You lovingly selected every flower, shrub and tree in your yard and tended it for years. Now you’re moving and can’t bear to leave behind your prize rosebush or the seedling planted in honor of Junior’s birth last year.
Do you dare remove certain plants and transplant them? Is it good for the plants? Is it OK with the new owners?
We checked with real estate agents, homeowners associations and landscapers for the dirt on taking it with you successfully.
From the moment a contract is signed to list a home for sale, all landscaping is considered a “permanent attachment” and an “inclusion” of the property, says Carol B. Duncan, a broker associate at The Duncan Team, Keller Williams Realty in Denver.
Duncan suggests that if you want to remove a plant, do it before you put your house on the market and ideally replace it with something of equal value. Or, the item “can be listed as an ‘exclusion,’ both in the contract to list the house and in the contract to purchase the house,” she says.
If a homeowner doesn’t remove the item before listing the house and doesn’t stipulate it as an exclusion in the contract, “you are at the mercy of the new homeowner when you want to remove Grandma’s rosebush,” says Wendy Levy, a real-estate agent with Re/Max of Cherry Creek. “That which is in the ground stays.”
Before you take the shovel out of the shed, also consider what your current or future HOA might have to say about it, if you have one. “Covenants vary on the removal or addition of plants to a landscape,” says Jeffrey W. Arnold, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Community Associations Institute, a professional association representing homeowners associations. “Always check the HOA documents before you make landscaping changes to ensure your plans are in compliance.”
Now that you’ve crossed all of your official T’s and dotted all of your legal I’s, it’s time to make sure your plant, shrub or tree will weather the transfer from old house to new.
First consider the timing. Fall and spring are the ideal seasons to transplant. Summer is fine, too, but heat can be an enemy.
Also consider the amount of time your precious plant will spend out of the ground.
“If you install the plant in a pot and keep it watered, it will last weeks,” says Paul Tighe, owner of Clean Cut Inc., a full-service landscape design and maintenance firm in Park Hill. “If not, you need to replant it immediately. The quicker you get it back in the ground, the quicker it will get re-established.”
Then determine whether you are physically able to move the plant. “Most perennials can be moved quickly and easily, while some shrubs are just too big. Don’t try to move anything taller than 3 or 4 feet,” Tighe says. “Trees are tougher and very heavy. Don’t try to move a tree that has been in the ground for more than a year and has a caliper larger than 2 inches.”
Before removing any plants, consider where they will live in your new landscape, focusing on the light and water needs of the plant. A little research can provide this information or, if the plant is thriving where it is, move it to a similar location at the new house.
Avoid areas where the plant, shrub or tree could be overwatered, such as in the middle of a drainage area, or where a downspout spills.
Once it is time to remove shrubs and perennials, trim them to a manageable size. For shrubs, leave 1 to 2 feet above grade. Leave at least 6 inches of greenery on a perennial, Tigh says.
After pruning, dig around the root ball. “The larger you dig around the root ball, the better chance the shrub or perennial has of survival,” Tighe says. “The rule of thumb with a perennial is 6 to 10 inches in diameter and 8 to 10 inches deep. But with a shrub, start with 1 foot deep plus another 6 inches per each foot of shrub height.”
Tighe suggests gently spading under the shrub to cut any deeper roots. Then, enclose the root ball with plastic wrap to keep it bound tightly. “The tighter you keep the root ball, the better its chance for survival,” he says.
In the new location, dig a hole about 1 1/2 times the size of the root ball. When placing the plant in the new hole, the top of the root ball should be a half- inch higher than the grade of the land. Remove the plastic wrap and pack the dirt around the plant, and give it a good watering.
“Water every two to three days for a couple of weeks, then cut back to what the plant is determined to need,” Tighe says. “The plant will be in shock and take some time to recover, although the younger and smaller the plant, the quicker it will recover. While perennials will recover more quickly, some shrubs might take a year or two.”
It turns out you can take it with you, at least when it comes to plants from one garden to another. With proper timing, knowledge and a strong back, your beloved plants can thrive in your new yard as well as or better than they did in the old.
