Dividing Perennials

Tips On Dividing Perennials

Many perennials simply get too big and need to be divided . They either get too big for the space they are in, start to lose vigor, or start to crowd out other plants. Now is the time to think about dividing perennials and how to do divisions.

One of ways that you can tell your plant needs to be divided is when the plant starts to die in the center. The plant has not been able to expand fast enough and the center simply get squeezed, can’t get enough nutrients, and starts to die. You may also notice that it is crowding out other plants, and you just need to give all of them some room and do plant divisions.

Early spring is one of the best times to divide perennials. I was unable to do it then, but we should still have enough cool moist days for my grasses to recover.

I noticed that this was happening with some glasses that I had last year. However, I am simply not strong enough to dig them up to divide them. I finally hired someone to help me do that. And we divided the plants this week.

My hired help dug the grasses up, divided them by cutting them, took out any foreign grasses, took out all of the dead material, added a little compost, and replanted them. We divided each grass into at least for four or five clumps and replanted about three of the 2 to 3 of them depending on how large the clumps were.

Anytime your perennials are getting too big and looking little tired in the middle or are crowding other plants, you should make plant divisions. That way you can ensure the health of your plants and have some to share with other gardeners for their gardens. I am looking forward to having healthier grasses, plus some new places to plant some in my home garden.