Best way to move mature creeping phlox plants

10 years ago

When I moved here 8 years ago, my flowerbeds were already established(design wise)but the bed that runs along side of the garage is 5 ft. wide, meaning it is 5 ft. from side of garage to where the scallop brick pavers from the 1977-1980's era are located but the bed is the length of the garage, like 21 ft.

Over the last 3 years, I have filled these beds with a lot of perennials, most I grew from seeds via wintersowing. I have had some generous gardening friends give me daylilies and some Iris at plant swaps..This bed is too wide for me to manage any longer; even the people that do my Spring and Fall maintainence are having trouble putting down fresh mulch and they end up stepping on some plants as there is no place where there isn't a perennial.

My goal is to reduce that bed from 5 ft. wide to 3 ft. wide(or less) in the Fall. What is the best way to go about it? I probably will end up having a landscaping co. come in and do it but I've been saving all my large pots so that when I dig up a plant, the pot can be a holding place till the new bed can be completed. I could always dig up the entire plant and put it in a trash bag and let that be placed around the root ball, not the entire plant(foliage) if I do it myself. Does this makes sense? The hardest part is going to be digging the scallop brick pavers up from their existance now, as they have sunken over the years. I'm probably going to use a crow bar or flat shovel/spade.

My creeping phlox has been so beautiful the last two years but had grown over the pavers and onto the sidewalk. I took the electric hedge clippers and turned them up on edge to cut through the thick mass about a month ago, as I was afraid somebody would trip over them and get hurt. I cut them back even with the paver's edge. How do I move them so they will lived in their newly planted space?

Are oriental poppies a bulb? I thought I grew them by seed the first year I tried wintersowing 3 years ago. The reason I ask is that a gardening friend asked me for some seeds. I cut off the seed pods when they finished blooming and laid them out in the sun to dry up quicker and we got the bad storm/tornado went through 2 weeks ago and that was the last I saw of them. I found a dried seed pod under some daylilies when I was cleaning up the beds today. I am hoping that I will find more seed pods that I can send her.

I think I have everything marked with metal markers. Right now is probably not the best time to move any plant. The oriental Poppies were breaktakingly beautiful this Spring. The start out when they open a bright red but when they open, turn like a deep orange/red. Many of my neighbors wanted to know what they were. One neighbor who doesn't know much about flowers said she'd never seen a tulip that tall or the foiiage so big. LOL!

Comments (2)

gardenweed_z6a
10 years ago
pippi21 - what is the compass orientation of the affected bed & its sun exposure/shade cover? A number of perennials can survive the seasons in a container but there are others (i.e, lavender) that suffer from too much winter moisture such as snow and/or rain. I was a bit surprised but happy when WS Heuchera/coral bells, delphinium, Astilbe, Agastache, Alchemilla mollis/Lady's Mantle, Platycodon/balloon flower, Siberian iris & Spirea all came through the winter in gallon pots/larger containers on my breezeway.

Phlox sublata/Creeping phlox is a spring-blooming perennial and as long as it gets moved in the fall when it isn't blooming or too stressed due to dry conditions, should transplant in good shape. That's only my own general understanding of perennials speaking--not the voice of experience since I don't particularly like creeping phlox. My spring preference is P. divaricata/woodland phlox which is just as lovely but blooms for a much longer period than P. sublata.

Again, it's only my own observation & what I read in my perennial guide but Papaver orientale/oriental poppies grow from seeds, not bulbs, and spread via rhizomes/traveling roots in much the same way as Missouri evening primrose (whose botanical name escapes me at the moment). It's my understanding they're best moved when very young plants as they don't like to be disturbed.

You may or may not already know this but laying down a layer (or two) of corrugated cardboard under your mulch will be a huge help in discouraging weeds. I've found the cardboard is free & readily available at my local grocery store, package store or else the recycle bin at the town landfill. A judicious application of ordinary vinegar at the edges early in the season tends to discourage most weeds.
aseedisapromise
10 years ago
I highly recommend bike shop as a place to get large sheets of cardboard. Those bike boxes really come in handy.

I moved an oriental poppy, and it did just fine in the new spot, but it also grew back from the very deep roots where it was before. So it might be hard to get rid of if you are set on moving the spot it is in. They do have a sort of dormant period here in the midst of summer when it is good and hot, which might be a good time to try. I don't know about all this putting into a pot and so on, if that will work for it or not. I think the more fussing you do during the plant's active growing time, the less success you will have. I have moved a small creeping phlox to a large pot, and then later to a place in the garden which worked well, but I did this in the early spring. I think that what is the best for plants is not always what is easiest for us and fits into our time schedule. So if you are set on doing this now, you just have to try it and see what happens, and if it doesn't work, then be ready to replace the things that don't make it.
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