If you guys have read this old post, you already know half of this story. For the rest of you, here we go. Way back in 2007, right before we got married – and before we even started this blog – my parents gave us a tiny Japanese maple. It was a little 24″ offshoot that had started growing near the large maple in their backyard. We planted the tiny little thing in our backyard, said a few plant prayers for it, and it grew a smidge in the 3+ years it lived there… though we don’t really have any photographic evidence of it.
Since it was meaningful to us – having some wedding significance and having come from my childhood home – we dug it up before selling that house and brought it with us when we moved to our second house. Perhaps you’re starting to see where this story is going.
Since our last move took place in the winter, we were almost certain that our transplantation efforts killed it. But much to our surprise, it survived…
… and even managed to grow a bit bigger, although you never really noticed it in photos because it got lost amongst some other purple bushes that grew in around it.
Since our last move, my parents have moved out of my childhood home making this little tree even more special to us. So of course we had to dig it up and bring it with us again, even if it’s not as little now. Note: dig up your plant before you put your house on the market since anything in the ground during showings is expected to convey unless you indicate that it’s coming with you in the contract.
Digging it up was pretty easy. I made a wide hole around it and then gently lifted and wiggled until it came loose. The root ball seemed to be pretty small, so I was able to fit it into a plastic bin that I had handy. It had become a bit heavier since its last move, which is how Sherry captured this not-so-flattering shot of me hoisting it up while getting a leaf to the eye.
We decided to move it over to the new house as soon as we dug it up – just so it wasn’t in the way during showings. It barely fit in our car, but barely works just fine for us. Even if it means Sherry has to ride in the backseat with maple leaves up her nose. We secretly wondered if other drivers would think we were cruising around with a giant marijuana plant in our car, just begging to be arrested. But no one stopped us. We’re not sure if we’re relieved or concerned.
It sat in our new backyard for a while (through showings and moving and us getting settled for a few weeks) and then we buckled down and said “we have to get this thing in the ground before we kill it” (we had drilled a few holes in the bottom of the bin for drainage but knew it wasn’t going to thrive in there forever). Finding a new spot for it was a little challenging because there are still so many question marks about our landscaping, but we decided this spot on the periphery of the woods that surround our deck is a safe bet. That way it’s visible from the house and has plenty of room to grow (unlike last time).
Now we just have to cross our fingers that transplanting it in the heat of summer didn’t kill it. We used some compost and some garden soil when we planted it – just to give it the best shot we could – and thanks to lots of rain lately, it seems to be doing ok so far.
Actually, our main worry has been the deer. Of which (if you’ve been following our Instagram) we see lots of lately. We know they like to eat some low-lying shrubs, but so far our maple seems unappetizing. I even caught this one giving it a sniff and then wandering off. Move along, little buddy. Move along.
Anyone else have success (or failures) transplanting things? Or do you have any sentimental items (flora or otherwise) that have made a few moves with you? We can’t believe this maple is now living in its 4th yard, counting my parents’ place where it was “born.” They grow up so fast. Single tear.
Kori says
I think it’s amazing that you’ve been able to hang onto this, not so little guy anymore. Very sentimental….which is what makes me love this blog so much! :)
audra says
We have 2 Japanese Maples in our front yard! They flank the front steps and my husband loves them. They were both birthday gifts from his (over 2 years). When my family moved from Europe back to the States, my mom hand carried flowers (Gerbera Daisies, tulip bulbs, etc.) on the plane for our home. When they sold the home years ago, the new owners said the wanted the flowers to stay (even though we wanted to dig them up and transplant them). A few months later, I drove by the old house, and the new owners had dug up all the flowers. It broke my heart!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh NO!
xo
s
audra says
*They were both gifts from his mom.
Amy says
Our house is on the market, so I dug up the mum transplant my aunt gave me in fall 2011. The plant originally belonged to my grandmother, who left her home of 50+ years in about 2004 and died in 2009. The piece I planted had maybe a fist-sized root ball and I didn’t think it would make it. Ha! It grew to be HUGE in just it’s first growing season. Maybe neighbors thought it was multiple plants. Even the aunt who gave me the transplant was shocked. Needless to say, I am taking it with me!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so sweet!
xo
s
Kimberly @ Turning It Home says
I definitely have some sentimental plants that are in our “bring with us” list, including our gigantis bamboo (yes that’s totally it’s name!) and my little pathetic pomegranate tree.
Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says
Aww, that’s really sweet! I love that you did that and love it even more that it’s survived and the deer seem to be leaving it alone.
We bought a dwarf Japanese maple 2 years ago to replace the dead bush we yanked out in the front yard. We worried about planting it because we’d never done it, would we kill it? It grew a little last year and we were excited to see the little buds in the spring. This year, he’s really taken off and is growing like crazy. If you have any pruning tips for them to keep them manageable, feel free to pass them along! :)
YoungHouseLove says
I need pruning tips too! We haven’t touched ours in 6 years of owning it. Are you supposed to prune it? Anyone?
xo
s
Lesley says
My husband is perennially annoyed that the prior/original owners of our Japanese maple didn’t prune it to maintain an nice tight shape, but I secretly like that it’s … interesting. I only prune so we can see out of our front window and to make sure it doesn’t block the access path between ours and our neighbour’s house.
I looked up maintenance tips and found the following:
For tree shape, the University of Florida explains that branches that extend to the ground give Japanese maples a favorable aesthetic quality, but in residential areas, drooping branches may be pruned back.
I’d leave it since you have the space for it to be natural.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Lesley!
xo
s
Jennifer V says
Perhaps I am a little cavalier in my approach to tree care. But I have pruned the #@~! out of my japanese maple tree and it keeps growing bigger. Stray branch blocking the path? Cut it back. I have also pruned up the lower lying branches to give it shape. Granted, I don’t have any emotional attachment to the plants in my yard, but I haven’t lost a plant/tree yet due to my tactics. Good luck!
Liz E. says
For a Japanese Maple, pruning is only really necessary in a couple instances: to maintain a certain shape and if damage occurs. I personally like to just let them grow (they make such a fantastic abstract shape!) but I do prune off lower branches, as I don’t want mine to look bushy. My parents have one that they bought probably at least 15 years ago (it was about the size yours is now–maybe a bit smaller), have next-to-never pruned it and it’s gorgeous! Most Japanese maples are pretty deer-resistant. You could always spray a deer deterrent if you wanted to, while it’s acclimating. Oh, and as one of your neighbors (WV, I mean :). It’s one hot summer already!)just keep it watered and it should do just fine.
Kristy says
I picked up an acorn of a giant oak from my elementary school playground when I left 4th grade. We planted it in tupperware and it grew. Transplanted to my mom’s flowerbed where it grew even more. My dad decided to move it to a permanent home outside my bedroom so I could see it grow. It was over 3 feet tall and the taproot had grown so deep that my dad had to practically dig up the entire flower bed and eventually had to cut the taproot (we figure it’s popping up somewhere in China). We thought for sure that we had killed it by cutting the taproot off, but now 23 years later it’s a good 23 feet tall and then some. My parents moved 2 years ago and I live 1500 miles away. I wish I could have taken Tree with, but alas, definitely no longer in a portable stage. Good luck with Maple!
YoungHouseLove says
NO WAY! That’s amazing.
xo
s
hillary says
That is SO cool! If you ever are in that neighborhood again, I’m sure the current owners would love to know the story of the tree. I know I would! I have so many questions for the former owners of our home along those lines.
Wendy @ New Moms Talk says
After sharing this post with my husband he reminded me that we had seen someone transporting trees in the back of their truck the other day (likely from the local Free Trees Giveaway at a green composting site).
He suggested, “a car company needs to capitalize on that- making a car for transporting trees.” When I told him I’m sure something probably exists, he responded, “Yes, but they need to give it a catchy name…
Like the Arbor-ette or the Ford Arbor 150.”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Holly says
The Honda Fit has a “tall” mode that works well for transporting small trees. My daughter used it to transport an orange tree to her in-laws’ house as a Christmas gift.
April says
Although I am not much of a gardner, I do have some plants that have sentimental value for me. I have a rose bush that was purchased but never planted by father just before he passed away. I planted in my yard, and it is beautiful. I also have roses that were in my grandmother’s yard. They were there at least twenty years – maybe closer to thirty – I have now transplanted some of those to my yard. I now have quite a nice little rose garden. Every time I look at them, I think about the people who loved them originally.
I will keep my fingers crossed for your maple.
YoungHouseLove says
So sweet. Love those stories.
xo
s
Katie says
Oh man. We’ve owned our house just over two years and we’ve already paid to have three trees taken down (you can’t even measure our lot in acreage…it’s in sq. feet., if that tells you anything). My mom gave me a Japanese Maple for mother’s day this year and we are hoping against hope that we don’t kill it. All the rain we’ve been getting in Georgia has been helping, but we are hopeless black thumbs. There’s no WAY we’ll be able to transplant it to a new house when we move (no time soon). We can barely keep our KID alive…I can’t be trusted with plants. Yours is looking good!
dori says
omg, dying at the image of you driving around with a giant marijuana plant as your passenger. the good news is that we have deer and they dont touch JM tree! good luck. i hope its happy at your new home!
dori says
touch OUR JM tree.
Keri says
A very good friend and former co-worker of mine was moving back to FL and told me if I wanted any plants out of her yard then to come pick out what I wanted (her house hadn’t sold yet). I chose a Hosta because I figured it would survive being transplanted. Well a week after planting it in my flower bed it died. I was for sure it was a total loss but never took the time to dig it up. To my surprise, this spring it turned all green and got huge! I’m so glad I didn’t dig it up and it’s a nice reminder of my friend.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome!
xo
s
Emma says
The Hostas will outlive us all. I believe they would survive a nuclear holocaust :)
Teri Pickens says
Not only will they come back in the springtime when they come back you can divide them!
Kim says
We have a lemon tree in our backyard that my husband grew from a seed off the lemon tree by our apartment in college. He used to make me fresh lemonade when we would study, and one day took a seed and planted it in a spaghetti sauce jar to see if it would grow. The tree made it across the country and is now at it’s 3rd home also, and it’s as tall as our house now!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so sweet! I wish lemon trees could live outside here. I think it’s too cold in the winter. Wah.
xo
s
Meg says
Wow, funny timing on this post! We are about to put our house on the market and I want to bring the Magnolia tree my husband gave me as a wedding gift. We are actually moving to the Richmond area from NY and plan on renting while getting to know the area. Hopefully the Magnolia can be transferred to my parents and then with us when we find somewhere to “settle”. Do you have any idea how Magnolia’s do in your area? It will be a little bit of a different climate down there! Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
I think they do gangbusters here. We had a giant one in the front of our second house that seemed very happy. I would maybe google around for tips on replanting them, but other than that I bet it’ll do awesome.
xo
s
Molly O. says
Also, in your research, it is good to keep in mind that there are different types of magnolia trees. The ones that we had in Texas are different than the ones we have in Pennsylvania…perhaps they grow different/better in different regions.
Alice says
As a matter of fact I have transplanted two Japanese maples from my granfather’s tree to our new house in June. The bigger one was the size of yours. It died. I should have cut it back so it wouldn’t have been so stressed in the Georgia heat. The smaller one is thriving 6 years later, though its still not as big as the bigger one we planted. Ours are/were in full sun.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, so sorry to hear one didn’t make it.
xo
s
Mandy Grimes says
We always had this problem when I lived at my parents, since I grew up in the woods.
I would put some small fencing around it until the leaves are no longer reachable by your friend Bambi.
Also I’m not sure how rural your area is but when I was a kid we would put a pile of deer carrots out at our wood line that was perfectly visible from our kitchen table and we could watch the deer while having dinner.
This may be a bad idea based on your baiting laws and if there are a lot of high traffic roads near by to bring in more deer for car/deer accidents. But if not it would be really fun for you guys to watch. :)
Amanda says
My dentist owns a plot of land that is over-run with deer. He is in the process of clearing out the old trees and replacing them with new ones but he kept having the deer eat all of them. Someone told him to take a bar of Irish Spring and hang it from the tree and it would keep the deer away. I just asked him how it was going and he said, although not scientifically conclusive, his trees are all still in tact and the deer didn’t eat the lilacs this year like the did last year. So……if you have a tree you want to protect, his method is to get some knee high pantyhose (great use for those with runs in them), put the soap inside the hose and tie it to the tree. For the smaller trees, he cut the bar in half. When we move out to the country (hopefully soon!), I will be doing this little trick as the house we are supposed to move to is in the middle of a bunch of corn fields and there are deer everywhere. I need to ward them off somehow – keep them around the perimeter and not in the yard.
meaghan says
Amanda, I have used the Irish Spring trick, and it helped quite a bit!
Kimberly says
We put grated Irish Spring bar soap around all our plants that we want the deer to stay away from. Works great for us!
Ellie says
I love stuff like that! We do the traditional anniversary gifts, so for our 5th (wood) my husband planted a maple tree in our backyard for me. Too big to take with us when we moved, but I have a pressed leaf from it framed on our gallery wall- probably looks weird to other people but we know why it’s there:)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s such a sweet way to take it with you!
xo
s
ann says
I love pressed leaves and flowers! our fist summer in our first home I collected leaves and flowers from most of our bushes, trees, etc. and they are now framed in our dining room. I love that collection of dead stuff!
Sarah J. says
ohhhh! i love Japanese maples. and that’s so fun that you’ve brought it with you.
side note: i’ve read that if you sprinkle human hair around your plants the deer will leave them alone. probably due to the smell, though i wouldn’t rule out the weirdness factor. i probably wouldn’t go sniffing around someone’s stuff if they staked their claim with their hair. ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Someone told me that this weekend! So funny!
xo
s
Sasha says
The idea of sprinkling hair may seem strange, but does work to some extent.
In scandinavia it is something that has been used for ages. It is important to point out that the hair must be sprinkled on the actual tree as it works by the deer not wanting it in their mouth. An alternative to hair that sometimes work and other times not is hanging strips of tinfoil in the tree, they often use this in Sweden to keep moose from eating of trees.
Good luck with the tree, what a lovely idea too to take it with you. I would love to take our HUGE magnolia with me from my mum’s garden when she decides to move, but alas I think it will be close to impossible. I would probably have to get some gardeners to do it if I’m desperate ;)
ann says
I have my husband and boys pee around the bushes I want the deer to leave alone. works like a charm, but you have to have them re-do it after it rains. are yard is pretty secluded, I’m not sure this would fly for everyone!
YoungHouseLove says
Ha! Yeah, I’m not sure that’s the way to make a good first impression on the neighbors behind us. :)
-John
Erin says
My dad has carried (now) hundreds of iris bulbs and daylillies from house to house for the last 25 years or so… and they’ve moved 9 times! Before their last move, we helped dig up every single one and bring them to North Carolina. We split the bunches and now their growing at my house and their house.
Emily says
That’s wonderful you could move it again! We did the same with a lilac bush my friend gave me to commemorate our first son being born and it blooming around his birthday! It’s transplanted wonderfully after being at our first house for two years. Then this spring (two years after being transplanted at our new place) I moved it again after I created a garden bed around some trees on our yard. Great success!!! That little guy is flourishing and has lots of room to grow! So’s our little guy!
Becky says
I have a few peony plants that my grandpa planted 60+ years ago that i dug up when my grandma sold her house (every year when i was young i would pick them and bring home with me when i visited her. I could not let some stranger have them) they have been doing well at my place the last 7 years. Last year for mothers day i gave my mom one (since they were her mothers) and to my surprise she has not killed it yet! At the same time i also tried to transplant some of her hydrangea but sadly when i was on my honeymoon we have a big hurricane and they washed away in the creek.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no, so sad!
xo
s
zoe says
I have a massive deer problem in my garden and they don’t touch my maple so I think you are good there. For anything you want to protect I have an excellent recipe for a home made deer repellant spray. It costs pennies to make, is completely non-toxic and WORKS! See http://www.creativeinchicago.com/2011/05/homemade-deer-repellant-spray.html
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Zoe!
xo
s
Sarah says
Love the colourful leaves, want to get some for our yard. All I really wanted to say though is…. Lift with your knees John!! :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Ha!
xo
s
Alisa D. says
Cute post title and LOL about the marijauna comment.
Dana says
re: pruning: you can begin shaping the trunk upwards by clipping off lower twigs, and you can encourage more full branching by “tipping” the well, tips off the outer branches. While young it will benefit from as many leaves as possible so I wouldn’t begin trimming interior branches until at least 5 years old, but when you do that, you’ll want to prune off any over crossing branches, leaving the ones that extend outward, and leave a central highest branch in other words, keep it from forking as that weakens the structure of the tree. Unless you want to try your hand at creating a bonsai shape, then consult someone besides me! lol!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tips Dana!
xo
s
Abigail says
I was watching a yard show on HGTV last week and the host was a certtified arborist and he said never prune more than 1/3 of the tree at a time or you will shock it. Good luck!
Lauren says
As far as getting the deer to stay away from the tree… have you guys heard of putting some pet hair around plants like that to keep wildlife away? I tried it with my flowers (rabbits), and it worked! Burg could lend a helping paw ;)
YoungHouseLove says
So funny about the hair tips! We’ll have to try that if we have issues with them nibbling. So far they sniff but walk on by…
xo
s
Claudia says
I highly recommend these babies for tree planting: http://www.treegator.com/
We planted 5 crepe myrtles in the back yard last summer and kept these things filled with water and wrapped the trunks for the duration. Every tree survived the brutal heat here in NC. They are fantastic!
YoungHouseLove says
Awesome!
xo
s
Megan Poletti says
*waves fingers at deer* These aren’t the shrubs you’re looking for. Move along.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
Shannon {Our Home Notebook} says
Wow, its gotten so much bigger! I’m so glad you were able to take it with you. It looks great in its new home.
We had a Japanese maple in the backyard of my childhood home. I used to play in it all the time. They are beautiful trees.
Mary | lemongroveblog says
It’s so nice that y’all have thought to bring this with you each time! It sounds like a pretty hearty fella if you’ve already been able to transplant it twice!
Deb D. says
We totally hauled a maple tree up from Atlanta to NJ that was my son’s “birthday tree” — we take his picture by it every year on his birthday. ANyway, my husband and his father drove the car all the way up with it in the back and I was worried about the same thing — it looks like a marijuana plant!!!
Anyway, as far as pruning goes, you don’t need to do any pruning unless you think it’s getting a little lopsided and want it to be more “even”. I’ve also heard that if you have some branches that are crowding others or crossing over each other you can thin it a little. We had another Japanese maple that we planted in our front yard for 8 years and I don’t think I trimmed it once except for the suckers at the very bottom of the trunk. A lot of times the trees are grafted so the suckers can be different types of tree. That won’t be a problem with yours since it came from a sapling. Good luck!!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Deb!
xo
s
Stephanie M. says
Bahaha, you guys are just too funny. The first thing I thought when I saw the photo of y’all transporting the plant was “that totally looks like a marijuana plant!”…but then again, I’ve never actually seen one unless you count in movies. ;)
We tried to move a weeping cherry tree from our back yard to our front last year and sadly, it bit the dust. :( So now I have an overgrown jungle tree on one side of my porch and a dead stick on the other. It is really unfortunate looking. I’ve been meaning to dig both of them up but can never muster the energy. If y’all could just bottle some of yours up and send it my way, that’d be awesome. Just sayin’.
YoungHouseLove says
I’ll Fed Ex some this afternoon for ya Steph!
xo
s
Laurie says
We have a pecan tree that has survived three moves from my husband’s grandparents home in Southern Illinois (we’re in Alabama now, and it’s been in Kentucky too!) It’s still growing and my hubby keeps hoping one day we’ll get pecans from his grandpa’s tree. We’ll see!
ErinY says
After my great grandmother passed away we kept part of her rhubarb plant to put in my parents yard. We still use it to make her recipe for strawberry rhubarb jam :) my mom also has peonies from her great grandmother, and when my grandpa passed away we were gifted a tree that evolved into a whole garden in his memory. So I guess we are very sentimental plant people! Haha
Rachel says
We’re gearing up to move in a couple of weeks and are digging up a small magnolia tree that we planted 4 years ago when my brother passed away. We do not have the greenest of thumbs so I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll survive the transplanting!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh Rachel, I’m so sorry for your loss. All of these stories are so sweet and touching. Thanks everyone for sharing!
xo
s
Ginny @ Goofy Monkeys says
I love that you brought it with you! We have banana trees :) I guess they aren’t actually trees, but the ones we have now were offshoots of my parents’ banana plants. And their banana plants were offshoots of my grandparents’ banana plants. We put them out each year and they create a little tropical corner in our yard.
Peggy says
Y’all have probably already thought of this, but.. It would be fun if you took a picture of Clara next to that tree every year.
And don’t panic if it looks like the tree dies. My husband planted a bunch of trees, one of them a cypress that looked like it was doing fine until last spring. It looked for a while like it wasn’t going to make it, but then suddenly came back!
YoungHouseLove says
That would be so sweet.
xo
s
Ann says
I just got 2 hosta plants this weekend that had originally come from my grandmother’s garden at the home she was in when I was a child. I’m so excited to have something to remind me of her, since she is gone.
Nan says
My husband and I bought a 9 foot cherry tree earlier in the year and laid it down in the back of a Prius while I crouched down in the hatchback to hold onto it. Every few miles the hatchback would threaten to close onto the poor little tree but it held on until we got it home! Our cherry hasn’t been as lucky as your japanese maple though. We have a ton of deer as well and they have taken a liking to it, unfortunately. I am learning a lot about gardening and what is deer resistant these days. Usually I learn about it after I have already planted something they love though. I have a fabulous hosta garden planted that only has a few leaves between them thanks to my deer buddies. I still love to see the deer out in the yard though!
MelanieO says
A beloved (now deceased) great-aunt gave us several peonies as a wedding gift 13 years ago. Three houses later, we still have these beauties and think of her every June when they bloom. We will take them with us when we leave this house at the end of the summer. The only downside is that they don’t bloom the year immediately following a transplant, so we lose a year of flowers every time we move. Small price to pay…
Taurie says
My aunt brought my grandma back a teeny plant from the Dominican Republic like 15 years ago. It lived in a teeny vase and had two tiny leaves on it 3-inch body for 13 years until my grandma decided to transplant it two years ago.
She now has to cut the top off on a regular basis because it grows so big it touches her ceiling! The thing is like Audrey 2 (Little Shop of Horrors)… The best part? If you cut off a leaf and put it in water, it takes root!
She gives them away as sort of a gag gift :) too funny, but I’m sure those monster spawns will be super sentimental someday.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so funny! Love all the stories guys.
xo
s
Kathy says
We had a small flowering bush by our front door that I tried to re-plant into a planter for our deck, but sadly, it did not make it. I haven’t landscaped since. Mostly because I’m lazy, not because I’m heartbroken.
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
That’s so neat that you take it with you! What a sweet thing to bring from your previous houses!
Laurena says
When my brother was in boy scouts they sold jack pine seedlings, he kept one for himself and planted it in our back yard. When we moved, we dug the tree up and took it with us. Every year we took pictures of him and the tree as they both grew. By the time we moved again, my brother was over 6 feet tall and the jack pine was too big to dig up. We drove by our old house a year later and the new owners had cut down the tree!!! Needless to say we were bummed out and wished we had taken the tree with us!
Dani says
We have a huge number of ravenous deer here (Roanoke). As in, at any given time you can find 12 or more in the backyard and I caught them eating the plants 3 feet from my front door. One thing they don’t seem to bother is our Japanese Maple (that and anything really prickly, like Holly). So yours should be ok! If you are worried you can spray it for a few weeks with Liquid Fence (smells like death but it works) and then they will just avoid it after that.
Such a sweet story!
YoungHouseLove says
So glad they don’t bother your maples! And thanks for the liquid fence tip!
xo
s
Mandy DeTurk says
My family shares plants, and transplants them also, my parents have a 45 year old begonia, that we all have a piece of. Who would of thought that plants would have sentimental value? :)
Allyson M says
I just laughed out loud about you transporting a marijuana look-alike in your car with the leaves up your nose! :) For Mother’s Day last year my husband managed to fit 4 (FOUR!) dogwood trees into his Ford Focus and hide them on the back deck for a couple days without me noticing! How he fit 4 trees into a Ford Focus, I’ll never know! He said he had them sticking out both of the back windows- I can only imagine what other people were thinking while he was driving home!
As far as I can tell, this looks like the best spot for your Japanese Maple! The other places looked like it was really cramping it and not allowing it very much room to grow! We also live in VA, and my grandfather has several Japanese Maple trees that have grown beautifully! Hopefully transplanting it during the summer won’t make too much of a difference! I’ll ask him about pruning and see what he says!
Oh, AND.. I was just waiting for paint to be mixed in Lowes when I was flipping through the new HGTV magazine and WOW! What a spread you guys had in there! Congratulations!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Allyson! Love the four hidden trees story. So sweet of your man!
xo
s
Chris says
I have a couple of chive plants that have now lived at 6 homes. The first few they lived in plants on a patio but they’ve been in the ground now (and really thrived) at 3 different homes.
I’ve also moved a few other plants in our last move- some of which survived, others didn’t.
Fraser says
My childhood home in Evanston, IL had a large Burning Bush tree that I climbed every day. When we moved we brought an off-shoot of that special tree (on a plane!) to Bethesda, MD. It’s still growing strong some 15 years later at my mother’s house. Hopefully my kids can climb it one day! Ahh the circle of life (cue Lion King music). Love to hear you guys are creating a similar tradition! xo
Quinn says
My grandfather took plants from his mom’s house when he moved out of state and they still live in his backyard (although he has now passed). We just bought a new home, so I plan on finding a spot for one or two of these 100 year old azaleas – even though I absolutely despise azaleas :-/
Stephanie @ The Green Guinea Pig says
We’ve got a few seedlings that we will be moving (eventually) as well. Glad to know I’m not the only sentimental one. My husband thinks I’m nuts. I think he’ll be digging up a tree. ;)
~ Stephanie