Moving plants

[Anonymous]

Our front yard plantings are all going to be basically decimated when we put in a porch. Is there any way for me to save my peonies and azaleas? Should I move them to the backyard? They can’t stay there permanently bc it’s total shade.
Also do I just dig up my iris tubers after they bloom and let them stay dormant in a pot until I can replant in fall?
Seems like a lost cause... I hope not. Maybe I should just offer them to neighbors?

[Anonymous]

Azaleas will live if you have a pro do it and water them. Peonies can be more fussy.

[Anonymous]

I would put the iris back in the ground. When they dry out they don’t like it.

[Anonymous]

You can transplant all of the plants. You have to dig out the root ball and just take the plant out. Will work out for 90% of the plants. We did this for a more than 20 year old Japanese Maple when we moved to a new house. Worked out well. We needed landscapers to do this as the plant was super heavy. It is easier with younger and smaller plants. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Azaleas will live if you have a pro do it and water them. Peonies can be more fussy.

I hope they were planted relatively recently. Digging up azaleas was the worst thing I've had to do in my garden. The roots of well-established ones are extremely tough.

[Anonymous]

All these plants are about 15 years old unfortunately. Sounds like it’s worth an attempt to try to replant them.
Thanks so much for all the replies!!

[Anonymous]

Azaleas are so ubiquitous I'd compare the cost of purchasing a new one to the cost of having someone transplant them for you (if they are too big to do yourself). Also, if you are doing it yourself and they are large, it will make the job easier to cut them back fairly far before you transplant -- of course this means they will take longer to get back to the prior shape. But consider removing 2-4 of the tallest branches (depending on how big it is), and prune the sides back by 1/3. Be sure not to remove more than 1/3 of total growth.

I have successfully transplanted peonies and iris. The Iris are no big deal to move at all, just transplant them for the wait. For the peony, be sure to dig up much wider than you expect the root ball to be (at least a foot away from the stems.) Disturb the roots as little as possible. If you can wait until September, that is ideal, though not necessary.

They all may take a year or two to get back to blooming because they will put energy into reestablishing the root system, but the iris and peony may actually appreciate the division and increasing blooms over the next several years. Do not expect the peony to bloom well for about 3 years after transplant though. As long as the stems and leaves are coming back strong, it will be fine and eventually bloom again.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Thanks so much for taking your time to explain all that. Awfully nice of you and appreciated!

[Anonymous]

The peonies and iris will transplant well. Make sure that the peonies are replanted at the exact same depth. They will not bloom if there is too much soil over the roots. You can also take this chance to divide them.