Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Dividing perennials
Spring is a great time to divide summer and fall blooming perennials. (Divide spring bloomers in fall) GENERALLY speaking, many perennials can be divided every 3 years or so. Divide perennials when they are peeking up about 3 to 6 inches or so. You can divide when they’re larger but they’ll look floppy for longer.
Hostas and daylilies are two of the easiest and most prolific plants to divide.
I really like to use a garden fork for this job. They loosen the soil and are much less damaging to the roots of your plants. IF the soil happens to be dry and you’re having a difficult time lifting the plants, then water the area, go have a cool beverage, come back and work at it again. You don’t want the area soaked but moistened. I also like to place a tarp down near the area to place the lifted plants on, it’s much less messy that way and easier to drag the plants around the yard to various locations.
WARNING this video is from 2013. Both me and the yard look a LOT different! However the information is still the same!
Once you have the entire plant out of the ground, get the soil off and take a look at the root system. If you see mushy parts, cut them out and compost them. And this year, check for jumping worms, refer to Monday’s (May 3rd) show for more on that. You may have fibrous roots, rhizomes or tubers. Be sure to have 3 to 4 ‘growing points’ to each division.
You can use a spade, a knife or your hands to do the dividing. Keeping your tools clean means less chance of spreading any disease. So rinse them with regular Lysol or a 10% bleach solution, don’t use Pine Sol, it’s too corrosive. Depending on your goal, you may have lots of little transplants or a few nice size plants. There are exceptions to dividing perennials, in particular is butterfly weed, leave this plant be. You’ll find much more information including which perennials do NOT like to be divided on this University of MN Extension comprehensive article and calendar on WHEN to divide WHICH perennials.
