Is it possible to successfully transplant established asparagus now? My Mom has a nice bed in her garden of them. Since she has no need of them anymore, I would like to take them as a remembrance planting.

Probably late winter would be best. One of mine escaped from the raised bed so I'll be interested in what others have to say. The roots do go very deep!

Ummmm.............can't dig here in even late winter. LOL

Then it would be as soon as you can dig. Maybe others will chime in if they transplanted late in the year, after frost has yellowed them and they've been cut back. I'd love to know the experience of others.

It's been so long since I planted mine that I couldn't remember if it was in the spring or fall, but here's an article that tells you how.

http://www.gardeningknowhow.co...

Thanks for the help, Tom. At least once they're cut back I can mark vacancies to decide where to plant the escapee.

Nice Asparagus patch there Arlene!

Thanks. From May to July we always know the vegetable du jour!

Last spring (2014) I was going to raise my garden up another 10" and I had established asparagus there. I knew I couldn't just pile 10" of soil above all that asparagus so I decided to just dig it all up, fill in underneath it, and them sit it back down. I dug two feet out and two feet deep to remove that asparagus. I finally gave up. I could not budge any of it. I ended up building a 1x10 inch "coffer-dam" around all the asparagus, filling in that 10" of soil in the rest of the garden and then over the summer/fall, slowly filled in leaves/soil to build up that area over the asparagus. I had absolutely no asparagus to harvest this year (2015). I basically lost it all. All I did by trying to dig it up was to cut through the majority of roots and stunt the growth of the asparagus. Some of it finally did come back this summer, but it looks like it will be another year or even two before I'll have asparagus again.

Anna, the link that Tom posted has good info; but, as they point out, it is rather difficult. (I once had to move an asparagus bed that was totally overrun with quack grass and horsetail, and probably managed to kill 2/3 of the plants.) So, I would say give it a try, because if you don't try then you know for sure you won't have any of the plants. If spring isn't going to work (is your mom's house going to be sold?), I'd wait until late fall (or as long as you can), cut the stalks way down, and give it a try then. Also, if the plants have "berries" on them you might want to collect them once they turn red and start some plants from seed; I've had excellent luck at doing that to fill in some empty areas in my patch.

Sorry to hear of your problems with the asparagus, Ken.

Sandy - it is worth a try to move just one and if all goes well then Anna can try one more, etc.

The asparagus does make a beautiful backdrop to the garden with dahlias.