered. They were kept in the same location throughout August and were watered two or three times a week. There was no rain during August and most days the temperatures were over 100 degrees. A couple of the roses actually began blooming. After the heavy rains cooled things off over labor day some of the plants looked a little soggy so I moved those out to a sunnier spot.

Of the ten roses two did not survive and seven are extremely healthy. The tenth one was struggling for awhile but has just sprouted some new growth. The only plants which did not seem to do well are the coralberries. I don’t have any explanation for that. It seems to me though that the “woodier” plants seemed to fare better in general than the ones that die all the way back to the ground in the winter.

I wish now that I had taken more plants. Being pessimistic about the whole undertaking at the time, i did not take everything I could have and was somewhat cavalier in making my choices.

Yesterday I planted the first of the plants - two yaupon hollies. I was really pleased to see how healthy the roots looked when I took them out of the pots. They had lots of little white roots all the way out to the edges of the pots. I am not sure when I will be planting the rest of them. They are doing so well it almost seems wrong to plant them.