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Originally posted by jimmy123x:

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Originally posted by HRK:

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Originally posted by arcwelder76:

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Originally posted by jimmy123x:

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Originally posted by arcwelder76:

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Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Probably not an issue to move them. Try grabbing them close to the roots and give a steady, even pull and see if they'll come out of the ground with the entire root ball. You should also be able to trim them with a hedge trimmer, if you want to leave them there.

Hey uh, Jimmy?

Why would you tell someone to do this?

I don't know.

Hey guys.

If you don't have actual experience with something, and are just guessing or googling, just skip it. We can all appreciate the urge to help out, but when you don't know, you don't know what you don't know. This has the potential of doing harm, or at least confusing a solution.

In Jimmys defence, FL is a sandy soil state, I'm able to pull some plants out by hand, theres no resistance and the full ball and root system will come out.

Generally with our sandy soil you get the full root with the ball vs cutting off root ends. Not all shrubs can be done this way, old shrubs like the 24 year old viburnums we have will take a bit more work, but if it's small enough similar in size to the green balls in question, you can probably grab it by the base and pull slowly and it will pop right out.

If you don't live here or in any loose sandy soil environment then you don't have experience with it, just sayin....

This. Soil is sandy, loose, and usually always wet here in FL. And, judging by the OP's picture his soil is very wet also. We don't have clay soil and we don't have rocks in our soil, we have sandy muck. So small hedge bushes and things of that nature, like the OP has, do come out of the ground easily here if they're less than a year old. Even older. 40-50 knot winds pushed my 10' high frangipan tree over onto the ground in Irma when we had rain for 3 stray days and it had been there for 10 years, complete root ball and all. I pulled it back up, put it back into the same hole, put a mound of dirt over the top of the root system, tied ropes a few feet up the base on 3 sides for 6 months and it's been fine for 2 years.


Like I said, the OP is in FL. I've watched numerous landscapers easily pull up a hedge bush that has been planted within 6 months or so, they grab it by the base and pull easily and the entire rootball, dirt and everything come up. I've done it myself. If it doesn't come out with a slight steady one handed pull, they get out the shovel. These are landscape companies, that only deal in decorative landscaping, they don't cut grass or any of the other stuff. BUT, all of our hedge plants come in pots too.

There's something to be said for knowing the soil of the location or state you're talking about also. This isn't Michigan with hard, clay soil.

Landscapers here do the same stuff another member is talking about. They plant the landscaping so it looks full, the day they're done planting it......then sure enough, 6 months later, people are pulling some out and moving it because everything is growing on top of each other. The worst is they put 15' tall palm trees 6-8' apart...….yet when they get 25-45' tall it's a huge problem.

As V-tail already pointed out, and unless Black92LX recently moved, his home and plants are located in Kentucky, not Florida.

Secondly, just because you observed a supposed "professional" landscaper using a method doesn't necessarily make it an accepted Industry practice. What was the context of their actions when you observed them pulling shrubs up by the branches with roots hanging down? Did the plants have diesase or insect damage that was determined they couldn't recover from or possibly spread the problem to surrounding healthy plants? Did the owner of the plants decide that they didn't like or want the plants and they were going to be trashed anyways? If the shrubs were to be transplanted why were they placed in the wrong location to begin with...and, if they were transplanted did they survive....1, 2, 3 years later, were they dead, were they alive but struggling...did you even go back to check and would you even know what signs to look for in determining the health of the transplanted shrubs?

Without knowing the context of what these supposed professional lanscapers were doing we shouldn't judge their actions...it's possible they made the right call based on circumstances you weren't aware of...and it's also possible that they were ignorant of best industry practices...or worse yet, just didn't care and got lazy instead of doing the job right.

Shrubs have a value. The shrubs pictured in the OP. They were planted 4 years ago, and assuming they were bought when they were younger (cheaper) they were probably 1-3 years old, which means the Arborvitae in question were planted, watered, fertilized, either containerized or B&B'd, possibly pruned, insured, and handled over that time. With that amount of materials, labor, and cost involved, do you believe for one moment that the Nursery that initially grew those plants would just yank them up by their branches and toss them around. If a plant's roots are disturbed and contain less soil than they need that decreases their chances for survival.

I was once a Certified Nurseryman, and I can tell you that, while there may be some in the business who are ignorant of proper transplant methods or who are lazy and don't give a damn, you are going to be hard-pressed to find a self-respectng Certified Nurseryman or successful nusery owner who would support the method you are advising or who would allow it in their operations.

There is a method of transplanting "bare root" stock, but this is only used on young plants, and while bare root plant stock is easier to plant/ transplant, (and also less expensive) it also offers less chance for established young plants to survive the transplant process. This is why many growers either offer reduced warranties or no warranty at all on bare root material.

Is it possible that an established plant yanked out of the ground and transplanted will survive...yes. But is it advisable, is it an industry accepted practice...NO!

A truly reputable professional nursey, garden center, or landscaper wants their customers to be happy with the products they buy and the services they provide...and come warranty time a dead plant comes out of our bottom line.

As the articles are longer and have pictures and tables I'll just post excerpts:

Penn State Cooperative Extension- Transplanting trees in the landscape

Carefully move the plant using a cart, a rented ball cart, burlap, or cardboard. The goal is to keep the root ball intact. If the soil ball breaks, it will break the roots inside and may lead to the death of the plant.

Clemson State Cooperative Extension- Transplanting established trees and shrubs in the landscape

Balls of soil are heavy and can be difficult to move. A ball of soil 15 inches in diameter and 15 inches deep may weigh 200 pounds or more. Lift a plant with a small ball of soil out of the hole by placing a piece of burlap under the ball and lifting by the four corners of the burlap. Consider hiring a professional arborist or landscape manager to move balls of soil weighing several hundred pounds. They are familiar with the procedures of moving such large balls.

Jimmy, do you notice there is no recommendation of your proposed method?

...look, you wanna yank established plant material out of your yard by the branches and just dangle it in space as you saunter to its new hole and just plop it in the hole and kick some sand over it...knock yourself out...your home, your plants, you can do what you please...but in all of God's Great Greenery the method doesn't offer a shrub ($ ... not to mention some folks treasure some of their shrubs and trees) the best chance of survival.

Here on the forum we are a community, in some cases perhaps even friends and family...why would you give a community member such monumentally bad advice?

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Originally posted by 83v45magna:

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Originally posted by DukeMinski:
Eight posts ! ! !
It took us EIGHT posts to get to
" The Knights Who Say 'Ni' " ? ? ?

That's the first thing I thought of.

Me too.

Same here!

Back on topic please fellas.

While I live in Kentucky and that is where the shrubs happen to be I have posted about our place in Florida as well in other posts.
Though Sarasota is a bit south of the panhandle.
That is neither here nor there.

Transplantation is doable. Just a ton of work.

I want to say these guys cost us $50 a shrub and were about half the size 4 years ago when planted.

So I am looking at maybe a $200 and a couple year gamble to transplant them.

Both beds used to have these huge ugly boxwoods that covered the front of the house and about half way up the windows when we bought the house. I hooked a chain to those turds and ripped them out with the truck.
Transplanted them in the back along the fence 5 out of 6 lived. But I also did not care if they lived or not.

So my wife moved them.
They were just way too large for that space and needed to go. My wife made sure to dig way out around them and well underneath.
It did not appear that she really cut any roots. They were quite heavy with the root balls. They are in a much better space now.
Hopefully they will live.