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.
Daylilies
Daylilies
Iris
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
Pink Bleeding Hearts
White Bleeding Hearts
Japanese Primrose
Primrose (Primula)
These two methods can be used for dividing most plants and it is fun to experiment!
