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Community Corner

The Green Thumb: Go Forth and Multiply

Horticulturist Janet Dillon discusses perennials.

Propagating perennials by division is a frugal way to get more plants.  It's fun to share favorite plants from garden to garden among friends and fellow gardeners.  It is good design practice to repeat a plant or color throughout the garden. When you find a plant that thrives in your conditions, by all means, plant more of it.  So many flowers look best grouped in a cluster to make a bolder statement.

Not only do you and your friends get more plants, the parent perennial plant benefits from being lifted and divided every few years. When a perennial gets a bare spot in the center, when the flowers get smaller and less prolific, or when it grows too large for its space, it needs to be divided. Now, and into fall, is the best time to divide spring blooming perennials.  It's easier than you think. 

If you have been reading this column, you will not be at all surprised at the first step to dividing perennials. 

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Wait for it.

Ready?

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Water. 

Yep, water.  The night before you plan on digging, give the area a good slow soak.  This will ensure the plants are turgid and it will make the soil easier to cultivate.  Grab some clean plastic grower pots (you have been saving or recycling, right?), two garden forks, a sharp knife, fresh potting soil, gloves, a watering can, lace up your boots and get gardening.

Most plants should be dug and gently lifted out of the ground to divide.  Make sure each division has a good hunk of roots, as many roots hairs and side roots as possible, and at least one intact eye or crown of growth.  Do not let the freshly dug roots dry out.  Fibrous roots of bleeding heart and lilies of the valley can be gently pulled apart with your gloved fingers. Keep roots moist with wet newspaper wrapping if it's not going to be immediately replanted.  Use back-to-back forks to divide fleshy, tuberous root systems on hosta and day lilies right in the ground before lifting.  Cut rhizomes from German Iris and peony into three- to six-inch sections with a sharp, clean knife and allow to scar a bit in the air, out of the sun to avoid rot.  Dividing plants with a tap root (butterfly weed, hollyhock, and poppies) is a little trickier and probably best left until the spring.

Share the wealth.  Consider having a get together to trade plants like you would cookies at the holidays.  Have some friends over for pot luck and garden talk while you exchange new divisions from your gardens.  Invite me.  I have some cool stuff to share, too.

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