I am in the midwest US, and need to split some hosta plants at the roots.
Should it be done, say, this week? Or wait 'till next spring??
Thx, "Puddin' Of The Dark-Grey Thumb"
"Well, there's two trains runnin'. Ain't neither one goin' my way. One run at midnight, the other run just before day." - from "Still A Fool", Muddy Waters, maybe 1949
I'm in zone 5, Western NY (cold cold cold), and I've done it both ways. I lean toward spring, though, because I'll probably cook up garden ideas during the winter and won't like where I stuck the plants 6 months earlier.
Sound advice. We take new plants propagated newbies and let them grow in our nurseries. Think halfway houses. I'd split when I feel like it.
50 F and damp to the bone here.Our oak leaves just won't fall or is it just a task I want to have done.
Bill
Same here, sort of. I live 1/2 mile from Lake Ontario, and leaves are falling. A friend lives a block from the water, and it's keeping her neighborhood just warm enough that the trees think it's September.
I live on a street called "Oak Hill". Oaks everywhere.
Some have turned. Some still green. Some have shed leaves. A few will keep (dead) leaves 'till Feb. This year, due to a bad spring frost, some produced acorns, some not.
I've given up on predicting what they do. Strongly suspect there are more strains of oak than you can shake a stick at. At least hereabouts.
Thanks, P
"Well, there's two trains runnin'. Ain't neither one goin' my way. One run at midnight, the other run just before day." - from "Still A Fool", Muddy Waters, maybe 1949
William Wagner expounded:
Some oaks hang onto their leaves until late winter, at least around here. They're usually the last to drop.
The ones in my backyard usually don't drop until the new ones are ready to bud out. Same species in the front will drop in March.
C
Our Black oaks usually are down by Nov 15. The white oaks drop some but most linger on to spring. Some folks call black oaks red oaks. Our forest is mainly oak with a few pines. 90 % black as an estimate. 10 % white. The white pine were introduced in the last 60 years with a few exceptions. I planted a chinese black pine 30 years ago but have never found a seedling. We live about 1 mile from the boundary labeled the pine barrens. I think our forest reflects our soil which is sandy loam. 8 miles away pines rule as does sand.
Right now our leaf cover looks like spring with muddy colors.
Bill
we split them in spring, when their red/maroon pips start to push up.
rosie zone 5
My vote would be to do it in the spring. I live in Zone 6 (Western CO) and found out by accident that hostas divide and transplant well in the spring. In April two years ago, our neighbor replaced his fence. I had a bed of hostas growing on my side of the fence and in the process, the fence crew dug up some of them. I just put them in buckets of water for a week or two until the work was done and then replanted them. They did great and didn't even act as though they had been disturbed. Now, two years later, the hostas are bigger and more robust than ever, much to my surprise. Previously, I was under the impression that they didn't like to be messed with.
"Gary" expounded:
As you found out they don't mind it at all. They can be moved most anytime, but this late in the season I'd wait.
I left clumps of hosta roots out on a cement ledge years ago - over the winter; I forgot about them as I dug them in a frenzy of energy two days before the birth of my first son! He was born in September, the following April I found what I'd left, and to my surprise they were alive! I immediately planted them and they thrived, and have been divided to share with other gardening friends.
You could move that late in pregnancy! I surely couldn't, especially with #2. The nesting thing was all - move this, move that. No, don't dust, a sneeze could kill me!
CCheryl Isaak expounded:
I could always move, I'm a fidget My ankles were the size of my thighs, but I had to get *everything* done, and that included moving those damned hostas :o) Believe me, I was huge, the day I delivered I weighed 184 lbs - from 119 pre-pregnancy (I was almost toxic, it was mostly fluid). Ah, those were the days! :::eyeroll:::
Oh - I wanted to do stuff but with number one I pulled a hamstring around 6 months and had constant pain from my sciatic nerve on the same side. At 4 months, while carrying "interestingly", both hams went with in an hour of each other and there went doing anything with out someone near by to help. Mind you at nearly 40, I didn't mind the help. I stitched and knit my last weeks away and still went over by 10 days.
Oh, and I weighed less leaving the hospital then when I found out I was expecting.... Both times.... C
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.