Can I Move My Arborvitae When It Is Cold?

Q: We planted arborvitae outside of our sun room but now we’ve decided we want to go another route. Can we move them to another location now when it’s cold? 

A: It is very hard to transplant an arborvitae successfully from one spot to another unless it is very small. They are very sensitive to dry roots. You must bring along much of the existing root ball in order for the tree to survive hot weather. If your arborvitae is more than three feet tall, I wouldn’t bother moving it.