Are you wondering about transporting plants when moving home? Plants are like members of the family and you’ve watched them grow from a handful of seeds into flourishing flowers and it’s only natural you want to bring them to your new property.
However, moving plants isn’t the same as moving a fridge, wardrobe or side table, they’re living organisms that require more planning to safely relocate and should be near the top of your moving home checklist. A certain degree of preparation must be undertaken to ensure they don’t get damaged or even die.
We get a lot of questions regarding this topic and I’ve decided to write a blog explaining the step-by-step process of what needs to be done during the preparation, packing, moving, and replanting process. We feel the stages laid out below are essential to ensure the survival of your plants.
1. Trim the Plants
Transporting plants when moving home can be very stressful for plants and that’s why it’s important to give them a trim so they can conserve energy. This will also reduce the number of dead leaves that may fall out during transit and keep the whole operation much tidier. Having dead leaves falling out onto your new garden or home (if they have to be brought in through the property) isn’t the welcoming present anyone wants. After you’ve trimmed the plants, wrap the leaves loosely with hessian for protection. Here’s a guide on how to trim (or prune) your plants.
2. Pot Your Plants
This refers to all plants that have been planted in your garden, not just potted plants. Although this can take a lot of time to do, all of these plants should be potted into plastic pots – don’t just use plastic bags or hessian cloth because it will be almost impossible to keep the plants upright during transit and the risk of damaging them increases significantly. Remember to buy a bag of soil to fill out the pot and depending on the plant, maybe add some plant feeder as you transport plants when moving home.
3. Keep Watering to a Minimum
It’s common knowledge that plants need water in order to survive but water also adds a lot of weight and that’s something you want to keep to a minimum during a house move. Transporting plants when moving home takes a lot of physical effort and increasing the weight of what needs to be moved will make the whole job much harder. With this in mind, water your plants with just enough water for them to survive the move. However, please research individual plants and check how much water they require each day. You certainly don’t want to dehydrate them.
4. Get Rid of Unwanted Parasites, Pests and Weeds Before Transporting your Plants When Moving Home
Use this opportunity to rid your plants of all pests, parasites, and weeds to ensure you don’t bring them into your new home. This task will also help to reduce the spread of plant-based diseases during transit when your plants will be bunched up together in the back of a van. It also might be a good idea to check with the local authorities if any plants are forbidden in the area due to parasites.
5. Check the Temperature
Many plants can be susceptible to a sudden temperature change such as plants kept in greenhouses. For local moves, this shouldn’t be much of an issue because the plants are out of their optimum environment for no longer than an hour or so but for long-distance moves such as Bristol to Newcastle, this might become a problem. You should bear this in mind and you may need to tend to your plants during transit.
6. Put Plants in Moving Boxes
This applies to small plants that have a total height (including the height of the pots) of around 1m. This has many advantages such as more protection and they can be easily moved and stacked in a van. To expand on the latter point, plants that are not placed in boxes will need dedicated floor space in the van and therefore reduce that amount of available space for other household items because they can’t be stacked. We’ve done jobs that have required a van just to move the plants and this can increase the overall removal cost as you transport plants when moving home. Rememeber to use good quality packing materials!
7. Check with the Removal Company
Unlike us, many removal companies refuse to take organic items such as plants into their removal vehicles and this could be due to insurance reasons, reducing the chance of dirt spreading in the cargo area (soil can be tough to clean) and avoiding contamination of bugs and parasites. All of these are fair and justified reasons and you should ask the removal company if they move plants before booking them. You don’t want to be leaving your plants behind!
8. Replant Straightaway
It’s always best practice to replant as soon as possible. You might be feeling tired after a long day of transporting plants when moving home but ensuring your plants have been safely potted or planted into the new garden will give you peace of mind. It’s worth testing the pH levels of your new garden before moving and planning out the best location for your plants. Some of our Bristol clients who’ve done this have said the pH levels in their old and new gardens have been very different.
Once you’ve given your plants their new home, give them plant feeder and plenty of water. Moving home will be a stressful time for your plants and helping them to readjust will be essential to avoid stunted growth or perhaps even death.
I hope this blog has helped you plan how to move your plants in the best possible manner with minimal disruption. It may sound a lot of preparation and effort but by following these procedures, it will reduce the risk of your plants being damaged in transit. Like we said at the beginning of this blog, plants are like pets, a member of the family, and should be treated with care and attention.
If you would like more information, or if you require a home, office, man and van, or packing service, please feel free to contact us at Macro Removals.
Disclaimer – This blog should only be viewed as a guide and Macro Removals will not accept liability for any injury, damage to possessions, loss of earnings, or death.
