2020 Transplanting an Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella' in Spring to Grandma's House

Transplanting an Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
in Spring to Grandma's House
Maybe I was encouraged by the mild spring we've been having. Or maybe I just couldn't bear to see Grandma's yellow peony not thrive and grow another year in a row. So I decided to dig her up one of my Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella' plants in spring and bring it to her. I know that spring is not the best time to transplant a peony, but sometimes you do things when you have the opportunity. Last weekend was one of those days!


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
in My Peony Test Bed Before Digging
So... Here's what I did. I woke up early in the morning because it was actually going to be pretty hot that day. I wanted to dig the plant when it was very early so the plant had the optimum amount of moisture in it when I removed it from the ground. The later in the day you dig something, the more time it has had to sit in the sun and lose water to evaporation. Lucky for me, it had rained the day before quite a bit.


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
Partially Dug
My first plan of action was to dig the plant on one side. I know that sounds a little weird, but I was trying to prevent the loss of and damage to as few roots of the peony as possible. First I moved the sign for it, then I started digging. I started digging far away from the peony to try to find the roots. Once I started to find the roots, I just kept digging underneath them, removing dirt and setting it aside.


Digging Underneath the Roots of
Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
This helped increase the visibility in the root zone. As you can see I kind of created a hole or space underneath the plant as I removed more and more soil. I did end up losing 2 large storage roots on the side I was digging. It seems kind of unavoidable to prevent any damage, but I did my best. That's one reason why I decided to only dig from one side. I knew the more sides I dug on, the more roots I'd lose. Eventually I had enough space under the peony that I could grab it from the underneath the crown and base of the roots. Then I just started jiggling it and moving it here and there, using my shovel to loosen underneath a bit if needed, pull, jiggle, pull, jiggle, until it finally came out!


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella' Finally Dug Out
As you can see, I was thinking was I going to put the peony into this 2 or 3 gallon pot to transport it to my Grandma's house. However you can see that was a laughable idea. If I had even tried to put this peony into that pot, I would have broken off every root I just so carefully extracted and tried to save. So the pot stayed home, and the intersectional peony 'Bartzella' and its giant roots when into a black plastic trash bag instead! The roots on this peony were probably 3 feet across or more!


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
Ready for Transporting in a Black Plastic Trash Bag
When I arrived at Grandma's house I walked around looking for a good spot to plant it. When I had a couple of good ideas, I took Grandma around, told her my ideas for possible spots for it, and let her choose one of those spots. She selected this spot right behind some yellow irises, yellow daylilies, and yellow daffodils. I think it was my favorite spot too. Once the spot was selected I started digging. And digging. And digging.


Transplanting an Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
in Spring to Grandma's House
Grandma's house like many properties here has it's share of red mud aka red clay. I was prepared, though, and brought a bag of top soil to mix into the planting hole. I put mixed a half a bag into the planting hole (saving some for other plants in case we needed it). However it looked like I could have put in a whole bag. I also mixed in a cup of 10-10-10 slow release fertilizer pellets that my Grandma had at her house. The hole I dug for this peony was huge. I wanted to make sure I had enough room for those giant 3 foot roots!


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
Once I had everything dug up and mixed in, I started removing soil from the hole. Then I placed the plant in the planting hole. I actually planted this Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella' about half an inch to an inch deeper into the soil at Grandma's house than it was growing at my house. I wanted to give the plant some stability since its roots (the plants normal stabilizers) had just been ripped from the ground placed in different, much looser, freshly dug soil. Also sometimes the soil washes at Grandma's house, and she may not mulch her plants as often as I do.


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
Once the plant was in place, I started the amended and fertilized soil with the shovel until it was mostly refilled. When all of the roots were covered, next I made sure that the plant was balanced and standing up correctly, adding and firming soil in any spots needed to help its balance and stability. I also made sure to leave the plant slightly lower than it's surrounding soil and create a small soil mound around the planting hole to help hold and keep water when watering the plant.


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'
After planting it, I watered the peony with two 2 gallon buckets of water. Even though it had rained more than an inch the day before, you alway needs to water in your newly planted plants to help settle the soil, remove any air pockets, and help re-hydrate the roots. This peony looked pretty good after it was planted. However it definitely did sulk later that date in the hot sun. My Grandma put some more water on it again in the afternoon. I told her to keep her eye on it and take care of it this summer making sure it has plenty of water. She said it looked better and less wilted the next day. Thank goodness we've been having some more mild spring temperatures this week. I really do hope this Intersectional Peony 'Batzella' will grow and thrive at my Grandma's house! I'll have to keep you posted on how it does. :-)


Intersectional Peony 'Bartzella'