April 4, 2023 • 25 mins
Jim and Mary talk about dividing perennials in the spring, and how to transplant them into your flowerbeds to help add more color and stop weeds in the process!
One of the easiest, best and least expensive ways to fill your flowerbeds with life and color is to divide the perennials you already have this spring into even more plants! Not only is it simple to do, it can save you hundreds of dollars on plants. And, of course, on mulch too!
For podcast article & notes on Dividing Perennials In The Spring, see : https://simplegardenlife.com/divide-perennials-in-spring/
One of the easiest, best and least expensive ways to fill your flowerbeds with life and color is to divide the perennials you already have this spring into even more plants! Not only is it simple to do, it can save you hundreds of dollars on plants. And, of course, on mulch too!
For podcast article & notes on Dividing Perennials In The Spring, see : https://simplegardenlife.com/divide-perennials-in-spring/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to Simple Garden Life. I'm
your host, Jim Competti with mywife Mary Competti. And Mary, you're
here today to talk about one ofthe best ways to save money and stop
(00:23):
weeds in your flower beds all atthe same time. Absolutely, we're talking
about how to divide perennials in thespring. Yeah, we'll get to a
second. We always talk about falldividing, how great fall is for dividing
perennials, and it absolutely is,but it gets lost that you can still
do a lot of this in thespringtime. It can be very easy to
do. And there's some things youcan do in the spring that are easier
(00:44):
to divide, like ornamental grasses forinstance, that can really make a big
change in your landscape for the upcomingsummer. Absolutely, and you know,
sometimes in the fall when you divideperennials, you're dealing with all the leaves,
all the stems, and you know, sometimes in the spring it's actually
easier to divide. That's a greatpoint. So we'll get into that in
a second. Let's talk about ifyou want to talk to us or have
(01:07):
questions, you can email us alwaysat the farm at Owgarden dot com.
We've been getting a lot of emails, a lot of great suggestions for future
podcasts started. Oh it has andwe love it, so always again the
farm at Owgarden dot com. Youcan also sign up to follow us at
simple garden life dot com or followus on Facebook. Um, you know,
Facebook's great, go over to simplegarden Life follow us or you know,
(01:30):
and you're gonna get every update,you're gonna get our articles. Uh,
it's really great. And as faras the podcast, we're pretty much
on every app you know, whetherit's iHeartRadio, you can go right down
the list. You can follow usthere as well. Right if we have
Apple podcasts, any anywhere that youcan get a podcast, we're pretty much
on. I don't know why peoplewant to put that on, I know,
but what they do. So let'sget into this right now. You
(01:51):
know, people always talk about wetalked about dividing in the fall, and
we do a lot of that aswell. Um, but springtime and you
said a great reason you know,there's no leaves on anything. You can
really get to the plants quickly,and you can add ornamental grasses in the
spring, you know, picking themup. We did a podcast on that
not too long ago about how todivide them. But you know, when
you do all this and you dividein the spring, you can really pack
(02:15):
your you know, your flower bedsfull of flowers. And we're going to
talk about why that's so fantastic,but let's talk right now by why it's
so great to have. You know, many of the great reasons to divide
your perennials on a regular basis,whether it's fall or spring. I mean,
right off the bat, Mary forme, you know, keep them
manageable. Right, Once perennials getreally large, you know, they're hard,
hard to manage, hard to handle, and if you divide them,
(02:37):
they're much easier to manage. Yeah, on a regular basis. And so
what people always ask, like,what's a regular basis? Well, for
us, when we wanted to getmore plants, a regular basis is almost
every year we would divide them inhalf and get another plant. But on
average every three to five years,if you're going out and dividing your plants
and keeping them in a normal,you know, normal pace. It's gonna
work to keep those those plants,you know, just healthy, strong and
(03:00):
not overgrown and falling over like wesee so often when they just get too
big, right, And it alldepends on where you live as well.
I mean, I know, youknow, things grown Florida like crazy.
That's true, that's true. No, we're talking, you know, do
what is ever necessary in your areafor growth. Yeah. I think a
great point is when they get toolarge or when you need more plants,
it's probably time to start dividing.I mean, not only does it keep
(03:23):
them manageable, but it keeps theroots healthier and strong. And we talk
about you know, being root boundor using nutrients. You know, daylilies
hostas these things. When they growfor three, four or five years,
they really start to the roots almoststart to grow together and pack in.
When that happens, not only havethey taken excuse me, a lot of
the nutrients out of the soil,they've also grown together and can't absorb nutrients
(03:46):
or water very well well. Andthe same goes holds true with ornamental grasses.
You know, when you're talking aboutkeeping the plants strong. You know,
an ornamental grass is overgrown, thecenter of the grass does not grow
as well as it used to.But when you divide it, you have
strong grasses that can grow strong straightup and you don't have that gap in
the middle and they don't fall over. Yeah, and not just the grasses,
(04:06):
but when you get back to theperennials, you know, the last
thing that it really does is itgives you better blooming. People often say,
well, hey, I've had this, you know, corobell here for
seven years and it's always bloom greatand it's not blooming as well. Or
daylilies, or you can go rightdown the line see them. It doesn't
matter. What happens is the longerthose roots grow and the thicker they get
(04:29):
together, and the less nutrients turnthe soil, there's not enough to power
strong blooms. And you might geta lot of green growth, but fewer
and fewer blooms. By dividing themand transplating them, you're going to regenerate
those plants. Well, let's getto the real reason how we started dividing
our perennials in the spring. That'strue. I mean for us, I
look about this way back in theday when we had our first farm.
(04:53):
Mary will tell you, I thinkyour parents will tell anybody that knows me,
will tell you that I have thisaffinity for creating more and more flower
beds. Yeah, you'd like tohave them completely filled. With good reason
though, yeah, and everywhere.So here we were starting out, and
you know, transplanting and dividing isa great way to save a lot of
(05:14):
money. And back in those dayswe looked for every way possible still do
to try to cut corners and savea little bit. Growing kids. Yeah,
very hungry we did so. Soyou know it was for us dividing
in the spring or the fall wasa great way to fill our flower beds
with tons and tons of flowers,and not just dividing our flowers, our
friends, our family. If Isaw a nice flower somewhere, I'd be
(05:36):
like, hey, hey, thisspring, I will come up and dig
that up for you because it looksa little overgrown. And by the way,
I'll take some of that with meif I can. That's a great
thing to do for people. Wedo that now. We give away tons
of plants every year because the moreyou have, you're you're dividing them up
and you can give them away.But for us, it was a way
to fill our beds. And let'slet's kind of get into that for a
(05:59):
second. Out why that's so important, another way to save money. Obviously,
you're filling your beds without going tonurseries and buying a ton of plants.
For us, if we saw aplant we really loved, we might
purchase it, knowing that in ayear or two that perennial could be three
to five perennials. So that's agreat way to put plants into your landscape.
But more importantly, it can saveyou on mulch overall. Absolutely,
(06:21):
the more plants you have, theless mulch that you need. Yeah,
I mean people talk about mulching andI always say, you know, four
to six inch layer of mulch,you know, that's what you should have.
And they're like, oh, it'sso much mulch. I'm like,
not, if you've planted correctly,if you've planted with divisions and you fill
your flower beds, that mulch isspread out over the beds. You're not
just filling these large, expansive areaswith lots of mulch and no plants.
(06:44):
And you're right, it saves tremendouslyon the cost. But you know,
it also adds a tremendous amount ofbeauty to your flower beds when they're full.
You know, when you have alot of plants and a lot of
flowers growing all at once, itlooks really good. And then there's also
that fact that it helps stop weeds. Right, if you have more plants
in your flower beds, less malch, there's less weeds that can pop up.
(07:05):
Absolutely, and I always say thistoo. It's it's a little bit
of a trick, but it's true. People will come and look at our
beds, are like, how doyou keep them so weed free? Well,
you know, we mulch, wefilm thick, but there are some
weeds sometimes. But when you haveso many plants, you might not see
one little Strand when you have thisbig open thing of malch and six plants,
(07:26):
you're darn right you're going to seeall those little weeds coming up,
right, and you have a nicelayer of mulch around your plants. The
weeds are actually very easy to pullup because they are trying to get down
through the malch to embed into thesoil. And all you do is walk
around and pick them up once ina while. It's absolutely true. And
then finally, and I think thisgets lost in why you want to fill
your flower beds with plants and notmalt. I always talk about that,
(07:47):
and malt should be the least amountthat you see in a flower bed.
If you've done it, if you'vedone it right, you know, you
can put some rock formation somewhere.You can put lots of plants. You
can, but the malt should bean accent, not the focus. But
when you put a lot of plantsinto a flower bed and they're all manageable
sizes, they also help to regulatethe soil temperature because that canopy of leaves
(08:11):
is really acting, you know,as a barrier to the sun. It's
keeping the moisture in the soil,it's not drying it out. And then
you have to water less less weedseeds can find a way in. It
is so beneficial to fill those flowerbeds. And you know, I think
people get hung up and I can'tafford that. I can't afford to go
out and buy eighty plants. Butyou don't have to, you know,
(08:33):
you can keep dividing these in springtime, like I said, just a great
time to get out there, andyou might have two big daylilies. I
will get into this in a secondabout our farm, but our old farm,
we would take those and maybe makesixteen plants out of each. Yeah,
it was crazy how many plants wegot off of one day lily or
one plant. But you know,the whole point here is plant more plants,
(08:54):
less mulch. It is and divisionis the best way to do that.
So all right, we've talked alot about why, and you know,
we're going to get into the houseand we're gonna get into our question
of the week when we come back. But we got to take that ad
break. You know, we gotto pay for this airtime. I guess
somehow we do enjoy it. Butso we'll be back right after this and
we're going to talk about, youknow, how to divide in the spring,
(09:16):
what you can divide in the spring. And also a little extra feature
that we've used to our benefit thatreally I think is a key secret is
creating a holding bed for extra plants. And we'll get into that when we
come back, and we'll talk moreabout transplanting perennials in the spring. And
(09:37):
we are back with Simple Garden Lifetalking about dividing perennials in the spring.
Let's get right to the question thatreally created this entire podcast because we get
this question a lot. I lovedthis question, and Mary, go ahead
with it, all right. Wegot this last week from Tina Dotson out
of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Kindof rymes. Actually, her was when
(10:01):
I divide perennials, how do Iknow how many plants to make from a
single plant? Is there a sizethat I should be looking to cut them
back to that is best? Ihave two huge day lilies and want to
get more plants from them this spring, but I want to make sure that
they survive. Great questions, questionI get a lot. Yeah, and
Tina, you we're gonna give youthe answer here. So let's first let's
(10:22):
just kind of take this question anddivide it down. So how do I
know how many plants to make froma plant? Fantastic question, And the
answer is it really comes down towhat do you want your plants to be
this year? So I'm going touse your day lilies, Tina as an
example. So let's say you havea day lily that when you dig it
out, it's eighteen inches around.That can happen. You know, you
(10:43):
put a daily in the ground forfive six years. It's eighteen inches in
diameter. So you lift it fromthe ground in the spring. There's no
no leafing out, you know,it's just the root ball. You pop
it out. So to many peoplethat are like, can I divide it
in half? Can I divide itin quarters? Cannot divide an eights?
You know what, the answer isthat it all depends. Yeah, yes
you can. So what you're goingto get is you're going to get a
(11:07):
plant that is based upon your rootside. So if you're looking to fill
in more plants and you want themto not have to divide them in just
another year or two, I wouldtake that plant and probably make eight to
sixteen plants, and I would divideit in you to two to three inch
sections, because what that gives youis a plant that's going to be smaller,
(11:28):
but it's going to be able tolast three or four or five years.
It's going to bloom. A lot. Now you maybe you have some
planters. We do this a lotwith hostas great way to add some decoration
to a shady area of your porchor deck or patio. We'll pot some
of our extra ones up right,We actually have an article on this about
(11:48):
how to use perennials to use themin pot of plants to add interest to
your patio spaces. Oh, it'sso free, it's so easy. I
think we even have a podcast onit last year. So we'll put that
in the article and put it inthe extra features at the end. But
what we're trying to say is youmay want a bigger hosta for that pot.
If it's a big pot, soyou may want to leave when you're
(12:09):
dividing that hosta or day lily up, whatever it may be. You might
want to leave it bigger that year, or you might want a bigger focal
point in the flower bed. Thelarger you leave the divisions, the bigger
your plants you're going to be.It's really simple, but it really is
up to you. But keep thisin mind. Keep in mind that what
if you leave it large, you'reprobably going to be digging that up in
(12:31):
a year or two because it's goingto get big again. Right. It
really just depends on how you wantto use your divisions. If you have
one spot or a new flower bedand you just want to put a day
lily in there that's already a nicesize, that has some good interest.
You know, you may want todivide it in half or in quarters.
However, if you have a brandnew flower bed and you want to fill
it up, you may want totake your day lilies, Tina, and
(12:52):
divide it into eight or sixteen sections, and that way, in three years
you have a beautiful flower bed.But you know is full and vibrant.
Yeah, I've never been I'm goingto show a little bit of mine.
I don't even know what you callthis. I've never been a big fan
of dividing a plant in half,mainly in Mari Marita. When we first
met, She's like, why doyou always plant in three, fives,
(13:13):
and eight? You know, oddnumbers? I said, because it really
makes beds look good. You wantodds, you to want even Well,
Mary's very number driven. She's verynumber driven. But you have come around
to understanding those. Yeah. So, so I don't like halves for another
reason, when you divide a circularmost most plants grow in a circular way.
When you divide in half, youget a weird looking plant. When
(13:33):
you put half of a moon backinto the to the ground. So I've
always been a big fan of dividingin threes, even quarters gives you four
plants, you can just gotta havethat odd one somewhere. Uh So that's
one of the things we do.And I really like that because it gives
you a little bit more. Idon't like the half plants because of kind
of what grows up from them.But I mean, Tina, answer your
(13:54):
question. You know, the skyreally is a limit for what you want
to do. However, I wouldsay, you know, look at your
space. How many plants do youreally want to gain from it? And
then kind of divide that. Soif your plants are twelve to eighteen inches
and you make you know, fourplants out of a twelve inch round plant
that you're daily you're talking about,you're gonna get three nice or four nice
(14:16):
sized day lays for this year.Probably that can make it two or three
years for you have to do it. You make it eight, you can
probably get five years out of it. So that's really what it comes down
to and how you want to lookat it. And one thing to remember
is don't go so small that youhave one little, you know, leaf
popping above a ground. You reallywant to do three inch at least at
three inch rootball, you know,to be able to plant your flower beds.
(14:37):
This is so funny because that's comingfrom the lady that I will divide
a plant and there'll be one littlefraction of a plant. She's like,
well, let's put that in theholding bed. Well we have the same
thing. Yeah, But she's right. When you're putting them in your landscape,
that's a great idea. When youjust want to grow some extra plants,
you can throw those little divisions somewhereoff and then they'll they'll grow to
be bigger. So that's a greatquestion, Tina. I hope we answered
(14:58):
it well for you. So let'sget into now quick and easy ways to
divide and what you can divide.So really the limit is I mean,
there's any perennials on the table here, Any leafing perennial is great. Whether
you're talking cone flour, black eyedSusan. You just go down the list,
(15:18):
coral bells, day lilies, hostas, ornamental grasses. Anything in the
spring can be done. And thequicker you do it, as soon as
the ground is workable, the betteroff you are. It does not have
to come out. Yet people alwayslike, well, what am I going
to kill the plants? It's goingto freeze still, they're perennials. They're
fine if the ground is workable.Don't do it when the ground's frozen,
because then you can have some trouble. The ground is workable, you can
(15:39):
dig them up. You can putthem back in the ground that day,
you're going to be fine. Soget out there. That's the big key,
and start looking at these plants,and you know where they're at.
And let's talk about mary now,like how to dig them up? I
mean, I think this is alittle key we've learned that really makes it
easy. You go out, wedig them up. We have the root
ball, and what's the next thing? We do them over? That's right,
(16:00):
And why do we do that well, because you can see the group
ball. That's sorry, it's soeasy. People are like, well,
I never know how to make divisionsfrom the top, and how do I
do it? So let's just we'lluse a hosta for example. We'll dig
a hosta up and we flip itover and you can see the root structure
so easily. I think we haveto stop here and clarify what we're talking
about. Digging it up here Here'sthe key is that you need to actually
(16:23):
dig the whole entire thing up.You're not dividing it while still in the
ground. Yeah, that's a greatpoint. I mean, it's just easier
to see, you know where theroots are. You don't have these little
strays coming up that always annoys me. When I do that, I accidentally
miss some sometimes. But dig thatwhole plan up. There's no leafing out
yet, so flip it over.Then it becomes really easy. Our favorite
tool to use for this is ahoary hoary knife. It just it's a
(16:45):
garden knife with a serrated edge.We'll put a link to this on our
affiliate links on the article on SimpleGarden Life. And you can just cut
right through most root balls. However, I've had some big grasses before that
a heck, I pull the axeout and start cutting them with an axe.
But upside down is the way togo because you can see where you
need to go right and you alsosometimes use a spade shovel as well.
(17:07):
I do. I do, Ireally pretty much what's on hand. And
if I don't want to walk backto the barn or the garage, so
we so you want to do thatearly and you want to get out there.
So I know you have this question, maire, you've been wanting to
ask it or at least talk aboutit. And it's okay, Wait a
minute, I'm busy, I work, I came home. My hostess are
already up through the ground. Myday lilies are already out. My coral
(17:29):
bell is already leaping out. Nowdo I have to wait till fall?
Right? I was actually at mymom and dad's house the other day and
their day lilies are way ahead ofours. And their day lilies are already
popping up out of the ground andnice and green. And you know the
question is can I still divide thoseif the greenery is already out? Yeah?
First of all, why is ourfinal farm always behind everybody else?
But anyway, you're right, sogreat question. Listen. You can't harm
(17:55):
them, okay. These plants arereally hard to kill in the spring.
Even if they have a little bitof of leafing out and they've come out,
you can still dig them up,flip them over. That that early
growth may die back, it maynot, And it's okay. And it's
okay because you're going to get newgrowth right through the bottom. So and
grass is the same way. Youjust got to get them early. You
(18:15):
can't wait until you know, amonth into the season and they're a foot
tall, and do this without expectingsome some issues, but early on,
don't worry at all. You canget in there and you can do it.
So you know, you get outthere, and we talked about,
you know what, how do youdo it? How do you know?
Just go look at your bedspaces.You know you can see the plants there.
(18:37):
Now's the time to get them inand fill those beds with those plantings
of whatever you're dividing and get themin. And then when you're planting,
this is such a critical key.The easiest way to get better leafing and
better root growth in the first yearis when you dig your plants up and
you get your divisions. Try toget them in the same day. It's
not critical to their to their life. It definitely helps. So oh,
(19:02):
it definitely helps. And then whenyou dig that planting hole where you're going
to put them. I live bythe fifty fifty rule, So whenever we
dig something up, we're putting fiftypercent composts and fifty percent ground soil back
in in the bottom and feed yourplants. It does. It feed your
plants in more importantly than even that, and that's important. It allows the
root growth to be so easy andspread back out. There's not a lot
(19:25):
of time. You know, youput a transplant into hard claypan soil,
it's going to struggle. But youput it into a fifty fifty mix of
compost. Mary said it best thatcompost is going to feed the roots and
that's gonna let them go right exactly. And you know, if you are
dividing plants and you have a fewextra, we have a great tip for
you to be able to use plantslater when you need them. Yeah,
(19:47):
we lived on this ten years agowhen we build our first farm, and
crazily we decided to build a secondfarm and now we live by this too.
So we create a holding bed andit's nothing more than little area of
a garden for us. Now it'sa little spot back in an open soil
part of the field and we justcreate some dirt. We open it up.
(20:08):
It's I think ours is now likesix by ten or maybe twelve by
twelve. I don't even know whatit is. And I go around and
it's just basically a flower bed outof sight, out of mind. And
when we have all these extra transplantsand we don't know what to do with
them right away, or if we'regoing to be building something and we know
we're going to need them in Julyor September or even June, we plant
(20:30):
them now and there and we putthem in this holding bed, and we
don't we don't space them like farapart, like a landscaping. We put
them back to back to back.Right. Original holding bed was actually in
our first garden that we built atour first farm. And you know,
it doesn't matter whether it's actually inyour garden or if it's actually in a
corner of your backyard. Just creatinga holding bed is a great way to
have plants on hand whenever you needthem. Yeah, so whether it's a
(20:52):
grass, you're not dividing these whenyou dig them up later. So I'll
give you a great example. Lastyear we built some extra buildings here and
as we were doing that, wehad to landscape them. Well, you
know, to go out and buythose plants would have been a fortune in
the middle of June, July,August. And so what we did is
we created a holding bed from allof our extra plants that we had divided,
(21:12):
whether it was the fall or thespring, and then when it came
time and the building was done,we could go out. We could dig
them up just as a whole rootball and set them in place. There's
no damage, you're not dividing anything, there's no stress to the plant.
A little bit of stressed the plant, but they can handle it, and
we would put them in. Imean, I think last year, at
one point I probably had seventy toeighty plants in a holding bed right,
(21:34):
And I think it's a great wayto be able to give plants away to
family and friends or someone that's movingor someone that needs to flower bed.
If you have plants and you don'thave any space for them, this is
a great way to keep them untilthey're needed. Yeah. I can't tell
you how many times that people werewalking through, whether it was our old
farm or this farm, they're like, wow, I really like that.
That's you know that purple coral bellis beautiful or this type of day lily
(21:57):
is beautiful. And I'm like,hey, you know what some in the
holding bed you want one? Andthey're like, well, do you have
to wait till fall or spring?Like no, we'll go out, we'll
pop one up, putting in apot, and they're on their way,
and it really is. I'm tellingyou. Holding beds are fantastic and I
can't tell you enough. Don't don'tspace this. We plant them like garden
plants, like they're two three inchesapart, because we know they're not going
(22:18):
to grow together. We're going todig those up within the next year at
the most and put them where theyneed to be. So holding beds are
the key if you if you havea plants you need to divide, don't
think you'll never need them. Don'tthrow them away, don't kill them,
go put them in a holding bed, cut them down to the size you
know that they're going to be whenyou're playing them. Put them in there
and you're going to really be happyabout it. And if you don't have
the room to do a holding bed, you can also put them in pots.
(22:41):
You know there's going to need alittle extra care with some watering,
you know, throughout the season.But holding bed, if you have the
room, it's a way to go. All right, So let's just kind
of cover what we talked about todaybecause we've kind of been all over it.
So The first thing is that fillingyour beds makes sense and sense.
I love that. So it makessense because you're keeping your plants healthy,
you're letting them blue the more.And it makes sense as in ce nts
(23:02):
because you're going to save a lotof money to come up with it.
I did. Isn't that pretty impressing? I know Mary doesn't always know when
I write these podcasts what's gonna comepretty much making fun of me right now,
but I'm all right with it.So it does. It makes sense
and sense. And then second ofall, Mary is try to divide why
the ground is workable but before theleaves come out. But it's not necessary,
right, You definitely want to doit as soon as possible. But
(23:23):
if you know you have a littlegreen that's popping up through the ground,
you still can do it. Yep. So flip those plants over dig them
out, pop them out of theground, flip them over sea and see
the root structure and then you canmake easy divisions. Whether it's with a
shovel, hory hory garden knife oryou know, an axe. If it's
something something large, it's real importantto replant them as soon as you can.
I mean obviously the same day asthe best, but always know when
(23:47):
you put them in the ground.Use composts to help. Yeah, great,
on the same day. If youcan't make the same day, make
sure you keep the roots watered alittle bit, keep them in a shady
part of your outside. You knowI've done too, Okay, I've gone
a week before with grasses and Ihave them somewhere and I notice them.
But it's so much better to getthem in that same day. Right.
It could be done, you know, a few days later, but it's
(24:10):
best for the same day. Justgonna help them get you know, their
roots started that much easier. Andthen again the final tip, use those
holding beds. Such a great idea, it is, and you can have
plans for later. You can shareplants for family and friends. It's just
a great idea, not to wasteanything. All right. That's probably twenty
four minutes more than anyone wanted tohear us talk Mary. So I guess
(24:30):
it's time and remember whatever you do, find the fun and gardening and grows
something beautiful. All right, everyone, until next week, Happy gardening everyone.
We hope you've enjoyed this episode.Subscribe to The Simple Garden podcast on
iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,or most of your favorite podcast apps.
You can also head over to simplegardenlife dot com where you can listen and
(24:52):
read all of the show notes toevery episode and if you have any questions,
any ideas for show topics, orif you want to share your favorite
garden tip, email us at thefarm at owgarden dot com. Until next
time, Thanks everyone,
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to Simple Garden Life. I'm
your host, Jim Competti with mywife Mary Competti. And Mary, you're
here today to talk about one ofthe best ways to save money and stop
(00:23):
weeds in your flower beds all atthe same time. Absolutely, we're talking
about how to divide perennials in thespring. Yeah, we'll get to a
second. We always talk about falldividing, how great fall is for dividing
perennials, and it absolutely is,but it gets lost that you can still
do a lot of this in thespringtime. It can be very easy to
do. And there's some things youcan do in the spring that are easier
(00:44):
to divide, like ornamental grasses forinstance, that can really make a big
change in your landscape for the upcomingsummer. Absolutely, and you know,
sometimes in the fall when you divideperennials, you're dealing with all the leaves,
all the stems, and you know, sometimes in the spring it's actually
easier to divide. That's a greatpoint. So we'll get into that in
a second. Let's talk about ifyou want to talk to us or have
(01:07):
questions, you can email us alwaysat the farm at Owgarden dot com.
We've been getting a lot of emails, a lot of great suggestions for future
podcasts started. Oh it has andwe love it, so always again the
farm at Owgarden dot com. Youcan also sign up to follow us at
simple garden life dot com or followus on Facebook. Um, you know,
Facebook's great, go over to simplegarden Life follow us or you know,
(01:30):
and you're gonna get every update,you're gonna get our articles. Uh,
it's really great. And as faras the podcast, we're pretty much
on every app you know, whetherit's iHeartRadio, you can go right down
the list. You can follow usthere as well. Right if we have
Apple podcasts, any anywhere that youcan get a podcast, we're pretty much
on. I don't know why peoplewant to put that on, I know,
but what they do. So let'sget into this right now. You
(01:51):
know, people always talk about wetalked about dividing in the fall, and
we do a lot of that aswell. Um, but springtime and you
said a great reason you know,there's no leaves on anything. You can
really get to the plants quickly,and you can add ornamental grasses in the
spring, you know, picking themup. We did a podcast on that
not too long ago about how todivide them. But you know, when
you do all this and you dividein the spring, you can really pack
(02:15):
your you know, your flower bedsfull of flowers. And we're going to
talk about why that's so fantastic,but let's talk right now by why it's
so great to have. You know, many of the great reasons to divide
your perennials on a regular basis,whether it's fall or spring. I mean,
right off the bat, Mary forme, you know, keep them
manageable. Right, Once perennials getreally large, you know, they're hard,
hard to manage, hard to handle, and if you divide them,
(02:37):
they're much easier to manage. Yeah, on a regular basis. And so
what people always ask, like,what's a regular basis? Well, for
us, when we wanted to getmore plants, a regular basis is almost
every year we would divide them inhalf and get another plant. But on
average every three to five years,if you're going out and dividing your plants
and keeping them in a normal,you know, normal pace. It's gonna
work to keep those those plants,you know, just healthy, strong and
(03:00):
not overgrown and falling over like wesee so often when they just get too
big, right, And it alldepends on where you live as well.
I mean, I know, youknow, things grown Florida like crazy.
That's true, that's true. No, we're talking, you know, do
what is ever necessary in your areafor growth. Yeah. I think a
great point is when they get toolarge or when you need more plants,
it's probably time to start dividing.I mean, not only does it keep
(03:23):
them manageable, but it keeps theroots healthier and strong. And we talk
about you know, being root boundor using nutrients. You know, daylilies
hostas these things. When they growfor three, four or five years,
they really start to the roots almoststart to grow together and pack in.
When that happens, not only havethey taken excuse me, a lot of
the nutrients out of the soil,they've also grown together and can't absorb nutrients
(03:46):
or water very well well. Andthe same goes holds true with ornamental grasses.
You know, when you're talking aboutkeeping the plants strong. You know,
an ornamental grass is overgrown, thecenter of the grass does not grow
as well as it used to.But when you divide it, you have
strong grasses that can grow strong straightup and you don't have that gap in
the middle and they don't fall over. Yeah, and not just the grasses,
(04:06):
but when you get back to theperennials, you know, the last
thing that it really does is itgives you better blooming. People often say,
well, hey, I've had this, you know, corobell here for
seven years and it's always bloom greatand it's not blooming as well. Or
daylilies, or you can go rightdown the line see them. It doesn't
matter. What happens is the longerthose roots grow and the thicker they get
(04:29):
together, and the less nutrients turnthe soil, there's not enough to power
strong blooms. And you might geta lot of green growth, but fewer
and fewer blooms. By dividing themand transplating them, you're going to regenerate
those plants. Well, let's getto the real reason how we started dividing
our perennials in the spring. That'strue. I mean for us, I
look about this way back in theday when we had our first farm.
(04:53):
Mary will tell you, I thinkyour parents will tell anybody that knows me,
will tell you that I have thisaffinity for creating more and more flower
beds. Yeah, you'd like tohave them completely filled. With good reason
though, yeah, and everywhere.So here we were starting out, and
you know, transplanting and dividing isa great way to save a lot of
(05:14):
money. And back in those dayswe looked for every way possible still do
to try to cut corners and savea little bit. Growing kids. Yeah,
very hungry we did so. Soyou know it was for us dividing
in the spring or the fall wasa great way to fill our flower beds
with tons and tons of flowers,and not just dividing our flowers, our
friends, our family. If Isaw a nice flower somewhere, I'd be
(05:36):
like, hey, hey, thisspring, I will come up and dig
that up for you because it looksa little overgrown. And by the way,
I'll take some of that with meif I can. That's a great
thing to do for people. Wedo that now. We give away tons
of plants every year because the moreyou have, you're you're dividing them up
and you can give them away.But for us, it was a way
to fill our beds. And let'slet's kind of get into that for a
(05:59):
second. Out why that's so important, another way to save money. Obviously,
you're filling your beds without going tonurseries and buying a ton of plants.
For us, if we saw aplant we really loved, we might
purchase it, knowing that in ayear or two that perennial could be three
to five perennials. So that's agreat way to put plants into your landscape.
But more importantly, it can saveyou on mulch overall. Absolutely,
(06:21):
the more plants you have, theless mulch that you need. Yeah,
I mean people talk about mulching andI always say, you know, four
to six inch layer of mulch,you know, that's what you should have.
And they're like, oh, it'sso much mulch. I'm like,
not, if you've planted correctly,if you've planted with divisions and you fill
your flower beds, that mulch isspread out over the beds. You're not
just filling these large, expansive areaswith lots of mulch and no plants.
(06:44):
And you're right, it saves tremendouslyon the cost. But you know,
it also adds a tremendous amount ofbeauty to your flower beds when they're full.
You know, when you have alot of plants and a lot of
flowers growing all at once, itlooks really good. And then there's also
that fact that it helps stop weeds. Right, if you have more plants
in your flower beds, less malch, there's less weeds that can pop up.
(07:05):
Absolutely, and I always say thistoo. It's it's a little bit
of a trick, but it's true. People will come and look at our
beds, are like, how doyou keep them so weed free? Well,
you know, we mulch, wefilm thick, but there are some
weeds sometimes. But when you haveso many plants, you might not see
one little Strand when you have thisbig open thing of malch and six plants,
(07:26):
you're darn right you're going to seeall those little weeds coming up,
right, and you have a nicelayer of mulch around your plants. The
weeds are actually very easy to pullup because they are trying to get down
through the malch to embed into thesoil. And all you do is walk
around and pick them up once ina while. It's absolutely true. And
then finally, and I think thisgets lost in why you want to fill
your flower beds with plants and notmalt. I always talk about that,
(07:47):
and malt should be the least amountthat you see in a flower bed.
If you've done it, if you'vedone it right, you know, you
can put some rock formation somewhere.You can put lots of plants. You
can, but the malt should bean accent, not the focus. But
when you put a lot of plantsinto a flower bed and they're all manageable
sizes, they also help to regulatethe soil temperature because that canopy of leaves
(08:11):
is really acting, you know,as a barrier to the sun. It's
keeping the moisture in the soil,it's not drying it out. And then
you have to water less less weedseeds can find a way in. It
is so beneficial to fill those flowerbeds. And you know, I think
people get hung up and I can'tafford that. I can't afford to go
out and buy eighty plants. Butyou don't have to, you know,
(08:33):
you can keep dividing these in springtime, like I said, just a great
time to get out there, andyou might have two big daylilies. I
will get into this in a secondabout our farm, but our old farm,
we would take those and maybe makesixteen plants out of each. Yeah,
it was crazy how many plants wegot off of one day lily or
one plant. But you know,the whole point here is plant more plants,
(08:54):
less mulch. It is and divisionis the best way to do that.
So all right, we've talked alot about why, and you know,
we're going to get into the houseand we're gonna get into our question
of the week when we come back. But we got to take that ad
break. You know, we gotto pay for this airtime. I guess
somehow we do enjoy it. Butso we'll be back right after this and
we're going to talk about, youknow, how to divide in the spring,
(09:16):
what you can divide in the spring. And also a little extra feature
that we've used to our benefit thatreally I think is a key secret is
creating a holding bed for extra plants. And we'll get into that when we
come back, and we'll talk moreabout transplanting perennials in the spring. And
(09:37):
we are back with Simple Garden Lifetalking about dividing perennials in the spring.
Let's get right to the question thatreally created this entire podcast because we get
this question a lot. I lovedthis question, and Mary, go ahead
with it, all right. Wegot this last week from Tina Dotson out
of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Kindof rymes. Actually, her was when
(10:01):
I divide perennials, how do Iknow how many plants to make from a
single plant? Is there a sizethat I should be looking to cut them
back to that is best? Ihave two huge day lilies and want to
get more plants from them this spring, but I want to make sure that
they survive. Great questions, questionI get a lot. Yeah, and
Tina, you we're gonna give youthe answer here. So let's first let's
(10:22):
just kind of take this question anddivide it down. So how do I
know how many plants to make froma plant? Fantastic question, And the
answer is it really comes down towhat do you want your plants to be
this year? So I'm going touse your day lilies, Tina as an
example. So let's say you havea day lily that when you dig it
out, it's eighteen inches around.That can happen. You know, you
(10:43):
put a daily in the ground forfive six years. It's eighteen inches in
diameter. So you lift it fromthe ground in the spring. There's no
no leafing out, you know,it's just the root ball. You pop
it out. So to many peoplethat are like, can I divide it
in half? Can I divide itin quarters? Cannot divide an eights?
You know what, the answer isthat it all depends. Yeah, yes
you can. So what you're goingto get is you're going to get a
(11:07):
plant that is based upon your rootside. So if you're looking to fill
in more plants and you want themto not have to divide them in just
another year or two, I wouldtake that plant and probably make eight to
sixteen plants, and I would divideit in you to two to three inch
sections, because what that gives youis a plant that's going to be smaller,
(11:28):
but it's going to be able tolast three or four or five years.
It's going to bloom. A lot. Now you maybe you have some
planters. We do this a lotwith hostas great way to add some decoration
to a shady area of your porchor deck or patio. We'll pot some
of our extra ones up right,We actually have an article on this about
(11:48):
how to use perennials to use themin pot of plants to add interest to
your patio spaces. Oh, it'sso free, it's so easy. I
think we even have a podcast onit last year. So we'll put that
in the article and put it inthe extra features at the end. But
what we're trying to say is youmay want a bigger hosta for that pot.
If it's a big pot, soyou may want to leave when you're
(12:09):
dividing that hosta or day lily up, whatever it may be. You might
want to leave it bigger that year, or you might want a bigger focal
point in the flower bed. Thelarger you leave the divisions, the bigger
your plants you're going to be.It's really simple, but it really is
up to you. But keep thisin mind. Keep in mind that what
if you leave it large, you'reprobably going to be digging that up in
(12:31):
a year or two because it's goingto get big again. Right. It
really just depends on how you wantto use your divisions. If you have
one spot or a new flower bedand you just want to put a day
lily in there that's already a nicesize, that has some good interest.
You know, you may want todivide it in half or in quarters.
However, if you have a brandnew flower bed and you want to fill
it up, you may want totake your day lilies, Tina, and
(12:52):
divide it into eight or sixteen sections, and that way, in three years
you have a beautiful flower bed.But you know is full and vibrant.
Yeah, I've never been I'm goingto show a little bit of mine.
I don't even know what you callthis. I've never been a big fan
of dividing a plant in half,mainly in Mari Marita. When we first
met, She's like, why doyou always plant in three, fives,
(13:13):
and eight? You know, oddnumbers? I said, because it really
makes beds look good. You wantodds, you to want even Well,
Mary's very number driven. She's verynumber driven. But you have come around
to understanding those. Yeah. So, so I don't like halves for another
reason, when you divide a circularmost most plants grow in a circular way.
When you divide in half, youget a weird looking plant. When
(13:33):
you put half of a moon backinto the to the ground. So I've
always been a big fan of dividingin threes, even quarters gives you four
plants, you can just gotta havethat odd one somewhere. Uh So that's
one of the things we do.And I really like that because it gives
you a little bit more. Idon't like the half plants because of kind
of what grows up from them.But I mean, Tina, answer your
(13:54):
question. You know, the skyreally is a limit for what you want
to do. However, I wouldsay, you know, look at your
space. How many plants do youreally want to gain from it? And
then kind of divide that. Soif your plants are twelve to eighteen inches
and you make you know, fourplants out of a twelve inch round plant
that you're daily you're talking about,you're gonna get three nice or four nice
(14:16):
sized day lays for this year.Probably that can make it two or three
years for you have to do it. You make it eight, you can
probably get five years out of it. So that's really what it comes down
to and how you want to lookat it. And one thing to remember
is don't go so small that youhave one little, you know, leaf
popping above a ground. You reallywant to do three inch at least at
three inch rootball, you know,to be able to plant your flower beds.
(14:37):
This is so funny because that's comingfrom the lady that I will divide
a plant and there'll be one littlefraction of a plant. She's like,
well, let's put that in theholding bed. Well we have the same
thing. Yeah, But she's right. When you're putting them in your landscape,
that's a great idea. When youjust want to grow some extra plants,
you can throw those little divisions somewhereoff and then they'll they'll grow to
be bigger. So that's a greatquestion, Tina. I hope we answered
(14:58):
it well for you. So let'sget into now quick and easy ways to
divide and what you can divide.So really the limit is I mean,
there's any perennials on the table here, Any leafing perennial is great. Whether
you're talking cone flour, black eyedSusan. You just go down the list,
(15:18):
coral bells, day lilies, hostas, ornamental grasses. Anything in the
spring can be done. And thequicker you do it, as soon as
the ground is workable, the betteroff you are. It does not have
to come out. Yet people alwayslike, well, what am I going
to kill the plants? It's goingto freeze still, they're perennials. They're
fine if the ground is workable.Don't do it when the ground's frozen,
because then you can have some trouble. The ground is workable, you can
(15:39):
dig them up. You can putthem back in the ground that day,
you're going to be fine. Soget out there. That's the big key,
and start looking at these plants,and you know where they're at.
And let's talk about mary now,like how to dig them up? I
mean, I think this is alittle key we've learned that really makes it
easy. You go out, wedig them up. We have the root
ball, and what's the next thing? We do them over? That's right,
(16:00):
And why do we do that well, because you can see the group
ball. That's sorry, it's soeasy. People are like, well,
I never know how to make divisionsfrom the top, and how do I
do it? So let's just we'lluse a hosta for example. We'll dig
a hosta up and we flip itover and you can see the root structure
so easily. I think we haveto stop here and clarify what we're talking
about. Digging it up here Here'sthe key is that you need to actually
(16:23):
dig the whole entire thing up.You're not dividing it while still in the
ground. Yeah, that's a greatpoint. I mean, it's just easier
to see, you know where theroots are. You don't have these little
strays coming up that always annoys me. When I do that, I accidentally
miss some sometimes. But dig thatwhole plan up. There's no leafing out
yet, so flip it over.Then it becomes really easy. Our favorite
tool to use for this is ahoary hoary knife. It just it's a
(16:45):
garden knife with a serrated edge.We'll put a link to this on our
affiliate links on the article on SimpleGarden Life. And you can just cut
right through most root balls. However, I've had some big grasses before that
a heck, I pull the axeout and start cutting them with an axe.
But upside down is the way togo because you can see where you
need to go right and you alsosometimes use a spade shovel as well.
(17:07):
I do. I do, Ireally pretty much what's on hand. And
if I don't want to walk backto the barn or the garage, so
we so you want to do thatearly and you want to get out there.
So I know you have this question, maire, you've been wanting to
ask it or at least talk aboutit. And it's okay, Wait a
minute, I'm busy, I work, I came home. My hostess are
already up through the ground. Myday lilies are already out. My coral
(17:29):
bell is already leaping out. Nowdo I have to wait till fall?
Right? I was actually at mymom and dad's house the other day and
their day lilies are way ahead ofours. And their day lilies are already
popping up out of the ground andnice and green. And you know the
question is can I still divide thoseif the greenery is already out? Yeah?
First of all, why is ourfinal farm always behind everybody else?
But anyway, you're right, sogreat question. Listen. You can't harm
(17:55):
them, okay. These plants arereally hard to kill in the spring.
Even if they have a little bitof of leafing out and they've come out,
you can still dig them up,flip them over. That that early
growth may die back, it maynot, And it's okay. And it's
okay because you're going to get newgrowth right through the bottom. So and
grass is the same way. Youjust got to get them early. You
(18:15):
can't wait until you know, amonth into the season and they're a foot
tall, and do this without expectingsome some issues, but early on,
don't worry at all. You canget in there and you can do it.
So you know, you get outthere, and we talked about,
you know what, how do youdo it? How do you know?
Just go look at your bedspaces.You know you can see the plants there.
(18:37):
Now's the time to get them inand fill those beds with those plantings
of whatever you're dividing and get themin. And then when you're planting,
this is such a critical key.The easiest way to get better leafing and
better root growth in the first yearis when you dig your plants up and
you get your divisions. Try toget them in the same day. It's
not critical to their to their life. It definitely helps. So oh,
(19:02):
it definitely helps. And then whenyou dig that planting hole where you're going
to put them. I live bythe fifty fifty rule, So whenever we
dig something up, we're putting fiftypercent composts and fifty percent ground soil back
in in the bottom and feed yourplants. It does. It feed your
plants in more importantly than even that, and that's important. It allows the
root growth to be so easy andspread back out. There's not a lot
(19:25):
of time. You know, youput a transplant into hard claypan soil,
it's going to struggle. But youput it into a fifty fifty mix of
compost. Mary said it best thatcompost is going to feed the roots and
that's gonna let them go right exactly. And you know, if you are
dividing plants and you have a fewextra, we have a great tip for
you to be able to use plantslater when you need them. Yeah,
(19:47):
we lived on this ten years agowhen we build our first farm, and
crazily we decided to build a secondfarm and now we live by this too.
So we create a holding bed andit's nothing more than little area of
a garden for us. Now it'sa little spot back in an open soil
part of the field and we justcreate some dirt. We open it up.
(20:08):
It's I think ours is now likesix by ten or maybe twelve by
twelve. I don't even know whatit is. And I go around and
it's just basically a flower bed outof sight, out of mind. And
when we have all these extra transplantsand we don't know what to do with
them right away, or if we'regoing to be building something and we know
we're going to need them in Julyor September or even June, we plant
(20:30):
them now and there and we putthem in this holding bed, and we
don't we don't space them like farapart, like a landscaping. We put
them back to back to back.Right. Original holding bed was actually in
our first garden that we built atour first farm. And you know,
it doesn't matter whether it's actually inyour garden or if it's actually in a
corner of your backyard. Just creatinga holding bed is a great way to
have plants on hand whenever you needthem. Yeah, so whether it's a
(20:52):
grass, you're not dividing these whenyou dig them up later. So I'll
give you a great example. Lastyear we built some extra buildings here and
as we were doing that, wehad to landscape them. Well, you
know, to go out and buythose plants would have been a fortune in
the middle of June, July,August. And so what we did is
we created a holding bed from allof our extra plants that we had divided,
(21:12):
whether it was the fall or thespring, and then when it came
time and the building was done,we could go out. We could dig
them up just as a whole rootball and set them in place. There's
no damage, you're not dividing anything, there's no stress to the plant.
A little bit of stressed the plant, but they can handle it, and
we would put them in. Imean, I think last year, at
one point I probably had seventy toeighty plants in a holding bed right,
(21:34):
And I think it's a great wayto be able to give plants away to
family and friends or someone that's movingor someone that needs to flower bed.
If you have plants and you don'thave any space for them, this is
a great way to keep them untilthey're needed. Yeah. I can't tell
you how many times that people werewalking through, whether it was our old
farm or this farm, they're like, wow, I really like that.
That's you know that purple coral bellis beautiful or this type of day lily
(21:57):
is beautiful. And I'm like,hey, you know what some in the
holding bed you want one? Andthey're like, well, do you have
to wait till fall or spring?Like no, we'll go out, we'll
pop one up, putting in apot, and they're on their way,
and it really is. I'm tellingyou. Holding beds are fantastic and I
can't tell you enough. Don't don'tspace this. We plant them like garden
plants, like they're two three inchesapart, because we know they're not going
(22:18):
to grow together. We're going todig those up within the next year at
the most and put them where theyneed to be. So holding beds are
the key if you if you havea plants you need to divide, don't
think you'll never need them. Don'tthrow them away, don't kill them,
go put them in a holding bed, cut them down to the size you
know that they're going to be whenyou're playing them. Put them in there
and you're going to really be happyabout it. And if you don't have
the room to do a holding bed, you can also put them in pots.
(22:41):
You know there's going to need alittle extra care with some watering,
you know, throughout the season.But holding bed, if you have the
room, it's a way to go. All right, So let's just kind
of cover what we talked about todaybecause we've kind of been all over it.
So The first thing is that fillingyour beds makes sense and sense.
I love that. So it makessense because you're keeping your plants healthy,
you're letting them blue the more.And it makes sense as in ce nts
(23:02):
because you're going to save a lotof money to come up with it.
I did. Isn't that pretty impressing? I know Mary doesn't always know when
I write these podcasts what's gonna comepretty much making fun of me right now,
but I'm all right with it.So it does. It makes sense
and sense. And then second ofall, Mary is try to divide why
the ground is workable but before theleaves come out. But it's not necessary,
right, You definitely want to doit as soon as possible. But
(23:23):
if you know you have a littlegreen that's popping up through the ground,
you still can do it. Yep. So flip those plants over dig them
out, pop them out of theground, flip them over sea and see
the root structure and then you canmake easy divisions. Whether it's with a
shovel, hory hory garden knife oryou know, an axe. If it's
something something large, it's real importantto replant them as soon as you can.
I mean obviously the same day asthe best, but always know when
(23:47):
you put them in the ground.Use composts to help. Yeah, great,
on the same day. If youcan't make the same day, make
sure you keep the roots watered alittle bit, keep them in a shady
part of your outside. You knowI've done too, Okay, I've gone
a week before with grasses and Ihave them somewhere and I notice them.
But it's so much better to getthem in that same day. Right.
It could be done, you know, a few days later, but it's
(24:10):
best for the same day. Justgonna help them get you know, their
roots started that much easier. Andthen again the final tip, use those
holding beds. Such a great idea, it is, and you can have
plans for later. You can shareplants for family and friends. It's just
a great idea, not to wasteanything. All right. That's probably twenty
four minutes more than anyone wanted tohear us talk Mary. So I guess
(24:30):
it's time and remember whatever you do, find the fun and gardening and grows
something beautiful. All right, everyone, until next week, Happy gardening everyone.
We hope you've enjoyed this episode.Subscribe to The Simple Garden podcast on
iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,or most of your favorite podcast apps.
You can also head over to simplegardenlife dot com where you can listen and
(24:52):
read all of the show notes toevery episode and if you have any questions,
any ideas for show topics, orif you want to share your favorite
garden tip, email us at thefarm at owgarden dot com. Until next
time, Thanks everyone,
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