I suppose it's possible, given the right equipment; I had four large Osmantus fragrans moved during our wall project. Contractor used a backhoe and scooped em up. They never even knew they'd been moved.

HOWEVER...given photinia's reputation for blight, I wouldn't want to put too much time, effort, or money into moving mature photinias.

As a friend of mine says, there are two kinds of photinia, those that HAVE blighht, and those that WILL have blight. Photinia are succeptible to both a leaf-spot disease AND fireblight. The Garden Center where I work hasn't carried them in years...for that very reason. Perhaps blight isn't an issue on the west coast! If it isn't--go for it. Just dig some really good sized holes. And if you know someone with a backhoe...it really does make moving big bushes easy-peasy!
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I agree with Melanie - you don't want to waste any time attempting to move an established photinia hedge. First, without a backhoe it is a massive undertaking best accomplished by severe pruning of the plants before starting, so what's the point? And photinias are extremely prone to blight (actually fungal leaf spot) in the PNW, to the extent that many garden centers no longer sell them. Select a different, less disease-prone plant for a new hedge - Pacific wax myrtle, Myrica californica, is a good choice.

ps. where in WA state are you that is a zone 9b???

With regard to zones, denial springs eternal! One is always going to hear negative comments about Photinia fraseri, the shrub more experienced designers love to hate. I'll admit that it is not a favorite of mine either, irrespective of the fungal problems which are not so rampant here in northern California.

If you still want to push ahead, it would probably be easier if you pruned them back hard first, and then did get as much of a root ball as possible. They are pretty tough plants, even if they are way too common these days, and also usually too fast and large growing for where they are placed.

As an aside, do the species Photinias such as P. serrulata also get so easily diseased back east and up north? A much more refined hedge in my opinion, maybe simply due to being so much less planted.

Photinia serratifolia (syn. P. serrulata) has bigger leaves and is more arborescent, so if you use that instead of its hybrid you get an even taller hedge with a coarser texture. For refinement I would use the other parent in the cross, P. glabra as that has a smaller leaf and a shorter stature than the hybrid (P. x fraseri).

Although there are still large old specimens of P. serratifolia around, I have seen leaf spot on all three kinds.

I'd like to build on the comment that cutting transplants back is done to make them easier to handle. It does not benefit the plant. After being re-planted nutrients made by foliage and stored in stems is by recent transplants to grow new roots, when tops are pruned back there is less energy available for root growth.

Ron,
Thanks for the feedback on the other species' disease tolerance. I know that the literature always advises *not* pruning back plants to be moved, and understand the fact that the foliage is necessary for photosynthesis. But I can't quite believe that if one is getting a reduced amount of roots, and therefore the plant will not be able to supply adequate water to all top growth, it is not better to try and bring them into balance when moving large shrubs or trees. I've also heard where this should only be done after the plant is moved, and the plant itself indicates physically which parts of the plant have lost their direct connections to roots.

I guess I will choose to believe that light pruning of soft new growth is advantageous to reduce transplant shock, as new growth is most likely to show immediate stress from loss of roots, and inability to balance water loss with uptake.

I know the better way would be to root prune the plant first several months in advance, and then move it after it has been trenched to sever roots, fed and fertilized to encourage new denser rooting at base of plant, and then undercut and move, at a season that is best to do so for that variety of plant when it is best able to quickly generate new roots, and temperature and humidity is least stressful to the plant. But short of all that, I am not convinced that light pruning to reduce size of a shrub such as Photinia x fraseri, is going to increase the odds of failure.

In the past getting all the variables involved with root pruning before transplanting to fall in the right slots hasn't seemed too likely. For more on this kind of stuff, with background information supporting the arguments...

Here is a link that might be useful: Establishment and Maintenance of Landscape Plants II

The heart of the question really seems to be more about the mechanical than the philosophical. The "can you" portion of the question was better answered by Melanie's photos of a backhoe. Do you have access to the heavy equipment necessary or not?

Even if one could have someone move these, it would probably cost more than it would ever save. I suspect that any individual attempting to move these with a spade would soon discover they were not up to the task... a plant, maybe... a hedge, get real!

IronBelly

Please don't think I hired a backhoe to move four Osmanthus fragrans. Backhoe was on site to do some much needed grading...bushes were in the way...Camp (bh operator) just asked me "where do you want them?" They never even knew they'd been moved.

Nope... My impression was exactly as you stated. In the first place, if you had called in the backhoe just for this, you would have quickly discovered the cost would have been far too high. However, if the guy is already there, it is a no-brainer.

I had a backhoe operator do exactly the same thing for some friends of mine that I was helping out. They wanted to divide and move a big, mature clump of a large Miscanthus grass. While the equipment was already onsite for another project, I had the guy dig about 2 minutes for a job that probably would have taken us well over 2 hours. However, to call in the guy just for that job alone would have been cost prohibitive.

IronBelly
(Melanie... with your continual, astute input to this forum; nobody would believe that you were that dumb.) ;-)