Hi, I am new in gardening. I live in vancouver and I was wondering if we can plant azaleas 'red red', dwarft Marigold and Salvia 'victoria blue' since azaleas does well when planted in an acidic soil. I also bought the marigold and salvia in flat, I dont know how to transplant them since one flat contains more than one plant, how do I transplant them without damaging the roots? Thanks.
The Azaleas like more shade then the other plants. You can plant them together, but one of them might do less then ideally depending on where you plant them, I'm not sure. For the flats of plants, you hold the soil/roots in your hads and pull the plants apart like you are pulling apart hotdog buns that stuck together while baking. Some roots will break, but just do your best. Even if they were planted in individual pots you would need to break up the root ball when planting them to help them establish.
Carol--our soils in Van are usually on the acid side, tho not extremely so. I think these plants all usually grow fine here. The bedding plants sold in community type cells that you have to pull apart, seem to do well if you're not too careless separating and planting. Try to get them planted and watered in tonite or soon, while the weather is turning cloudy...they will establish well in cloudy, warm weather while that hotter sunny weather we've just had is harder on freshly planted items with disturbed roots. As much sun as possible will give the best show. I've found azaleas do much better in full sun, get lanky and don't flower as much in shade, tho they would tolerate shade. The annuals (marigolds/salvia) will want sun to grow fast, compact and flower lots. I do love the Victoria salvia...enjoy!
