Transplanting Daphne Jacqueline Postil to a shallower spotFinally my daphne has flowered after 3 years of no action since its purchase and since it got moved to a deeper planter

Personally as your daphne has only just settled in and started flowering I wouldn't consider moving especially not to the site you are describing... I think you'd be asking for the daphne to turn its toes up! They do need decent soil and not t one crammed against a front wall and a house wall. Oh and the daphne doesn't need support what it needs is an open situation where the air can get round it.

I think that you've got away with it by any disturbance up to now as they hate being moved. MGs spot on; and I would have made the first move into the ground as it will become quite a large shrub with plenty of moisture holding material. It is without doubt one of the best daphnes you could buy. (Would have bought one myself if I had £30 to £40 to spare).

Agree Jimmy I'd have planted in the ground to start with but I really can't see it liking yet another move and certainly not to where Irridium is suggesting.

I knew that daphnes hate being moved, so am rather hesitant about moving it again but wasn't sure about its preference for needing a lot of root space, moisture etc, hence my posting on here.

I only have a tiny back garden and nothing at the front other than a wall, and zillions of pots. I have gardened here at home for about 18 years now and have over time, been growing lots of plants, shrubs, veg. and changing them now and again.

Oh, and btw, I rescued this plant for about £5 and thought, it was a steal! So am rightly pleased that its finally flowered, and such a lovely beautiful scent it has. In years to come when it's a lot bigger, I'll be trimming a branch or two to bring inside...

If you can remove it from the pot without disturbing the root ball it may not know that it has been disturbed. If it is in a traditionally shaped 'plant pot' with sloping sides you could knock it out. If in a rounded pot with a neck narrower than the sides I would consider breaking the pot.

You do not say what material the plant pot is made of. If it is plastic you could just cut off the bottom and place it on the earth where you want to plant it. That way your plant will have room to put roots down into the new soil without any disturbance. Do let us know what action you decide on and maybe a photo of it in situ.

What did you do in the end and what happened? I wouldn't have moved it to the spot you described but if you did I hope its doing well.
I thought this was a tree shape when mature, not a climber that needs supporting, or am I up the creek?

Nope Sera you are spot on a tree shape!

Hi Everyone,

So sorry for the long delay. I've been off forums for a while but now have come back! Here's the daphne now at nearly 5' in a raised bed 45cm deep and 1.5 length. It's got plenty of other plants in there too with bulbs and a few perennials. Right next to it, unfortunately, is a paeony and I've tried to uproot it to no avail. (I need someone with some oomph!) Are daphne and paeony roots brittle, or hard to uproot if they're entwined into each other? I do know that both of these plants are not in ideal conditions and should be in the flower bed (it's crammed with enough already) as they'll be in competition with each other and other plants. What shall I do about this? Obviously, the daphne has just started to flower and the paeony shall flower (badly as 5 flowers were very floppy last year) later in the year, shall I wait till the autumn to move them?

Just bumping this up for an update...

Paeonies hate moving and the daphne has already survived two moves - another might be fatal. Suppose you leave the daphne where it is and let the paeony grow until its too big for the site. In the meantime plant another paeony where you now wish you'd planted the first one?

Hi Steragram,

I'll have to leave them both there and hope for the best. As you can tell on the daphne's leaves, there is some kind of damage. Do you know what it could be? (The bed didn't get any feed at all last year. When shall I feed it now that the daphne's in flower?)

I've got another paeony in the flower bed that I've just noticed with its disguishable deep red shoots (should they be up now under these chilly conditions?) and hadn't realised I had planted this from a few years ago. (Yes, I have far too many plants squeezed into this space).

Sorry can't help with the daphne leaves - have only had experience with D. mezerium. If nobody answers try sending a PM to BJS.
Just being nosey - what's the leafless branch in front of the daphne?

The branch that's next to the daphne is a Quince A rootstock tree that was with my Comice du Doyenne Pear that I had sawn off in the autumn. I didn't know what it was to begin with until a friend advised me that pears on grafted onto Quince A, hence the spines on them. Originally, I couldn't fathom what it was and thought why this tree was conjoined with it. I must have planted in the ground too deep and it grew separately from the pear.

Atm, the tree it keeping the daphne more upright as against a narrow path that I use regularly, and I wouldn't want the flowers to drop off!