Moving an established rosemary plant is not necessarily easy, but it can be done if you know what you are doing. I have had trouble with this in the past, so I reached out to an expert who taught me a great trick that seems to work wonders.
The best way to safely move an established rosemary bush without damaging it is to dig it up with a block of soil about 2/3 as wide and deep as the plant’s width. This significantly increases the chance the plant survives as the roots are protected during and after the transition.
Make sure you have already prepared the new spot by digging a sufficiently large hole and spraying it with water before you dig up the plant. That way, it can go straight into the ground in the new spot.
That probably seems like a lot of soil to dig up and to be fair, it is, but the purpose is to help the roots get used to the new spot, which is much easier if you bring over a lot of their “old” soil.
In this article, I explain each step of the process and show photos from when I did it, so you can see precisely what you should do.
It is worth mentioning that this guide is for rosemary bushes that grow in the ground. If you have a potted rosemary that you want to put into the ground, I cover how to transplant rosemary into the ground here.
For potted rosemary, you can simply move it although you might have to help it acclimate to the new spot. You do that by putting it in the new spot for a few hours on the first day and then moving it back to its old spot. Then put it in the new spot for a few more hours the next day.
Continue this for a week or so where you gradually increase the time the plant spends in the new spot. After a week, you can leave the plant in the new spot permanently.
Before you start, you should make sure you have the tools you need. All you need is a shovel, some water, gardening gloves, and potentially some soil. If you want to know more about this, I have another article where I go into more detail about the tools and supplies needed for transplanting rosemary.
Now, let’s get into my step-by-step guide for moving established rosemary bushes.
Step-By-Step Guide for Moving an Established Rosemary
The method I share here is not complicated but it makes use of a handful of small tricks that make the whole process much more likely to succeed without the plant getting damaged.
While this is the safest way to relocate an established rosemary bush, it is not without risk, so you have to decide if you are okay with that. I explain the risk in detail later in the article, but first…
Here is my step-by-step guide to moving established rosemary.
1. Pick a Sunny Spot for Your Rosemary
Before you dig up your plant, you have a few steps. The first is to pick a good spot. If you already have a spot in mind, great! But keep reading as you might learn something that makes you think of a better one.
To keep it short, here is what you need to keep in mind:
- Sunlight
- Soil type
- Moisture level in the soil
- How it will look
- If it is practical
The most important things to consider are the growing conditions at the new spot. More specifically, the amounts of sunlight, soil type, and whether the soil dries out or stays wet.
Pick a spot that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. I recommend even more than that if possible. 8-10 hours per day seems to work really well.
The soil should consist primarily of inorganic material such as sand, gravel, grit, and perlite.
Your rosemary should grow in a spot where the soil doesn’t stay wet for long periods, so pick a spot where excess water won’t gather after heavy rain.
Of course, you also have to consider the aesthetic and practical aspects. How will the new spot look when the plant is there? And when it grows larger? Will it be in the way or impractical in other ways?
2. Dig a Hole as Wide and Deep as the Plants Width
Make sure you dig the hole before you dig up the plant. That way, you can put it right into the ground in the new spot instead of having to let it stay on the ground until the hole is ready.
The key to making the transition as easy as possible for your plant is to include a lot of soil from the old spot. That means you also have to dig a relatively large hole.
Make sure the hole you dig is as deep as the block of soil you dig up with the plant. The goal is to have the surface of the soil and the base of the plant at a level that fits with the surroundings.
If the hole is too shallow, the plant might not be stable enough and if it is too deep, soil and moisture will gather around the stem, which can damage it.
3. Spray the Hole With Water
The last thing you need to do before you dig up and move your rosemary is to spray the hole with water. This will make the transition easier for the roots as they will start seeking out that water right away, thus increasing your plant’s chance to survive.
Make sure you don’t use too much water though. All the soil should be a bit wet, but it shouldn’t be muddy as that can damage the roots.
4. Dig Up Your Rosemary With a Large Block of Soil
It is time to dig up your rosemary plant and move it, so let me reiterate the most important point of this entire article. Make sure you include a lot of soil around the roots.
This is the most important point in this guide. Before I went through the process of moving my rosemary, I reached out to an expert gardener with over 50 years of experience for some tips. A very pleasant and extremely knowledgeable employee at a large local garden center.
He told me that the key was to dig up a lot of soil with the plant to make the transition easier for the roots.
I dug out a block of soil around the plant’s roots that was about 2/3 as wide and deep as the plant was wide.
That means if your plant is 10 inches wide, dig around the roots so you get a block of soil that is at least 6-7 inches in diameter. The shape of it doesn’t matter as long as it matches the hole you prepared.
Here is what my plant looked like at this point in the process.
You should not be able to see the roots since they should only be exposed to the soil from their old spot for a while after being transplanted to help them settle in in the new spot.
5. Carefully Transfer Your Rosemary to the New Spot
Now carefully transfer your plant to the new spot and place it in the hole you prepared. Here is what my rosemary looked like at this point in the process.
You should also make sure the surface of the soil is at the same level as the surroundings to reduce the risk of some problems I get into later in this article.
If the surface of the soil doesn’t fit, carefully lift out the plant and remove or add some soil depending on what is needed before putting the plant back in.
6. Fill Any Excess Space in the Hole With Soil
If the hole is larger than the block of soil around the plant’s roots, simply fill it in with other soil.
This happened to me as some of the soil from the roots came off as I was moving the plant. I simply added it into the hole around the plant to make it all fit and it worked perfectly well.
The best soil to use contains little organic matter and a lot of sand to improve drainage.
At this point, you should also water your plant a bit more. If you followed this guide, you already made the soil moist before moving the plant, but I recommend that you water it a bit more now that the plant is in its new spot. I have another article where I explain why watering rosemary after transplanting it is a good idea.
7. Trim the Plant to Make It Fit In Its New Spot
This is an optional step but it can be a good idea to trim your plant a bit now that you have relocated it.
If your rosemary has a certain shape that made sense in the old spot but not in the new spot, you can just trim it with some pruning shears to make it fit.
It might also become necessary to trim it for practical reasons, for example, to keep it at a certain size so it fits in the spot or to encourage it to grow in a certain way.
Risks of Relocating an Established Rosemary
While it can absolutely be done, digging up and replanting your rosemary is not risk-free. Here is what can go wrong and what you can do to reduce the risk.
Transplant shock can hurt or even kill your plant
The term transplant shock does not refer to one specific issue but can refer to one of several types of stress a plant can experience when it is transplanted. It can significantly reduce the plant’s ability to obtain water and nutrients from the soil as the roots are unable to adapt to their new environment.
I have written a full article about transplant shock in rosemary where I cover what to do, how to reduce the risk, why it happens, and more, but here is the short version.
Plants suffering from transplant shock can often be saved with proper care, but it can also kill the plant in extreme cases. That’s exactly why I wrote an article where I cover a bunch of common mistakes when transplanting rosemary that can lead to transplant shock, which can easily be avoided if you know what you’re doing.
This is exactly the reason why I recommend digging your rosemary up with a lot of soil around its roots. It will help it survive the transition.
Picking a spot with poor growing conditions can kill your plant
Picking a spot where your rosemary won’t have the required growing conditions can lead to stunted growth or even a dead plant. This is crucial to keep in mind when you move your rosemary.
Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean region where it is used to high amounts of direct sunlight. This is crucial to keep in mind when you pick a spot for your rosemary. It needs about eight hours of direct sunlight per day on average. 10 hours per day seems to be great as well. Six can be sufficient but it won’t grow as well.
The soil should be sandy so water can drain away from the roots and you should make sure there is enough room for the plant to grow larger in the new spot.
Picking a spot with the wrong growing conditions is a common reason rosemary can die after being transplanted. I explain more about this and share other reasons rosemary can die after being transplanted here.
If you prefer not to run the risks associated with moving an established rosemary, I have an alternative method you can use to grow it in a new spot. It takes a lot longer but is practically risk-free.
What You Can Do Instead of Moving a Large Rosemary (Safer)
If you prefer not to move your large rosemary bush because of the risks involved with the process, you can take some cuttings from your plant and plant them in a new spot.
Do that by cutting some stems, removing the bottom half of the leaves, and placing them in water for about a week until roots start to appear. At that point, you can plant them in the soil. Just make sure the stems you cut are fresh and green and not brown and woody.
That way, you avoid any risk involved with moving your plant while also getting to grow it in a new spot.
Sure, it will take a lot longer than just moving the plant, but you also don’t risk losing it.