Our neighbors removed an ash tree a couple years ago and unfortunately that area is where I had the bulk of my astilbes growing—in the shade of that ash tree. They don’t do very well in afternoon sun. The leaves burn and the plants die back if they aren’t watered regularly. That wasn’t a problem over the last 2 summers—we had so much rain I never even had to get the hose out to water my plants. But this summer we had a dry spell and most of my astilbes turned crunchy and brown and died back (hopefully not permanently).
Meanwhile on the other side of our backyard a different neighbor’s oak tree is starting to shade out my flowerbed filled with daylilies. So they also aren’t happy. They still bloom, but there are fewer scapes and many of them get top-heavy and flop from lack of sun.
Last week I decided it was finally time to swap all the plants. I dug out all the daylilies that were in the shade and set them aside. Then I dug up all my astilbes to take their place.
Finally I planted the daylilies in the sun where the astilbes have been baking for 2 years.
Hopefully the labor was worth it and all of my plants will do better now in their preferred growing conditions.