You can transplant this shrub right about now while it is still dormant. You will need a large planter or plastic tub with handles (for tub) about two and half to 3 feet in diameter and depth. A planter should have holes at the bottom a plastic tub you will need to drill some. Some muscle or a wheel barrow to transport the plant.

Place the planter/tub where you want it fill the bottom of the tub with an inch of gravel. Add an inch of peat hummus on top of the gravel. Now you are ready to transplant your shrub.

The roots on a hydrangea are a fibrous ball easy to dig up. For a 3 foot wide shrub you should try to get about two feet of root ball width and depth. Use a fulcrum to lift the shrub up from the bottom of the root ball out of the hole. Try not to handle the shrub by the base of the canes.

Transport the shrub to its new location; fill in excess space in the planter/tub with peat hummus. Top the planter with a thin layer of mulch about an inch.Fertilze with osmocote as directions suggest. Water well never water the leaves always water the soil. Cut the shrubs canes by half this will ensure there are not more leaves than the root ball can support.

When it is time to put the shrub back simply use the contents of the planter. Place the shrub back in the original hole or a new one. Drop in the plant; back fill the hole with mix from the planter and native soil. Add a layer of mulch make sure the plant stays watered well for the first year.

Sorry - no gravel at the base of the tub or bucket and I wouldn't go to any special effort for soil either. What came out of the ground will work just fine for a temporary container situation. Gravel doesn't improve drainage - it impedes drainage. And no pruning is necessary either - shrub is likely still dormant at this time of year and even if it were not, pruning to transplant is no longer recommended. The plant needs all that leaf growth to support the root growth, not necessarily the other way around.

I agree, no need to prune it back - pruning could be detrimental. When you replant, try to put it back at the same depth it was originally growing and not any deeper...

If your hydrangea is healthy you should be successful with your temporary move. I've had a maintenance project that required moving several plants out of harms way too, and after a few weeks (it turned into more time than I had imagined), I had very little damage and only to a handful of perennials, none of the shrubs. Shade and attention to water, I think you'll be fine....

You can feel confident trusting Gardengals advice, if I'm not mistaken she moved an entire garden not too many months ago ;)

Awesome! Thank you all for your much needed advise!!!

I will have to do the same with three old and beautiful lt blue and purple mopheads. I have to replace my cesspool this fall and unfortunately they are in the work zone. I'm told the work will just take a day, so they won't be out of the ground that long. Cesspool guys said they'd just "toss them" to the side (lol, there will be no "tossing" of my precious hydrangeas!!) What is the best way to remove for a day or two? Should I just lay them to the side under shade and keep root ball moist, or should I put root in a garbage bag with drain holes? Is fall a bad time of year to do this? We chose fall so that the soil can settle over the winter before we reseed the lawn.

lovinli, if they will only be out of the ground for a day or two, you can just shift the shrub, rootball intact, into a shady location and keep sufficiently moist. I would try to get the largest rootball you can manage and make sure the plants have been thoroughly watered well and deeply before attempting the move. As long as they are not allowed to dry out, you keep them in a somewhat protected location and you replant ASAP, you should be fine. And fall is an excellent time of year to attempt this.

I was searching for guidance on how to move my mature hydrangea, and found this thread - I realize it's an older thread so if I should post elsewhere, please let me know. I'm in a similar situation the above poster had - I have to move a 15 year old hydrangea that's about 5' x 5' due to our walkway needing repair, and the hydrangea has basically grown over it. We are in L.I., NY, and weren't sure if we could move this safely. I'm feeling hopeful after reading this thread, BUT, can someone tell me when the best time to do this is in my area? Should we wrap it in burlap to protect it first? Should it be cut back at all beforehand, or is it more likely to survive if we leave it as is and just dig it up and replant it in a new location? Any guidance will be most welcome, as this is one of the few shrubs in our yard that has done very well and I don't want to damage it. Thanks in advance for any help!

Corry, Is this a mop head hydrangea (the one with pink or blue flowers)? Typically August is not a good time to move plants due to the hot weather. However this year some states have mild summer so moving it now may be ok. If you can wait, I would recommend you move it in September when it is a little cooler. Hydrangeas are tough plants so far I have not failed to kill any. I have moved several of them to a different house and they all survived.

You can follow the recommendations posted in this thread. But try not wait for too long to re-plant. A few days are fine if you keep it in the shade and keep it moist. I would dig as big a root ball as you can (may need two people). If you need to hold it for a few days before replant, follow the instructions that Gardengal provided.

After you replant it, treat it like a new plant for watering. With transplanting in September, the watering need is less as the temp is cooler. With a big plant like this, you want to water the root area thoroughly everytime you do it, using a dripping hose may be easier. You may see the leaves wilt but wait until the next morning. If the leaves do not straighten up, you need to water the plant.

Good luck
Vivian

I have a similar situation but with a H. 'Little Lamb' that must be moved sometime in the next few months. It has seriously outgrown its current location (poor siting decision on my part when I bought it four years ago!) I want to swap it with another shrub so it has more room. I know I should wait until it is more reliably cool here in north central Connecticut (so late September?) but have two questions: (1) how LATE in the fall can I transplant it and (2) just to confirm previous posts, NO pruning, right? I would normally cut flowerheads for drying at some point in the early fall and assume that is still fine, but no major pruning post-transplant, right? (It will be dug and replanted the same day.) Thanks in advance! This hydrangea has put on an impressive show the last few years -- so much so it HAS to move to a bigger spot!

Vivian, thank you so much for responding... I didn't realize there was a response to my post until today. My hydrangea is a mophead, and after giving this a lot of thought, we realize that the only place to which we can move this beautiful shrub is a spot in our front yard that gets late afternoon sun. I know they love the shade, but our neighbor has a massive black walnut tree that towers over most of our property, and has made gardening here a challenge. I appreciate the help, and when we move the plant (probably late Sept., as it's already cooling off nicely here on L.I.) we will be replanting it the same day. Thanks again for the response!

I need a lot of help,I planted a Hydrangea about 20 yrs ago, and it still has not bloomed I received another one as a gift and it bloomed blue the first 2 yrs I have followed the how to grow not over fert. and keeping it watered.I have never really trimed them. They are a beautiful green and healthy looking. Why doesn't my plants bloom?

Where are you located and what kind of hydrangea? In general, the lack of any flowers on a hydrangea with no pruning would be due to cold damage to the flower buds. Less likely would be an excessive amount of shade.

btw, this really should have been addressed with a brand new thread :-)

I have to move my 3 year old hydrangeas as well because they are in full sun and not doing well. I will need to put it in a pot now because I don't have a place for it at the back of my house. Is this possible? From the ground to a pot. Other than potting mix do I need anything else. Do I need to remove as much of the garden soil that's on the root? Please help!!! I have to move 3 hydrangeas in to a pot. Thank you all so much!

Yes, that will work. I did some of mine last year and years before (some have been in pots for a few years now).

I moved my Pistachio last year because it was struggling where I put it originally. The foliage looks so much better this year but the blooms are a bit pathetic.

I moved Lemon Daddy to a pot years ago plus Incrediball, Invincible Spirit, Lilacina, Endless Summer, and a few others that I don't recall the name. Another prospect is to start new plants with cuttings as well.

A few hydrangeas I started from cuttings a few years ago.

Don't forget to keep them watered during their first year (or two).

It is a heck of a lot harder to move any shrub from the ground to a container than it is from a container into the ground!! Roots from a containerized plant tend to be ....well, contained :-) Whereas roots with a shrub planted in the ground will have spread out laterally, sometimes to a significant distance. So there will almost always be some root damage and loss.

And now would not be a very good time to do so, either. If you can, root prune now to concentrate the feeder roots to a smaller, manageable area and then move in fall as the plant is entering dormancy. In the meantime, water as required to keep the plant fully hydrated (it may be a daily or even twice daily routine) and maybe try to rig up some sort of temporary shade.

Irene, depending on how extreme the problem is, I would consider putting some temporary shade if you can and keeping the soil as evenly moist as you can. If they are wilted in the morning, give them water but they should recover and perk up on their own if the soil has enough moisture. Planting hydrangeas in the middle of the summer is very stressful. I have built cardboard contraptions with some tree branches before to give shade. I had to re-construct them after windy days but it helped. It was definitely not a Home Depot quality type of project. Ha. ;o))

Ed, I seem to remember that Lemon Daddy is a sport of Big Daddy and last week, I found plantings of Big Daddy at a local botanical garden near me. Huge blooms for sure out of those BD plants. Do you have pictures of your LD? Does it stay yellowish for you for long times or do the leaves turn green by early to mid summer?

luis_pr, who is Ed?

Here are some photos of my Lemon Daddy. The associate where I bought this at said she never saw one in bloom but mine did bloom when I had it i the ground.

In a pot back in May this year

Two years ago

Kinda looks puny next to some of my begonias in October, 2013? Definitely looks green here. This was when it was in the ground.

But in August it was still yellowish.

July 1, same year

Two bloom buds is all I've ever had. I moved it after two or three years in the ground since the star magnolia was starting to shade it out.

Oops, confused your user id with hyed's. Sorry! Nice pictures, thx.