I have six established hardy perenial lantana in front of my house. They do wonderfully in this east-facing location, but they take over the entire flower bed. I'l like to move them around the base of a tall souther red oak in our front yard. The tree is tall and doesn't have a very wide canopy. When would be a good time to move my lantant to its new home? Should I wait until is starts to leaf or would it be less traumatic to move it while it is dormant?

Answer #1 · John Heider's Answer · Hi laura-If you are wanting to move your lantanas only because they are to large you can prune them each year back to the ground. If you have enjoyed the plant and their color maybe you would only have to relocate a few and prune the others. Do not prune until spring or until you observe new growth emerging. At that time you can prune to approximately six inches of the ground or crown of the plant. In mid summer you can also prune the ends of the stems to help keep a desired size and promote more blooms til fall.
If you do want to move them; now through early spring would be a good time while they are still dormant. It looks as though the warmer weather this year is coming a few weeks earlier than normal so transplanting now and doing your final pruning sometime in April or when new growth first appears should be fine. If they are quite large you can prune 1/3 to 1/2 the stems length to make transplanting easier. As of yet I wouldn't prune to the ground as the old stems will still provide some protection to the lower wood in case you still get some freezing and wet conditions that can harm or rot the plants crown. It sounds as though you may have plenty of light under your oak tree, but remember the more sun the Miss Huff lantana gets will determine its size and abundance of blooms. They do like plenty of sun. You can click on the link below that will take you directly to a good article on 'How to Relocate And Transplant A Shrub or Tree'. Good Luck-I'm sure they will look beautiful in your front yard.

www.gardenality.com/Articles/327/How-To-Info/Planting/How-to-Relocate-And-Transplant-A-Shrub-or-Tree/default.html)

Answer #2 · Brent Wilson's Answer · Laura,

It's been a somewhat mild winter here in Zone 8 so if you follow John's advice the lantana should do fine. Like John said, I would only remove part of the dormant stems, enough to make it easier to dig them. Then wait until they start to leaf out to remove any other dead stems. After you transplant them, it might be a good idea to mulch around the roots with a 3 to 4 inch layer of pine straw or a 2 inch layer of shredded wood mulch...just in case we have one of those late deep freezes. If it's gonna go below 25 degrees or so, make the to water them in good. The water will form ice around the roots that will act as an insulator. We do this at our nursery. Orange and peach farmers do this when there's a late freeze.

Good luck!

Brent)