How to Safely Move your Plants to your New Home

 Protect your plants before the move

– Water your plants the day before they will be transported. Keeping the soil hydrated will keep the roots loose and reduce any shocks during transport.
– Wrap your plants in a cone-shaped form to keep all their leaves and soil from falling out or breaking. This step is especially important for orchids or fragile plants that need their space.
– Measure your plants and find the right kind of moving box to prepare for transport.
– If your potted plants are small: fit various pots into a book box, leaving the lid open and filling the spaces in between the pots with packing paper or eco-bubble. Ideally, the box would be tall enough to protect the stems, branches, or leaves while leaving enough clearance for the plants to breathe.
– If you have a hanging plant, carefully gather its tendrils and use packing paper to wrap around the base of the pot to provide ample cushion.
– Larger leafy plants are more easily transported in individual moving boxes.
– Make sure your movers are aware of which moving boxes are full of plants. Keep your moving boxes full of plants labeled and open for easy identification. Make sure these boxes are not stacked. Experienced movers will find the safest spot on the moving truck that will have minimal shifting and danger of being crushed by other items.
– If you are transplanting plants from your garden, have portable planters ready to go with fertilized soil and a hole for the roots. Water the soil of the new planter thoroughly and allow the soil to turn into mud. This will allow the roots to sink into the new soil and help absorb the shock of the transplant. Allow time for the water to drip through before placing them in moving boxes as water leakage can reduce the integrity of a moving box. Also, consider that perennials or annual plants are more likely to thrive if they are transplanted during the cooler weather months or spring than in the heat of summer.
– Any flowering perennial should be transplanted after its flowering cycle. If they are moved too roughly, buds can be disturbed and fall off before blooming.

Keep your plants thriving in their new home

- Plan out the location of each plant in your new home according to the conditions it had in your previous home. For example, if your fiddle fig leaf tree was healthy and thriving where it got morning sun but not direct sunlight, find a similar spot in your new home to ensure it will adapt to its new surroundings.
- Once you are moved in, try to reduce the shock by not moving your plants too much around your new house.