Transplanting Cordylines

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GARYnNAT

Transplanting Cordylines

Post by GARYnNAT »

Hi Guys the first of many questions about our big move :D We have several large 10ft+ Cordyline australis that have been in since they were about 18" high. They are in raised beds but I believe they have long tap roots???, I know they are common place but they are large multi headed plants and would be a shame to leave them.
I am sure some of you must have moved some before and sure i remember that someone brought some large ones on ebay but had to dig them up?

Anyway any advice welcomed :D

Gary
kentgardener

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by kentgardener »

Hi Gary

I tried to move my red one a couple of years ago. It was only 2.5 feet high - I dug as much soil as I could round the roots - but it still slowly died in the following months. Only a single experience - but it didn't work out well.

John
themes

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by themes »

This is a word of warning..I transplanted a 8ft Cordyline earlier this year. Make Sure you take as much of the root mass as you can. Otherwise like me you will suffer mass defoliation. I lost about 60 percent of the foliage until it stabilised in august with all the rain. I think its the plants defence mechanism against losing root mass.
Frank
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Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by Frank »

Gary,
Perhaps I've missed this but do you actually know the size of your new garden down South yet? As you pointed out Cordylines are easy to come by and relatively cheap these days. Perhaps concentrate on the rare/ must take plants first as it can't be much fun trying to move a 10 foot multi head only to find it will demise in the new garden. And I'm sure you'll be taking loads of other plants .....
And you may find that you don't actually want one anymore when you get a chance to start again :wink:
GARYnNAT

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by GARYnNAT »

Thanks Guys

Frank, yes we do have many more and much more difficult to come by plants but these would be instant impact plants and also a plant that I think forms the backbone of an exotic garden in so much that it is fast growing and pretty hardy and foolproof.
We have no idea of garden size until we find somewhere but we will be looking for a large garden and we want large plants to fill it with as neither of us want to be waiting to long for the garden to establish. While cordys are not expensive, plants this size would be and also we both hate the idea of leaving plants that the next owner may just rip up!!


Gary
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John P
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Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by John P »

Gary, Bill who had a large number of big cordylines planted in his garden moved them earlier this year to his new location. He found that very few recovered and ended up buying replacements as he wanted the growth from the top, not from new side shoots. He went to a lot of time and trouble and expense to have them removed and replanted only to find it was not worth the effort.

John
GARYnNAT

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by GARYnNAT »

Cheers for that John, maybe not worth the effort after all.
I forgot about Bills move, how did he get on with his large palms?
i have a 12ft tall Trachycarpus that i am hoping to move and lots of other palms of between 4 and 8ft tall of various types that we are going to take with us.

Gary
John Walton

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by John Walton »

Hi Gary
A bit late getting in on this but moved big one from front garden quite a few years ago
when we blocked paved front garden for parking. I think the hardest thing was carrying the fifteen foot plant round the back.Their is a huge tap root which i did not manage to get it all up but got the main root ball the tap root broke when it came down so don't worry to much.It did lose a few leaves but you have to make sure it is well watered all the time and it soon recovered and is still going strong.
So i would take chance.
John
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John P
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Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by John P »

GARYnNAT wrote:Cheers for that John, maybe not worth the effort after all.
I forgot about Bills move, how did he get on with his large palms?
i have a 12ft tall Trachycarpus that i am hoping to move and lots of other palms of between 4 and 8ft tall of various types that we are going to take with us.

Gary
Gary I was there today. The cordylines nearly all look crispy, may recover but do not look good. We are talking may be 20 plants here all 12 foot plus.

A lot of the transplants have done very well and it is a massive project that is still ongoing.

John
DaveP

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by DaveP »

Hi Gary,

How's the Rhopie? I can easily understand you wanting to transplant your Cordys for immediate impact, but the problem is that unless you manage to get an earth-mover bucket under them to transplant with as much of the root-ball as possible, they will defoliate completely and almost certainly lose the growing points. With a huge amount of effort and considerable after-care, it's possible to move them and have them looking fairly good after about 3-4 years, but it's cheaper and more effective to replace with new plants. Given plenty of moisture, a very rich yet well-drained soil and a sunny site, even the slower, variegated/coloured cvs of australis can make rapid growth, especially in coastal southern regions.

A neighbour had a big clump with 6 trunks all well over 5m. high that he needed to shift to make way for building work. All but 2 trunks were cut down to near ground level and most of the root ball was transferred to a new site. The remaining trunks defoliated over a period of 3 months and were subsequently cut down. Within a year very strong new growths appeared and now, 10 years later the Cordy is back up to 5m again. One of the trunks was left lying on the ground at the back of the house for a few years and sprouted new shoots at almost every node.

'Straight' australis can easily make 60+cms of trunk per year when settled in so there's little point in buying very large or trying to transplant older specimens. If it were me, I would leave the original plants in situ and start all over again. You'll find that stuff will grow a lot faster further south than in Cambridge due to shorter, less intense winters and within 2 years a newly planted sub-tropical garden will be filling out and looking established. That's the fun with growing these types of plants - the rewards come very quickly most of the time.
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Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by Dave Brown »

They are extremely resilient, even when tiny. I dug out some self sown seedlings, and planted in plastic coffee cups. they got left up the garden for 3 years and virtually never watered. Admitedly they only got to about 1 foot tall over that period, but endured the most appauling drought of 2005/6. one I planted out in spring 2006, and it is now taller than me. So despite the most appauling conditions for it's first 3 years it was just waiting to sky rocket.

how many plants can you cut to ground and it resprouts many shoots, but at the same time you can cut the trunk into sections and they sprout. With the speed of growth with plenty of water you may have decent plants again within a couple of years icon_salut

gotta go..... off to South Coast now, CYALL later icon_thumright
Best regards
Dave
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GARYnNAT

Re: Transplanting Cordylines

Post by GARYnNAT »

Thanks guys

hmm food for thought :D

Dave the Rhopie is doing fine and growing well, will take some pics today as the sun is shining :D

I have some small cordys that i grew from seed a few years ago that I think I will dig up and see how they go and also my Cordyline obtecat 'Green Goddess' as i dont want to leave that behind. the big Australis's look like they are staying then..

Gary
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Transplanting Cordylines

Post by Andy1981 »

Hi Gary, I see this post is from 12 years ago but I just wondered how you got on in the end? Did you attempt to remove the corny lines? I’m having similar issues, I have one only around 2 metres high but with a four inch diameter trunk, it’s in a raised bed but right in the middle, I would really like to move it but not sure weather to risk it as I don’t really want to lose it
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Transplanting Cordylines

Post by chainsaw kid »

Hi Andy, If you don't want to lose it I recommend you leave it well alone. I recon you have a 90% chance of killing it if you move it. They really do not like the roots messed with in my experience. Jas.
Don't Just sit there, plant something!

The Kid.
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