I took mine when I moved. I made it clear in the listing that I would be taking them. When I dug them up, I replaced them with common hosta, spread out, with other perennials to make it look pleasing. Alot of people move their gardens. It's hard to leave them behind, and you never know if the new people even like hostas or will pull them out or WORSE...Round up!
Good luck!

It probably varies from state to state but i was under the impression that once a potential buyer visits your place what is in the ground stays with the house.You might be able to stipulate that you are taking the plants but keep in mind the buyer will be thinking that he will be left with a torn up garden.When my dad moved he took his best hostas and replaced with cheap hostas(Lancifolia).A suggestion would be to start with your favorite and harder to replace hostas,divide in half,leaving half for the new owner and pot your other half.Keep in mind that majority of people do not have a clue or care about the huge selection of plants out there.Take your best plants and replace with something basic from a box store.Phil

How much room does you Mother have for your plants? If there's room, I'd transplant them (maybe leave a piece at the house you're trying to sell).

We're waiting to find out where we're moving (we're a military family), but I'm pretty sure we'll be leaving the hosta behind...there's too many other details to worry about! Sniff...sniff!

JJJ

When you sign a listing agreement and disclosure statement (if your state has one), you can advise potential buyers that your plants are going with you. As long as it is clear from the start, you should be able to take anything you want. Buyers will want to know what condition the garden will be left in, so replacing favorites with common varieties is a great idea. If you're emptying out a whole garden, you can also just lay new sod.

I know someone who just sold his house....not closed yet...but the agreement was he takes half of every hosta and the produce from the veggie garden and will leave it clean, plowed and ready to plant.....and the new owners get to pick tomatoes and beans etc!
Yes it's done.
Linda c

i moved 1500 pots ... I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN ...

they were all dug.. before the eventual buyer came along ...

i say start digging.. get them over to moms.. and worry about them next year ... she can unpot and mail them to you when the time comes ...

and then re-establish moms lawn ...

I WOULD NOT WAIT UNTIL THE HOUSE IS SOLD.. UNLESS YOU GET PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE BUYER ...

KEN

I have been helping my best friend over the last 4 years while she has been preparing to move. I made a shade garden with her hostas in mind and gradually we have been moving her favorites here for whenever they were ready to move. They put their house on the market just the other day and as soon as she is ready we will start moving them again to her new home.

I have a very large property so it was no big deal to help her out with this. I do have one problem that occurred through this little venture though. I accidentally became a hosta-holic. I didn't realize that her addiction would become mine. I have added dozens upon dozen to the collection now and there are over 85 gorgeous specimens. Sigh...

Anyway, I would definitely make it a condition of the sale to the new owner of your house that you will be digging and dividing your plants, any disruption to the gardens will be addressed and re-landscaped at your expense. I think most new owners would be happy to allow you to continue with your gardens at your new house. If you need a holding bed, you could always send them to me, I will have plenty of room soon. (grin)

Okay so I'm not the only one...

The taking of the plantings has been clearly stated in the listing agreement and the agent is well aware of it. Matter of fact those were the first words from my mouth when she commented on the yard..

I wasn't planning on replacing anything I was taking but just leaving nice clean looking mulched beds. Ready for the new owners to populate. I figured most people don't even like to be bothered with gardening.

I'm not taking totally everything. I'm leaving the shrubs, ardovidae and spruces. (If I could talk DH into it I would dig up our spruces!)Pretty much just the Hostas, cone flowers, giant catmints and lilacs.

I definitely plan on moving more to my Mothers. She only lives a few towns over so its no big deal.

Yep. we moved all our hosta.
We also put it in writting that we would be taking our rocks.
Those we put in storage with our house hold goodes,the hosta,we potted up and brought to a friends house.
Start digging girl,you have a lot of work to do.
Good luck,and keep us posted as to how things are going.
Carol

We put our house up for sale in January of 2008. That previous fall, I dug up all of my hostas and moved them to my sister-in-law's house (over 60 plants) and replaced them with generic hostas. The house didn't sell quickly and then the recession hit and we decided against moving soooo..... I had to build a couple of new hosta beds and I just spent this past weekend moving ALL of those hostas back to my house. Of course my sister-in-law insisted that I leave her starts of most of them since she babysat them for me for over a year. It was a ton of work, but I'm glad to have all of my babies home again :o)

Wow! That is how I started my Hosta! Just after we bought my house, My Uncle bought his house & his whole yard was Hosta!
My Aunt knew I was looking for plants for my yard & told me to take them all or the were going to burn them! If I ever move. I will take some of each. Just to know they were not ruined totally.

I moved over 200 plants. I started digging and getting them ready as soon as we knew we were moving. It gave me a chance to get the beds back in order before we sold the house. It was a pain, but it takes a lot of time and money to establish a collection and waiting for them to grow is hard to go thru a 2nd time. Good luck what ever you decide. tim

We are days away from putting my house on the market and I've been very clear that my large more common hosta will be divided and most of the others will be coming with me or I will gladly leave a piece if the new owners want them. My listing agent and the lady I had come remove wallpaper both fell in LOVE with my yard and said it's going to be a huge selling point. KEEPING MY FINGERS
CROSSED! I also have about 75 perenials and will take some of those as well and should have a good start on new beds where we end up.
Good luck to you,
Sunny

My new neighbor, who has an extremely desperate non landscaped yard, left her old yard for the new owners to enjoy. They destroyed it all! She could have brought it all with her! Why do people destroy? Why not dig it out and put it on the curb for free? I even bring plants home from the dump to use and share! I would start finding some inexpensive replacements for your best plants, to lower expectations of any buyer. Especially another hostaholic!

I am taking them ALL. We've been trying to figure out where to move and I'm so scared it'll be somewhere where they don't do well (like Colorado!) but they are coming with me anyway. There are 300 and if the potential 'buyer' wants them, they only get part - I'm taking MOST of every one or else writing in the contract that they get none - if they don't particularly care. I have 300 at least and I figure if Ken can move 1,500 I can move mine. Besides, I have a commercial landscaper son who can dig!!!!

Westy

You need to remember your goal is to SELL your house. If you really want your plants to not become an issue when negotiating with a buyer you need to get digging now. What they don't see they won't demand. This is a buyers market and you do not want a buyer wondering what the yard will look like after you pillage it. You do not want to be digging in "their" yard after the sale. If your Realtor hasn't advised you in this, you need a new Realtor. Divide and go should be your motto. I don't see spending a dime on replacing what you take with common hosta. Take half of everything and you are still leaving your buyers with what they bought. Do it NOW so everyone wins. You get your plants and they get what they buy,see in front of them. Moving smaller specimens is a win for everyone. The chances are rare they will garden at all, and even if they do they will start replacing what you left behind with their favorite plants. Your neighbors hopefully will be the recipients as the new buyers dig and chuck. The outside is no different than the inside, each new buyer will make it their own, over time. Our buyers loved, loved my plants. With in a year they wanted NOTHING but a yard to mow. Luckily I stayed in touch with my old neighbors and was able to come and rescue some of what I left behind. Here I watch as the homes sell, many nicely landscaped and within two years the yard/gardens look totally different. Everyone has their own favorite plants. But no one will buy a chewed up mess. They will get possessive feeling no matter what their plans. The safest plan is to never let a potential buyer see what you aren't willing to sell with the house!

I agree with arcy totally. Everything in a contract is negotiable, one way or another. Even if you stipulate the hostas are not included, they can stipulate that the hostas stay as part of their offer, or ask for a big landscaping allowance. In this market, would you pass up a sale? Pot them up - they can live in pots just fine, and you can keep them at a friend or relative's house.

I fervently second Arcy's statement--get them out before the house goes on the market. Even if people don't know a hosta from a hot tamale--or any other plant, your stipulation that you are taking them is a negative in the buyer's mind. They will feel robbed, no matter how irrational.

Either replace with cheap hostas or divide. I moved cross country and a friend and I divided every plant in my perennial garden. You would not even know they had been divided. We left half of each plant in place; she planted the other half at her new house. We were to divide again when I moved back, which we never did. Had to start from scratch in New England. The best laid plans....

Huh, I never thought of the lack of them detracting from the sell.

Whats a real shame is I spent last Sunday making a new bed, figured I would have a little time to enjoy them plus let them get some good nutrients and mature before returning them to pots. The thought of digging them up and potting them is killing me, they look so nice this year. No way I'm dividing. I have a small yard and most of my plants are small to medium specimens. What I might do is divide up the 4 or 5 big Fracee's & fortun's I have to occupy the empty spaces.

I would like to take my boarder rocks too but thats getting a little carried away

Take your rocks,move them before you list the house,no one will know what used to be there.
Just make sure you fill in any holes with a good soil,You know,'Do onto others '.
We took our big boulders,many had sentential mental meaning,and i was not going to leave them for another to get rid of.They were moved form two houses to this one,and i am still so happy we did it.
Good luck.
cAROL

If someone sees and decides to buy your house based on the hostas being there, I think you HAVE to leave then unless you stipulate otherwise.

When we moved almost 3 years ago, I had only a few hostas and I took a piece from each. I was more concerned at the time with the many, many daffodil bulbs I had spent a fortune on! They were all exotic ones and I dug about half of each kind.

I've seen what they have done with the garden, and I wish I had taken everything! The second year there, they pulled up 8 beautiful, full, 20 year old azaleas! And that was just the start. ~sigh~

This thread could not have come at a better time for me.
We are planning on putting our home up on a contract for deed in a week or 2 as we are going RVing fulltime. We have already sold most of our personal property and are cleaning and sprucing up the house.
We have about 500 varieties out here and was planning on digging and have someone babysit the memory plants.
Might just have to see about digging a few and splitting others.Heck, I have tons of ferns in the woods to replace everything with!!
Time will dictate.

When I said a neighbor called....what I asked her to snag for me was MY ROCKS! I went from sun to shade so the peony and other sun loving plants I had to let go, but my rocks, they too contained memories and work to get them to that suburban location. I used them to create a raised bed in that yard. No way could I have just taken them, then. When I got the call and heard he was going to take out my raised bed and put in grass you bet I claimed my rocks! She had a truck and brought me most of them. When my husband saw them he knew I meant business when I said I needed rocks for my boarders!

you guys are missing a big part of the equation ....

if you can buy a hosta for $5 ... is it worth spending 2 bucks on potting soil ... and $3 in labor to SAVE IT ???

the first thing you do.. is gather up a relative value of each .. and take the valuable stuff ...

i would NEVER dig and take undulatas .... as noted.. you will find them on the curb ....

so ... if you can replace 20 of your hosta for $100 .... mail order ... the more common stuff ... budget the hundred.. and skip bothering with those plants ... ITS JUST NOT WORTH IT ...

i know you will strive to take them all .. lol ... but just try to keep some perspective about it all

ken

ps: i mean really .. dig it.. hoik it across the yard.. pot it.. hoik the pot somewhere else.. gas cost.. mileage... time spent ... you can easily turn a $5 hosta into a $15 hosta ...

Here is a link that might be useful: 4th definition down

Oh wow are you bringing up recent memories!! If you search this forum you'll find the post about me freaking out over my husband being transferred and our mid-winter move 500 miles away!! I had ten years invested in my gardens and the idea of leaving my babies behind -no way!! It ended up that about one third to half the plants survived the move. Thanks to a twist of fate I was able to get one more quick digging opportunity last summer to rescue a few more from ... Roundup.

Everybody thought I was crazy too and I cared less. My favorites from my rock collection came too. And when I landed here not knowing a soul without my friends and family it was a HUGE comfort to see my green friends putting up their brave little shoots that spring!!

One thing I would do over if I could. While I did have lots of photos of my gardens, I would make a journal of every plant in each garden. That way it is far easier to replace the ones who don't survive, get misplaced, etc.

This is the third summer here and I am once again happily surrounded by quite a few Hosta. I'm still moving them to permanent locations. It's a good thing:)y

Ken adrian- Oh I hear you. A comparison a friend made was that I plan on taking the Hostas but have no problem leaving the appliances and the appliances cost more to replace! So its purely sentimental and maturity/growth related intention. I'm also a very hard working/fit 30 year old that likes nothing more then a challenge of digging them all up, replacing and packing a house and moving. The work aspect is of no concern to me.

We haven't listed the house yet so I'm not going to start until we list it. I might take a few rocks...

You are right Ken,but i don't think any one here is talking about a $5.00 hosta.
And rocks are very costly,if you already have them,and can move them ,why not do so.Some rocks have the perfect shape,or color,you may never find another one like it.
Even if it is a $5.00 hosta,if it came from a dear friend garden, i would move it also.
Some things in life are worth more than money.imho
cAROL

I dug up 50 hosta when I moved 3 years ago, and do not regret it one bit. They are my babies! I did leave some common ones and some I didn't like. My ex kept the house, but taking my hostas was understood. I am moving again, and my house will be torn down, so almost all of them are now in pots.

I am glad people posted about rocks. The previous owner put a rock swale for drainage in the back yard, with really nice smooth river rock - each one about the size of my hand. I was looking at them, considering whether I should take them or not.... they will be lost to the earth when the house comes down. I just can't imagine doing all the work though! It would involve putting them all in a truck and moving them and unloading them in the same day, most likely on the hottest day of the year....

I am one of those people who had it in the listing that the 50 or so hosta i had at my old home were coming with me. When we got the offer on the house in it was a request for 5000 credit for landscaping to repair the damge i would do to the gardens when i dug the hosta out. Well maybe it is a guy thing but as i thought about it i realized that I could buy a whole lot of hosta for 5 grand and so we left them. 2 years later we drove, by and to our pleasure there were new hosta and some relocated ones .

Unfortunately many are now gone as a result of an ice storm the decimated the trees and turned a shade garden into a full sun garden.

When we got the offer on the house in it was a request for 5000 credit for landscaping

Exactly why I posted what I did above. If your hosta are important to you, because of size or sentimentality, get them out of there before you list.

It absolutely is an emotionally charged decision. The memory behind an item is what gives it its GREATEST value IMHO. That is why a division that will grow would be enough for me, but also the $$$ investment even if it is only $5.00 is $5.00 I don't have to re-spend and my time is plentiful,the money not so much. The dang rocks cost me a small fortune, a days hauling, and the memories of using my four year old's head as the size we were looking for while my 2 yr. old just potty training, took a leak on the rock pile, are too precious to let anyone "toss them out".

As ever, Ken, the voice of sanity.

When the time comes, I'd surely take my rarest or my favorites, but no way would I try to take them all.

And though we pretty much all turn up our noses at plain old undulata, the undulata border on the front of my house is beautiful and a big part of my curb appeal. I'd definitely leave it.

Two years before I moved, I started digging up my hostas and planted them at my son's house, who was going to be 11 houses down the street. I left plenty of plants and hostas I wasn't all that thrilled with. We listed the house in July and didn't sell until the following February! I just knew this would happen; if I had left them there to dig up when we sold, it would have been impossible! Absolutely dig them up before you list the house and you'll save yourself a lot of headaches!

My only regret is that I didn't take them ALL as the new owners don't appreciate them AT ALL. Weeds and junk all over.

Char

P.S. I took a bunch of rocks too!