Moving Plants? 5 Blooming Questions You Should Entertain!
Moving Plants to a New Home and Making Your New Space Green
For many of us, our plants are like our family, so come moving day, you’ll want to be prepared and know the best tricks to make moving plants easy and amazing. That means knowing how to pack plants for moving is super important.
There are several options available for moving your car or your cat to your new home, but what about moving plants across state lines or moving plants cross country? The following five quick questions are designed to help you start thinking about the best way to move your plants safely to your new home.
So, how exactly can you transport your plants across the country? Check out these five questions and our suggestions to help with moving plants to a new home!
1) How Do You Prepare for Moving Plants?
Prioritize! One thing we highly recommend all plant owners do prior to a move is to prioritize which plants are most important to you and which ones can easily be replaced in your new home.
Consider selling or giving away any plant that’s super big or a plant that might not survive in your new climate.
It is also important to consider each plant’s fragility or hardiness when preparing to move. It might be time to cut them back or separate your plants into individual pots.
If you do have multiples of a similar plant, that might be a great gift for the friends and family you leave behind to remember you by!
2) Should You Invest in Specialized Plant Moving Companies?
Not really, but it really depends on where you plan to move your plants. There may be affordable options for moving within the same city or state, but if you’re planning to move across the country, that complicates things.
Most moving companies do not transport plants more than 150 miles. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t ask them for help packing your plants to take in your car!
It also matters if you are moving with plants in winter as that will also complicate the process because they may freeze in the truck. Most moving companies take weeks between boxing up your old home before arriving at your new home.
In that time, your plants will be without water and light, which really isn’t great for their ability to survive. Therefore, if you’re planning on moving plants to a new home, you’ll need to think critically about how you do it to ensure they stay happy and healthy.
3) How Should You Pack Plants for Moving?
It depends on whether you plan to pack artificial plants or real plants. Artificial plants can be packed much like any other household item and how to pack artificial plants for moving depends on the size of the plant itself.
For smaller artificial plants, simply wrap the plants in bubble cushion wrap or industrial wrapping paper, and place the plant in a box.
Larger artificial plants that cannot fit in a large or specialty box should be wrapped fully in bubble cushion wrap ,to ensure the leaves or delicate flowers do not get crushed or wrinkled, and then secured fully with shrink wrap. Professional movers should be able to help with this task.
Packing live plants for moving is much more difficult than packing artificial plants. Remember, plants are living entities, so regardless of where you are moving, it is a good idea to keep them with you, much like you would a pet.
If you happen to have a lot of space in a vehicle, place them in open top boxes so they don’t get crushed. This will also help them get the light they need to survive. It will also help you remember to water them, as necessary!
Be sure to pack them just tight enough that nothing can fall over. You don’t want to try to return a vehicle covered in potting soil! For smaller, desktop plants, try using a Dish Moving Kit with cardboard dividers to help separate plants and give them space to breathe.
For larger plants, combine as many into a large moving box and place some packing paper to wrap your plants in to protect their pots and prevent leaf damage. You’ll also want to stack them laying down, that way, they won’t tip over. If your soil is loose, wrap the top of the pots with shrink wrap to eliminate any potential spill risks.
4) How Do You Water Plants While Traveling?
You probably won’t! Watering plants while moving can be quite a hassle. You know best how to water each plant, but it may be difficult to find adequate water resources depending on where you find yourself.
Additionally, waiting for your plants to adequately drain could add hours to your trip. If your move is going to take longer than a week, try to cut any unnecessary pit stops as best as you can so you get to your destination quickly and can get your plants watered.
Alternatively, you can water your plants a day before packing up your vehicle to start your trip and then add a moist rolled up paper towel to the top of the soil before you head out.
Be sure to wrap the tops of the pots with shrink wrap as described above to keep the moisture in and the soil out of your other stuff!
5) Is It Worth It to Bring Plants with You to a New Space, Or Is It Better to Sell Them and Start Over?
That’s your choice! Anything common and easily replaceable is probably not worth taking with you to your new home unless it holds a lot of sentimental value, and you have the space to safely pack it in your vehicle. Rarer plants, on the other hand, are often much harder to replace.
Those would probably be worth taking with you, so you don’t have to spend extra time looking for a replacement once you’re settled.
You may even struggle to replace everything you left behind and pay more for something smaller than what you once had!
