Moved knock-off rose and butterfly plant few days ago and now they look dead.

Question

I now know that I should have waited til the fall to move them. They both appear completely wilted and dead. But I’ve been watering them twice a day since then and wonder if they will come back. What should I do?

Answer 1

What should you do? Pray to the garden spirits. First you need to create shade for the plants. Any tall box or leaf bag on sticks/stakes will do. Next, water only when soil is dry. Did you reduce the overall size of the plant before you dug it up? I would definitely do this even though it’s a bad time of year to prune roses. Some winter kill of new growth is better than losing the entire plant. You may have cut off many of the small feeder roots when you dug the plants up so they are unable to support the amount of top growth. It takes time to make new roots and drowning them won’t help. Don’t fertilize; the plant is in enough trouble without being told to grow more leaves. As the saying goes, next time look before you leap.