How to Move a Rhododendron
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- April
- 25
From our master gardeners:
Q: How and when should I transplant a large 6-foot-by-6-foot rhododendron?
— Tarrytown gardener
A: The best time to transplant a rhododendron in our area is in the early spring. Most of these plants survive moving very well.
With a plant of the size in question one must be very careful that the roots have not become intertwined with the roots of other plants, shrubs or trees. If they have, it would be best to leave the plant be and purchase a new plant.
If that problem does not exist, you should be able to transplant as long as you follow a few precepts. Your main aim is to get as many roots as possible and also as large a rootball as possible. Because the root system is shallow, your worry is not depth but width.
Prepare your planting hole prior to moving the plant because you must plant the newly dug-up plant right away.
Once you have the plant in its new home, give it plenty of water right away and throughout the summer.
— Judie Phillips, New Rochelle, master gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester
This entry was posted
on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 8:22 pm by Bill Cary.
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Bill Cary grew up in Louisville, Ky. His gardening was limited to growing parsley and impatiens on the windowsill of Manhattan walkups until the mid-1990s when he bought a rundown old chicken farm on 8 acres in the Hudson Valley. Now he spends his weekends chasing deer, hacking away at invasive shrubs and vines and wondering why he doesn`t have more meadow and less lawn.
