How & When to Properly Transplant a Boxwood Shrub

We have an email from Colleen who says, ‘is it possible to transplant this boxwood?’ She sent us a picture, it’s about two and a half feet tall to two feet wide.

Absolutely. And this is the time of year where you need to transplant it. Do not wait. Once the growth comes on it, it can still be done, but it’s harder on the plant. Your highest likelihood of success is to do it right now.

And I will say this, try to get as much of the root system as you can. So you’re going to come out from the sides of that plant. Try to come out like four or five inches and dig down. Boxwood generally don’t have a tap root. The root system is probably only going to be within the top foot of the soil. You can dig down and try to dig almost a trench and then come underneath of it, and then you’ll be able to pop it up.

Sometimes it’s too heavy to carry, so what we’ll do is once we get it dug free, we’ll tip it on its side and slide a tarp underneath it. And then tip it back the other way and pull the tarp the rest of the way through, and then you can get somebody on each corner. Or you can drag it. That way the root system doesn’t get abused too much. You take it to where the new place is going to go and plant it into the ground there. And I would recommend a specific fertilizer when you’re transplanting.

It’s called Biotone, and Biotone’s got mycorrhizae and other things in, and it’s mainly focused to develop new root growth. Whenever we dig up something and we move it, we really don’t want to use a fertilizer to make the top grow. We want to redevelop the roots in that new soil, and then later we’ll worry about fertilizing the top. But right off the bat, that Biotone, move it to the new area, soak it in really good. Put the Biotone down and then soak it in good, and you should be good.

So there’s some ivy growing at the bottom there, yeah. So as you dig it up, you’ll be able to easier to pull that ivy out, but I would try to pull the ivy out. You really don’t want the ivy competing with the plant, if that makes sense.

The good thing about transplanting anything right now is the ground is really soft. It’s very workable. Easy to dig them up, easy to move them, to re-dig the new hole. Definitely wouldn’t want to move that in the middle of summer when we’re into a 90-degree drought. That would stress it. You may be successful, but your odds would go way down.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).