Well that partially depends on your patience. But if the plant is in a high visibility area, I probably won’t tolerate the poor performance as long as if it were tucked away somewhere in the back of my beds.

 

My annuals get yanked pretty quickly if they don’t look good. I might first try fertilizing or spraying for annoyances such as powdery mildew. But the summer is too short to put up with sick-looking annuals and I’ll swap them out with something else. I will typically give perennials one season to get acclimated. If they don’t perform up to par in the second year, they get yanked. I noticed that some plants just don’t like to be moved and will let you know if you try. I moved some Japanese Painted Ferns one year and complained all season about how weak they were. They browned out a bit and just didn’t get very big. The next season they were great. Shrubs can be the same way. I planted some new Oakleaf Hydrangeas one year next to some established ones. The new ones constantly wilted that year while the older ones were fine. But in year two, all was well with the new ones. Trees can take a bit longer. I have some Japanese Tree Lilacs that were transplanted in 2003. The stress of moving the mature trees took several years to go away. The first picture shows one of the trees in 2006.  The second picture shows the same tree in 2008.  Each year I would get lots of water sprouts and significant die-back at the ends of the branches. Five years later they are finally having a good year and filling out nicely.

 

They say moving is one of the most stressful things in a person’s life. I guess that goes for plants as well.