You've gone to your local nursery, and bought those shrubs you've always wanted, and best of all, they were on sale! Nurseries like to clear out stock in the fall, so this is a great time to buy. Now the question arises - do you plant them right now, or wait until spring? It seems a bit cold out, and you'd like to just stay inside and read by the fire.
Well, don't wait. If you have a plant in a burlap ball or a container, that plant is going to
be much happier in the ground than on top of the ground. Cold winds can quickly dry out the root ball, and bingo - you've lost it. You can plant right up until the ground freezes solidly, when digging is impossible.
When you plant in the late fall, do not apply any fertilizer, and make sure you don't plant too deeply. The top of the root ball should be about one inch higher than the existing grade in normal loam soils. In heavy clay soil you should plant a lot higher than that and then mound the soil over the root ball. Clay soils are pretty impenetrable when frozen, so let that plant's roots breathe, while still being protected somewhat from the weather by the looser soil.
The rules for fall transplanting are slightly different. Transplanting involves digging an existing plant out of the ground, and that is sure to cause some trauma to the roots. Do not do any fall transplanting until the plant is completely dormant for the winter. This won't happen until after they've experienced the first really hard freeze of the season. Not just a heavy frost but an actual freeze, where the temperature dips below 32 degrees Farenheit for several hours.
Here's my method for preparing a plant for transplanting. Clear any leaves and debris from around the stem. Carefully, and with a sharp spade, mark a line around the plant.
Leave a 'rootball' that is about 12 times the width of the stem. For example, if the stem is one inch in radius near the soil line, then your rootball will be about 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep
As you're trying to create an actual rootball, dig away the soil that's outside that 12 inch radius carefully, and shape the rootball as you do so. When you get close to the desired depth, start inserting the spade under the rootball at an angle. Your spade should be sharp enough to cut the roots cleanly, careful not to break the rootball up.
Once it is free, you should be able to lift it out, or insert a wide spade beneath it to support it and slide it from the hole. At this point you may burlap it to hold the rootball, or simply transport it to its new location and plant it.
Once your plants are dormant, you can safely transplant them from then until early spring (snow and frozen ground permitting!) Once they start to wake up in the spring, transplanting is over until next fall.
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