Over the last few days I have been assisting my daughter and family who are moving from North Vancouver to the interior.  My daughter asked if I could help her move all the plants and shrubs that are in containers on her rooftop, as well as those in containers on her front porch, to their new home.  I guess over the three years that they have lived in North Van, they had invested a fair some of money for both the containers and plants.  Whenever I went to visit too, I would always pop down to Garden Works and add to their collection. 

For a long while my daughter did not share the same gardening enthusiasm as me but once my daughter and son-in-law purchased they first home, my daughter slowly became more interested in having some flowers and shrubs around her, in particular roses and dahlias.

It took me a while to dig up all the hydrangeas, roses, peonies, honeysuckle and clematis as well as a few small conifers, but in the end that was the easy part.  In addition I have tried to salvage as many bulbs as possible and have dug up all the dahlia tubers.   The fall bulbs will be planted immediately and the dahlia tubers will be stored in a cool place until ready for planting next year.  Shifting all the soil from the large containers was quite another matter as I knew they would be far too heavy to carry down three flights of stairs.  Thankfully both my husband and son-in-law managed to do this before the rain started again. 

Today I have been slowly heeling in all these plants in my vegetable patch and in fact I will not deliver them to my daughter until next Spring by which time they can decide how to use them in their new landscape.  I have completely covered them with a layer of leaves already and the more tender plants are initially staying in my greenhouse and then eventually will be transferred to my partly heated garage.  I sincerely hope that all these plants make it through the winter after all my hard work.