By John Warrington
We have just passed the summer solstice (the longest day and the shortest night). It’s good enough to see outside by 4.45 hrs, and the night temperatures are still hovering around 25 to 26 Celsius. During the day in my area the maximum shade temperature is usually about 31-32 Celsius, too hot to work comfortably outside in the midday sun which, least for this Englishman, is a time for reading and thinking. Yesterday I sat in my Berbice chair looking eastward to a group of mussaendas which were beginning to affect each other adversely. They are all about eight feet high and were planted several years ago. They should have been thinned out a year or two ago, but I am always reluctant to get rid of plants which over time become members of my family and an integral part of one’s daily life at home.
It’s so easy leave things like this until the next day. When you are planning a garden it is nearly always the case that in order to get a fuller and more mature look in a short time you naturally (and rightly) plant more thickly than normal and then thin out as plants begin to establish and grow. Always the question is when to do it and whether to just cut down and throw away, or try and transplant the surplus somewhere else. In this instance I am faced with not just moving one plant, but several. The two pinks came from different plants, and one of them has not really produced anything like the quality of flower that its neighbour has. It should be cut down and thrown away (and was). A light pink mussaenda being slowly asphyxiated by its neighbours is now revealed as being in poor shape and will definitely have to be cut back, shaped properly and transplanted. Maybe a white mussaenda as well. It will not be easy work. It only seems to be a question of when to do it.
The first job in the transplanting was preparing the plant by cutting it down to a leafless framework. This is followed by cutting a circular trench about a foot or two deep round each of the plants to be moved (starting about 36 inches from the stem), having first watered the ground to make the digging easier. When this is done, the soil around the root is gradually and carefully forked away all around the plant until you start to see the mass of roots. At this point you may start to think you need a degree in mining engineering. This is not necessary but you do have to start to cut under the root ball. Do this carefully, or have it done carefully. It doesn’t matter how long this takes. The important thing is to save as many roots as you can. There will come a point when you have cut the ground from under the plant so much that the root ball is balanced on a small mound of soil and can be rocked onto its side easily.
Before you push it over place a large piece of rolled sacking under one side of it, roll it carefully onto the sacking and then unroll the sacking out. This means that it will be sat on the sacking when you get it upright again. Then it’s just a matter of tying the sack-cloth tightly around the root ball before it’s lifted out to its new home. It’s far easier to do than it is to describe. The new site must be prepared before you move the plant. Make sure that the hole is wide enough and deep enough and that compost is worked into the bottom of the hole, and firmed down. The soil mark on the stem of the plant is the mark to which it is planted in its new home. When the plant is in its new hole, the sacking is undone and either removed or left to rot away. (Plastic ones don’t do this and shouldn’t be left in the ground). Fill up the hole with good compost. Watering will be necessary for a few days. Probably a trickle during the night onto the root ball will be sufficient. In a week or two new shoots will start to emerge.
