More divisions - hostas

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Hostas can be divided in Spring or Autumn. If you are familiar with plant division then this post may just serve as a timely reminder. If you are not, then here is a quick step by step.

At the rectory I had planted up three large empty containers with box and hostas and after several years one of the hostas is enormous.

This photograph was taken last summer:

Hosta undulata Albomarginata ('Thomas Hogg')

You can tell it was already crowding out the box plants back then!

Today was the day for lifting and dividing; it coincided nicely with the little renovation project in front of the laurel bushes for which I am not buying plants but split plants already in the rectory garden, a penny border.

First up the whole container was emptied out in the wheelbarrow for a quick inspection.

You can see that the roots are now touching the sides of the container and also are clearly visible at the bottom of the container, too. By next year they would be quite potbound, so I am doing the division in good time. I am also pleased there's no insect damage and the potting medium looks good, too. It should, given that I used a horse manure mix with added grit at the time of planting.

I will replace the soil today with a mix of garden soil and a little fish, blood and bone meal.

Next I take out the box plants and trim the long shoots back to give the plants a rounded shape. Then it is time to tackle the hosta.

For this it has to go back on the ground as I need to use a spade to slice into the rootball.

I am starting at the bottom and divide the plant into two halves. Each half is divided twice more, so I end up with eight plants. It is important to do this carefully, I am trying to have some new growth on each of the new plants as you can see here and also plenty of roots:

The container is filled with new potting medium, and I plant up one hosta plant and the two box plants. The plants are watered in and a few slug pellets applied.

It looks decidedly sparse now and in a couple of months the hosta will go "underground" altogether. Hostas are herbeceous, so the first frost will kill off all the leaves. By Spring next year new leaves will emerge and a fine clump of hosta should grace the container.

The remaining seven plants are replanted in front of the laurel, to join some geraniums that have been divided two weeks ago. It really is not looking like much now but by next Summer there'll be a mini border of deep blue geraniums, mauve hosta and some mauve and white salvia sclarea var. turkestanica (grown from seed).  

A quick topdress with the old compost, slug pellets and watering can completes the penny border today.