Dividing Perennials

.

I divide perennials and pot volunteers in spring. It’s a spring ritual that is a little time consuming but very gratifying.

The following list of potted plants contains - plants that have spread too far:

- 4 ‘Sheffield Pink’ mum
- 3 'Clara Curtis' mum
- 1 Lily of the valley
- 10 black-eyed Susan
- 6 purple cone flower
- 1 tiger lily
- 3 rhubarb
- 4 periwinkle

plants that have produced too many seedlings:

- 5 Lenten Rose
- 5 Johnny Jump-ups

and a plant in the wrong place (too much sun):

- 2 large hosta

The plants that have spread too far were dug out from the edges of the main plant and potted. The seedlings were dug up and potted. The large hosta was completely dug out and chopped in quarters with a hatchet. Two pieces were planted in the shade in my garden. Two were potted.

I put the plants in pots with extra soil. I water them well – I mean really soak them until water runs out of the pot. I want to make sure the soil gets around the roots. I started dividing at the beginning of April. By now they all look good and are ready to be planted.

Except for the two hostas that I planted in my shade garden, all the plants are promised to other gardeners. I love being able to share plants with friends.

.
(More information on “Dividing Perennials” from Clemson University Extension.)

.

Busy Garden Days

.

This week is crazy. There are seeds to plant, pots to fill, annuals to put out, weeds to pull, community gardens Blumenplatz and Burnside to plant. And, we’re going to our first Iron Pigs AAA baseball game tonight.

I got to run away from it all yesterday and visited Felicita Gardens in Harrisburg. I’ll post some impressions on Saturday.

The spring garden is exciting. The lilacs and azaleas are at their peak. The re-seeding garden is full of forget-me-nots, cleome, snapdragons, sweet alyssum, red poppies and portulaca. It’s exciting to see what has seeded from last year’s plants.

It’s not so exciting to plan removing and moving the seedlings. Gravity makes the seedlings end up in the path or too near the edge of the garden. I’ll need to move some and remove others. The removing is easy. I can remove a lot of plants in the wrong place with my hoe. The moving takes a little time. The seedlings are too small to move now but, in a week or so, I’ll start my annual – dig them out here and put them over there. Then I can mulch the area and wait for blooms.

.

Perennials Divided and Seedlings

This spring I managed to divide, pot and give away some perennials - 2 Liriope, 3 mums (Chrysanthemum koreamun 'single Apricot' Garden Mum), 2 Coreopsis moonbeam, 4 brunnera, 3 creeping jenny, 2 pots of snow drops, and 11 pots of sweet woodruff. There is a sense of satisfaction in putting extra plants to good use. I have more that need division as time allows – or - there’s always next year.

Seedlings are popping up everywhere in the re-seeding garden. It’s like the great spring treasure hunt. There are varieties of cleome, sweet alyssum, nicotiana, lady slipper, rose campion, snow-on-the-mountain and snapdragon.

This little garden has good and bad points. On the bad side: not all the plants come up where I want them so some plants have to be moved, sometimes there is an overabundance of plants which necessitates culling of seedlings, some plants need to be given away or added to the compost pile. On the good side: it’s exciting to see what pops up where, the garden fills in like a spring meadow and - the price is right.

It may seem like bad outweighs good but I think the summer show is worth it.