We’re fast coming up to my favorite time of garden year. You
see, I’m a frugal gardener. OK, I’m cheap. And that’s why I love
this time of year in the garden so much.
Many perennials need dividing in the fall. The result? Free
plants!
We’re fast coming up to my favorite time of garden year. You see, I’m a frugal gardener. OK, I’m cheap. And that’s why I love this time of year in the garden so much.
Many perennials need dividing in the fall. The result? Free plants!
When it comes to dividing perennials, et me borrow from a fellow garden columnist who maintains that the two most commonly asked questions are, “what if I kill it?” followed closely by “will it hurt?” The answers are: 1) you won’t, and 2) only if you hit your foot with the shovel.
The fact of the matter is, perennials need dividing every three years or so. They not only need it, they’ll thrive as a result. If you grow clumping perennials, bulbs or plants with rhizomes or tubers, you need to divide them every three to five years to keep them healthy and vigorous. And fall and winter – when temperatures cool, plant growth slows and some plants go into hibernation – is the time to divide.
What plants need dividing? Things like iris, daylilies, chrysanthemums, ornamental grasses, lily of the valley, purple coneflowers, aster, dahlias, delphinium, bleeding heart (dicentra), fortnight lily (moraea), sunflower (helianthus,) and pulmonaria. Many of the popular ornamental grasses like purple fountain grass are also ripe candidates for dividing.
To divide, you have to dig up the candidate out of the ground, trying to get as much of the rootball as possible. It helps to soak the area a couple days beforehand to make the soil as workable as possible. After digging out the plant, use a shovel, large knife or spade to either half the plant or cut into quarters.
When you divide, place the entire clump on a tarp in a shady spot. Check to see if any sections naturally split off. Some perennials have roots that are easy to separate, while others are such a tangled mess that you may need a hack saw to do the job. Still others have fleshy roots that you’ll need to slice into sections. Prune away dead and damaged tissue at the same time, and make sure each section has a portion of roots and leaves.
The success of any transplanted division depends on its root system. Some fall divisions fail because they don’t have sufficient roots to support their foliage. To avoid shortchanging plants of the roots they need to thrive, I try to dig as much of the root ball out as possible. It’s better to have more soil and roots than less. You can always shake off excess dirt, but you can’t paste severed roots back on.
Division size is a matter of personal taste and the size of your garden. In my garden, the optimal size of a division usually is about one-third the size of the original rootball. Pieces this large are big enough to reestablish themselves quickly, but small enough not to need division for another three years or so. Plant divisions as soon as you can. Set
them carefully into place and sprinkle soil around them until the planting hole is full.
Don’t have separation anxiety. Divide perennials to help them thrive.
