It was drizzly and relatively warm yesterday, perfect weather for transplanting. I do a lot of moving plants around in my garden to better create the effects I want — I have friends who are hesitant to do that, and it’s true that the plant suffers a little for the move, but if you’re assiduous about keeping them well-watered for a few weeks, most perennials will handle beng moved just fine.
In this case, I dug up and moved a Jack Frost brunnera — I’d originally bought three of them, several years ago, and planted them in one area. Over time, they’d sent off babies, some of which I dug up and gave away to friends, but by this year, I had more big ones in this area than I wanted — and it seemed like it’d look nice to balance the garden with some of them over on the right side as well. So I dug up two that were a bit crowded, and moved them over, and though they’re looking a little wilty today, they should come back fine.
Similarly, I love these Thalia daffodils — I bought about 30 several years ago, and planted them in small clumps of 5 each along the beginnings of my two main garden paths. Well, Thalia is very happy in our zone, and they’ve multipled some every year, so that now I have well over a 100 of them. So every few years, I dig up some of the bigger clumps, divide them, replant some in the original hole, and then extend the clumps up the path a little further.
I think this year, I’ve actually fully finished edging the two long paths with clumps of daffodils, and have started doing the same with the short paths in the parkway. By next year, I think I probably will have finally achieved the full effect I was hoping for — which means after that, as they get more crowded, I’ll probably just start digging them up and giving the extras away. Check back in 2024.