How to Transplant Sarcococca

Wait until fall if you want to transplant a sweet box plant in spring, or wait until spring if you want to transplant the plant in fall. Place the tip of a spade's blade on the ground 12 inches from the sweet box plant's base. Move the blade's tip across the soil to draw a circle on the ground around the sweet box plant, keeping all parts of the circle 12 inches from the plant's base.

Push the spade about 12 inches into the ground along the circle to prune the plant's long roots. This process is called root pruning. The task also encourages the plant to develop a network of small roots that will help reduce transplant shock.

Select a new planting site for the sweet box plant, ensuring the site is in full to partial shade and receives no more than two hours of direct sunlight daily. Remove all vegetation in the new planting site. Loosen the site's soil to a depth of at least 12 inches and a width of about 5 square feet with a round-point shovel, other hand-digging tool or a rototiller.. Those measurements are enough for the plant's roots to spread and establish in the soil more quickly than they would otherwise.

Dig a planting hole that measures at least 48 inches in diameter. If the soil has poor drainage or little nutrients, mix finished compost with the soil you removed to create the hole, using as much as 1 part compost and 1 part soil.

Cut through the sweet box plant's soil along the 12-inch diameter circle with the spade, severing roots that grew outside the circle since your pruned the roots. Lower the spade's handle to pry the plant loose from the ground. Push a round-point shovel under the plant, and lower its handle to break the roots at the bottom of the plant's root ball. Use bypass pruners to cut through remaining roots that anchor the plant in the ground.

Lift the sweet box plant out of the ground, and place it on a tarp. Cover the root ball with a damp towel if the plant will be out of the ground for more than a few minutes.

Pull on the tarp to move the sweet box to its new location. Set the plant in the planting hole so the top of the root ball is even with ground level. Add or remove soil from the bottom of the hole as needed to adjust the root ball's height.

Mix 2 teaspoons of a slow-release, general-purpose, granulated fertilizer with the soil you removed to create the planting hole. A general-purpose fertilizer contains equal parts nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, such as 10-10-10 fertilizer.

Alternatively, mix 1 tablespoon of a water-soluble, 10-10-10 fertilizer with 1 gallon of water, and pour the solution on the ground only after you finish planting.

Fill the remainder of the planting hole with the soil you removed to make the hole. The planting site should be even with the surrounding soil and the top of the sweet box's root ball. Do not add soil to the top of the root ball.

Spread about a 3-inch layer of bark-chip mulch around the entire planting zone, but keep the mulch a few inches from the plant stems. Mulch helps to retain moisture and prevent weeds. Keeping it a few inches away from plant stems prevents rot and insect infestations.

Water the entire planting zone deeply, until the root ball and surrounding loose soil are evenly moist but not wet. Water the sweet box's soil about once weekly during the first growing season while the plant becomes established in the soil. Increase watering frequency during periods of drought.