[edited by wcutler: The first three postings were originally replies in the British Columbia: - Yet another hedge question (privacy, noise) thread. Thanks to @Margot for suggesting that the topic of transplanting would have a wider interest, should have its own thread.] It just occurred to me that I forgot to mention one other very important thing. Whatever you decide to plant, be sure to dig the hole at least twice as wide and twice as deep as the pot it came in. If the soil looks or feels dry, or if it's been more than a week since it rained, fill the hole with water and let it soak in. If it soaks in really quickly, fill it with water again. Mix some compost or composted manure 50/50 with some of the soil that you removed, then fill the hole halfway up so that you can plant the tree at the same depth that it's sitting at in the pot. Remove the pot, place the tree in the hole, fill in the sides and firm the soil with your feet, adding more if necessary to level. Finally, spread about an inch of mulch around the tree, but not tight against the trunk. If you have difficulty digging, just imagine what the roots will go through trying to grow into the clay that is in most of our yards. Of course, if the tree comes with a tag saying to dig the hole a different size, follow those directions instead. In any case, don't just dig a hole the size of the pot, plop it in and expect it to grow without any help.
Like you, I have always amended the soil when planting or transplanting. Now I question the wisdom of that practice in light of Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott's (and others' research. https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/soil-amendments.pdf Amending Soils—Why??
Wow, thanks! That link has some very interesting food for thought. The reason that I said to mix the soil amendment 50/50 with the soil that you just removed is actually to prevent sinking and kind of ease the tree from the "nice" soil it started in to the nasty soil that is probably in the yard. We all know that most houses built in the Lower Mainland in the last 50 years have a rather thick layer of clay fill, covered with a few inches of topsoil. This clay fill is nastier than any clay soil you might encounter naturally, and I've dug out a couple of 5-year-old trees (that someone else planted) that have circling roots which look essentially like the clay fill just replaced the pot they originally came out of. I'm thinking that if you make the planting hole considerably larger than the pot the shrub comes in and you straighten or tease out the roots, at least it's got a fighting chance of becoming vigorous enough to force some roots into the clay fill. I'm new to this forum and I'm amazed at how much I'm already learning!
The Vancouver Cherry Blossom festival got Douglas Justice to show how to plant a cherry tree some years ago. The Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott document linked to above makes a good accompaniment to this.
