Dividing and transplanting Perennials

Whether it's an early spring or an easy winter we are having in the Pacific Northwest it is the perfect time to divide and transplant your perennials. Today I will give you a few easy tips on how to increase your plant numbers with your only cost being your time.

How do you know when it is time to divide perennials? Many plants grow in the same place without the need for division for several years. In fact, quite a few plants do not even begin to bloom very well until their second year in the ground. When a plant has lost its' vigor and it's not producing many new flowers, or growth, it is time to divide and transplant them.

Before digging out any of your plants, prepare your planting holes where you want to move the plants after division. Dig each planting hole twice as wide and deep as the root ball you plan to plant into it. Amend your soil with top soil or compost at a rate of about 50/50. Nothing exact! It's fun! Not work, so enjoy the process. Do NOT add sand to your soil, like a lot of folks mistakenly think you should. It makes a concrete like growing medium for your plants and they will grow just about as well as if you had actually planted them in concrete itself. Once your holes are dug, and the soil amended, you are ready to begin with the fun part! Dividing your perennials and easily getting more plants for your garden, or to share.

Dig up the perennials you have decided to work with, shoveling under the roots and lifting out. Many are very easy for you to see where to gently tease and pull apart the roots, into small individual plants. That is all it takes to divide this kind of perennial. These include yarrow, daisies and asters. Others are not so easily separated, like ornamental grasses. To divide these tough guys, you need to cut through the root mass, once it's lifted out of the ground. Most garden books suggest you use a spade to cut through root balls, but I find that dangerous for myself and the plant. One of us gets hurt or damaged every time! Using a large serrated blade knife, cut straight down the middle of the root ball with a sawing motion. The knife will never be used on bread again but you will have an easy to use plant divider from now on. The size of the root ball or how many new plants you decide to replant into each hole is up to what you would like to do. I have found a gallon sized root ball cut into four pieces, or 3-4 plants bunched together, makes a good starting size for new perennials.

Position your new plants in the hole, adding your amended soil to the bottom of the hole until the top, or crown of the plant is at the same level as when you dug it out. Most plants grow very little, if at all, if their crowns are buried too deeply. Continue to fill in around the roots, or root ball, and as easy as that, you have divided and transplanted a 'new', 'free' plant. Water and you are done with that one and ready to go on to your next. Have fun and thanks for letting me help with your division and transplanting of perennials.