When Leon’s sculpture studio was abruptly closed in October, we decided to create a new space for him to carve here in our yard. That meant removing a garden to make room. What had been the orchard garden was razed to create a flat, clean space for a new outbuilding. There were several great plants in that garden that I wanted to save, but we were in quite a rush–there was no real prep for transplanting, just a quick dig-it-up-and-move-it event.

Ultimately, I moved three David Austin own-root roses, a hellebore, and a grafted Asian pear espalier. I felt pretty good about the hellebore. It came out with lots of soil and roots. I was unsure how the roses would do. They had minimal roots and seemed rather fragile. The poor pear tree had the bulk of its major roots deep behind the fence, making them impossible to dig out; it was transplanted with almost no roots at all!

Amazingly, so far, all of these plants are doing great!

All three roses have strong new growth!

I’m still most worried about this pear. While it is putting out new growth, which is great, I know sometimes trees have hold-over energy they use to bloom and leaf out, and then they need the roots to provide their energy for the rest of the year. I would not be surprised if this tree, so aggressively torn from the ground, ends up dying after it leafs out and blooms a bit. I hope it doesn’t! It would be so great if it survives and it clearly is trying.

Here are some photos of a few other flowers in the garden today. Spring started a bit early, but then stalled out. It is finally really coming on.