It’s finally time to get out in the garden and have some fun! One of the many bonuses of gardening is the ability to increase your bounty by dividing your plants. Whether to fill in bare spots, move color and texture to new places, or simply share, dividing has huge payoffs.
For those who haven’t tried it yet, here are a few of the many plants that readily lend themselves to this procedure. You can try it on plants with fibrous roots, as well as those with corms and bulbs, like iris and daylilies.
Dividing Plants:
Japanese Primrose and Green and Gold (chrysogonum virginiannum 'allen bush'- a great ground cover!) To divide these plants and others in early spring, dig up the entire clump when it is small and carefully ease the individual plants apart, grasping the bottom of the leaves, near the roots. You can see these separate plants by their shared clump of roots. It is best to do this division a few days after a rain, when the soil is not heavy, but not dried out either. Then simply replant the new clumps in their new locations. This can also be done successfully later in the season, even when the plant is in bloom, but expect that it will wilt and need to be watered frequently. If you wait until it flowers, it is best to remove the blossoms (as painful as that may be), to allow the plant to recover more quickly from the shock.
(These plant photos are of my garden.)
Chrysogonum with Wood Hyacinths
Primrose (Primula)
These two methods can be used for dividing most plants and it is fun to experiment!
Hi Barbara, Thanks for joining up with me over at Girl Raised in The South. I am enjoying your blog. This post reminds me of the flowers and foliage I grew up with. My father was stationed in the Hawaiian islands during WWII and when he returned to the states he wanted to live somewhere tropical and moved to Florida. Most of the landscape in our yard reflected landscape commonly seen in the Hawaiian islands. We had Bleeding hearts only they were red and white. And we had many fruit bearing trees..guava's, papaya's, avacados, citrus, Mulberries, and grapes. You name it we had it. I also love Day Lilies. They are among my favorite bedding plants.~Ames
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog! I love your flower pictures, so beautiful!
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