When you transport flowers in the garden, why should you take the roots up with a ball of earth about them?

When you transport flowers in the garden, why should you take the roots up with a ball of earth about them-rather than just lossening the soil a pulling out the roots?

When you transport flowers in the garden, why should you take the roots up with a ball of earth about them?
The roots of most plants are similar to the veins/arteries in our bodies. There is a branching network of increasingly smaller roots until they get to what are called the root hairs. These tiny root vessels play a similar role to the capillaries in our bodies. They are where most of the exchange of water and nutrients are absorbed into the plant from the soil. You don't want these vital parts of a plant to dry out or be destroyed.





When you remove the soil around a plant, you damage many of these small root hairs, and it limits the plants ability to absorb the water and nutrients from the soil, and it severely stresses the plant until it can grow new ones (if it has energy enough to do so), and may make it more likely to die. The bare root plants that you can buy are removed from the soil after the plant has gone dormant in the Fall, and since it is not actively growing, it can grow new ones in the Spring using the energy it stored up for the winter.
Reply:So the roots do not dry out and so you do not disturb the root ball too much. The less that the roots are disturbed the better, the seedling/plant, will transplant far better if you take care in this area.


Always water in, and never transplant during the heat of the day, late afternoon is best.
Reply:One reason is to keep the roots from drying out... that will kill the plant, the other is to keep the roots in soil they are used to, till they adjust to the new soil where you are moving the plant.
Reply:Hello angelbaby,


When transplanting flowers you need to take the soil around the plant to keep from shocking the plant anymore than necessary to get the job done. Handle the roots gently. By doing this the plant will flourish much faster.





A great site to visit for flower gardening tips is http://www.Secilysgardentips.com





Good luck transplanting your flowers.


Sam