Can these shubs / trees be safely moved ?

RobAMerc

Hi folks,

I wonder if you could help me out.
I have these trees in the garden but they are in a location I want cleared.
I hate the thought of just getting rid, and I do have another location they could be moved to.
Would they survive ?

I've marked the 3 I am asking about as I dont know what to call them by name.

Thanks

Rows Grower

Maybe if you took a picture a bit closer to each of them you might help your own cause.

The two on the right could be anything from Camellias to Japanese Knotweed, seriously though, could you not look them up on the internet yourself?

macraignil

RobAMerc wrote: »

Hi folks,

I wonder if you could help me out.
I have these trees in the garden but they are in a location I want cleared.
I hate the thought of just getting rid, and I do have another location they could be moved to.
Would they survive ?

I've marked the 3 I am asking about as I dont know what to call them by name.

Thanks

They look to me more like plants put there originally as a mixed hedge that were not kept trimmed and so are now more like small trees as a result. It's difficult to give a positive i.d. without a closer look at the leaves and an idea when they flower. I'm guessing the one on the left might be a type of olearia and the other two could be privet or golden privet.

Regardless of what they are called it should be possible to move them if you can excavate enough of the root ball to keep them alive when moving them. For plants this size the roots are going to be fairly big and you would be talking about a major undertaking to move them successfully the way they are now. Do you have a big excavator or digger handy that could scoop out about a cubic metre of soil in one go for each?

Otherwise trimming them before moving them could reduce the leaf area that would dry them out when they are moved and the roots are not after getting settled yet, but this could take away from the shape that has developed with them being left grow untrimmed for so long. If you are going to move these it's not guaranteed to work but your best chance would be taking as much root in the transfer as you can move and doing the transfer in damp weather. Also shorter days would make it more likely to succeed so the sooner you move them before summer the better. You have to try avoid the plants wilting as this is likely to kill them.
Good luck!

RobAMerc

macraignil wrote: »

They look to me more like plants put there originally as a mixed hedge that were not kept trimmed and so are now more like small trees as a result. It's difficult to give a positive i.d. without a closer look at the leaves and an idea when they flower. I'm guessing the one on the left might be a type of olearia and the other two could be privet or golden privet.

Regardless of what they are called it should be possible to move them if you can excavate enough of the root ball to keep them alive when moving them. For plants this size the roots are going to be fairly big and you would be talking about a major undertaking to move them successfully the way they are now. Do you have a big excavator or digger handy that could scoop out about a cubic metre of soil in one go for each?

Otherwise trimming them before moving them could reduce the leaf area that would dry them out when they are moved and the roots are not after getting settled yet, but this could take away from the shape that has developed with them being left grow untrimmed for so long. If you are going to move these it's not guaranteed to work but your best chance would be taking as much root in the transfer as you can move and doing the transfer in damp weather. Also shorter days would make it more likely to succeed so the sooner you move them before summer the better. You have to try avoid the plants wilting as this is likely to kill them.
Good luck!

Thanks, I appreciate the advice.
To be honest I dont have the skills or the machinery to do this. Tiz a pity, I think they will just have to be ripped out and dumped.
I had no clue it was this big a job

Lumen

If you're moving them to make way for a shed, just use the digger you're using for the foundations.

_Brian

You could still try.

Prune each back hard but don’t remove all leaves.
With a sharp spade dig down about 10-12 inches around each and about the sale down.
Move them straight to their new location and plant in hole with plenty of compost and a few handfuls of chicken manure each. Keep them well watered.

my3cents

Left hand side looks like one of the silver leafed form of Pittosporum and the right side Euonymous Japonicus, the middle perhaps some type of privet?

tbh I wouldn't waste my time trying to move them, €20 would buy new ones but if pruned back by at least half and then moved with as big a root ball as you can physically move there's a good chance they will survive.