Moving times for plants and people
Can you take your plant babies with you? Or do you cut the jute strings and embrace pastures new? Mei Leng Wong reports.
If you think moving house is complicated, spare a thought for the green thumbs who would be uprooting themselves and (literally) their favourite plants and flowers. Leaving them behind can be unthinkable, especially if there’s a chance the new owners or occupiers wouldn’t know the difference between a marigold and a magnolia.
On the other hand, the buyer may also be counting on showing off that well-tended ‘Red Robin’ photinia hedge.
Erica Kinder, who opened her garden for the Wairarapa Garden Tour last year, has moved many times between the North and South Islands, and each time she has moved favourite plants with her. ‘‘We brought about 20 roses from Nelson. All the paeonies were lifted in chunks and brought over on the ferry, as were rhodos and some big camellias. I’ve got a ‘Sugar Plum’ rose from our house in Gisborne that’s moved six times.’’
Kinder even has experience flying her plants across the country. All you have to do, she says, is make sure to book a check-in suitcase, then take plants out of containers, wrap them in damp newspaper, then in plastic bags.
‘‘This way, you can lay many plants in a suitcase,’’ she explains. ‘‘My record is 20. I have had to shake dirt out of toiletries and shoes, but it’s well worth it.’’
All this is contingent on your plants being a portable size, of course. It’s a simple enough proposition for the potted plants.
‘‘I’ve been carrying one of my houseplants, a type of euphorbia, around with me since 1998,’’ says Aucklander Rachel Clare, editor of gardening ezine Get Growing.
And vegetables and herbs planted in garden beds or in the ground are easily harvested. If they’re not quite ready for the cooking pot, consider leaving it for the new family as a welcome gift. But the situation gets more tricky with larger shrubs and trees. Many large plants are wellestablished where they are. Moving them could cause more harm than good, making them vulnerable to pests and diseases, or expose them to less-than-ideal conditions in their new situation.
Depending on the plant, it may also be costly to relocate, requiring specialist landscaping or
arborist knowledge and moving equipment. And if you have to move at the ‘‘wrong’’ time of year for transplanting, it’s just not worth it.
Most importantly, it could simply be illegal. ‘‘Anything in the ground cannot be taken unless there is an agreement in place,’’ says Barfoot & Thompson real estate agent Sharon Kenny, who is based in northwest Auckland.
In a standard sales and purchase agreement, large garden ornaments, outdoor sculptures, fountains and such could be counted as chattels that go with the property.
‘‘If it’s fixed but you want to take it with you, it’s best to put it in writing,’’ she adds.
This is not as far-fetched as it seems, especially for a passionate gardener like Barbara Smith, who writes for NZ Gardener magazine and lives in a land-starved central city suburb.
‘‘I’d make sure these things were listed as not part of the fixtures or chattels,’’ she says, then proceeds to tick off what she would take if she ever had to move away from her garden.
This includes pots and wall planters, plant supports (climbing Jack frames, tepees, freestanding trellis), garden ornaments, rain gauge, stepping stones, bird bath, hoses, watering system, outdoor furniture, decorative plant labels, outdoor plant shelving, outdoor tool storage, her two worm farms and the compost bin, and ‘‘possibly the tiny garden shed if needed’’.
(But would-be buyer, worry not. Smith pledges not to take her veges or flowering plants, and she would leave the lizard habitat, weta hotel, insect hotel and bird boxes if you intended to keep them in situ.) As with moving house, planning is key. There are several perfectly legal ways to bring beloved botanicals along.
Take cuttings
‘‘I’ve got a ‘Sugar Plum’ rose from our house in Gisborne that’s moved six times.’’ Erica Kinder, left
Many types of plants, including fruit trees, climbers, flowers and perennials, can be propagated from cuttings. Ideally, do this a year before you have to go, so you know for sure they struck.
Rachel Clare tends a rose that she considers to be over a century old, passed down from her great-
great-grandfather Matthew MacDonald who had grown it when he settled in Tokatoka, near Dargaville, in the 1860s. Various family members have been striking cuttings from the plant every time they move into a new garden.
Divide clumps
Flowering bulbs and shrubs tend to be hardy and easy to propagate this way. Daffodils, irises, lilies and daylilies, kniphofias, clivias, alstroemerias and many other plants love this kind of treatment and will thrive in a new spot.
Lift bulbs
It’s common to lift and store bulbs, and if you care enough to want to bring them along to your new garden, you’ll likely know how to do this already.
Collect seeds
This is worth doing if you have rare plants you can’t take with you. But if it’s just your stock standard herbs or flowering annuals, you’re better off buying them from the garden centre once you’ve moved – if only because you’re more likely to forget which box you packed the seeds in.
Start over
Finally, you can just leave it all behind. Cut the jute strings and embrace new pastures by grabbing the chance for change and new planting schemes.