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I have a surprise blossom of lantanas (I planted about 12 some 30-40 feet away, honestly I have no idea how this one got here) growing and I want to uproot them and put them somewhere else. There really isn't anywhere in the ground I have a line to, that I want to put them in, so I'm wondering if I can put them in a pot and just put them on the porch, so I can water them when I water everything else out there.
This plant is about 2 feet in diameter (the branches), so I'm hoping that repotting it won't kill it. But would it survive? I have had 12 or so in the ground that have survived for several years, but in the ground is a different story. It would make my porch look incredible; I could make sure it got plenty of sun.
Yummm!
You will have a problem with potting it up if you just dig it up and plop it into a pot!!!
You will need to prune it back by a good 1/3 of the total growth!
To add to the injustice you will need to root prune also!
But to help the plant along you should root prune before you dig it up.
To do this you will need a sharp spade or shovel. You will have to slice the roots by sinking the shovel to the hilt (staight down) all around the plant. After going all around the plant (cut around to a bit smaller then the pot it will be going into) and simply leave it there for a good week, or so, to recover the lose of roots. To help it recover you have to prune the plant down to a smaller size (by one third of the total growth) to match the size of the new root ball! So you do this pruning before you root prune to make it easier to get around the plant.
It may not look as pretty as it does in the garden but you will have a better plant once it recovers in a several weeks!
Hope it is a large pot!!!
Good luck! It will be well worth the hard work!
OK one last question. When I root prune--do I simply push (vertically) down with the blade, or should I push the blade down and then under the plant, separating ALL of the roots from the surrounding soil?
Sorry for a dumb question, but earlier you said "straight down," which makes me think that roots that go straight down would not get cut.
You are probably right if the Lantana has a tap root.
But it is the feeder roots that need the root pruning! You can sever the taproots when you finally dig the whole plant up!
The trick will be to not disturb the root ball too much when you finally move it to the pot.
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