How to Divide Hostas

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Hi folks, welcome to Harmony Hills! Do you have clumps of hostas growing too big for their space?   Or maybe you somehow got two different kinds of hostas mixed up together somehow in the same clump, like I did?  Today I'm going to share how to dig up, divide, and re-plant hostas in your garden.  It's one of the easiest ways to expand your garden with no cost!

Here's the hosta I'm working on today.  You can see that it's got two different types of hosta growing in one clump... a really large-leaved one, and a much smaller-leaved one down under the bigger leaves.   I noticed this earlier in the spring, and kind of forgot about it.  But if I leave it another season, the roots will continue to grow more and more entangled, and make it harder to separate.  So I'll be pulling this clump out and taking care of it today.

STEP 1:    Use a spade to dig the root ball out of the soil.  

Hosta roots usually are about as big around as its own leaf canopy.    They're typically not much deeper than one spade depth, but that can vary based on the variety of hosta. 

STEP 2:    Loosen the soil around the root ball.  

You can shake it gently, or work at the soil with your fingers, or if it's a large clump you can even use a spray of water.    If your clump is very old and thick, your root ball will be much tighter and may be very difficult to loosen.   Just do your best here.

Step 3:   Separate the roots into smaller sections

Now this is where it might be a little difficult if your roots are very old and tightly bound together.   Do your best to use your fingers to gently and firmly pull roots apart from the base of the plant.   

If the roots are too hard to separate, you can use your garden spade to slice the root ball into sections.  I've even been known to use a steak knife for this.  One time I even used a hand saw!   Hostas are fairly forgiving and hardy plants, and as long as you keep a healthy portion of the roots in tact, they can take that kind of abuse. (If you're slicing root balls, it's best to keep them into larger clumps rather than many small sections.)  Here's an example of a hosta root ball that has been sliced apart... this one is a much larger hosta with a much larger, older, tighter root ball.   That division project is still in progress over on my driveway.

In my case today, I was able to separate the roots with my fingers, keeping things together without cutting.   

Hosta clumps are made up of lots and lots of tiny hosta sections, all growing nicely together side by side.    If you want, you can keep a bunch of those sections together, to make a larger plant.  Or, you can separate them into smaller and smaller sections, to create many more plants for your garden.    I've chosen to do a little of both.  

First, I separated the two types of hosta from each other.  I had two sections of the large-leaved hosta, and a two clumps containing many small sections of the small-leaved hosta.    

I decided to separate mine into lots and lots of pieces, so I can re-plant one clump and use the rest to spread hostas all over my yard.  You can see just how many tiny, single-section pieces I ended up with .

Step 4:   Re-plant a division of hostas into the garden.

You use normal planting methods for this:   Loosen your soil, add fertilizer of your choice according to package directions.   I like to use Osmocote slow-release fertilizer** in my gardens.

Gently set the root system into the planting hole.

Backfill soil gently around the roots, taking care to press firmly but not over-pack the soil.   If you care to,  you could mix in some prepared compost at this step, to further boost your soil value and help the plant.  I didn't do that this time.

Water thoroughly, put a little more fertilizer on top of the soil according to package directions, and spread a nice layer of mulch around the base of the plant to retain moisture through the hot growing season.    (I ran out of mulch and didn't have any - oops!)

I had many tiny sections of this plant left over that were too small to put out in the garden.  Well, I could put them in the garden, but my dogs would trample them before they took hold and grew bigger.  So to protect them and keep them alive until they are more substantial, I planted them into recycled plant pots.

Step 5:   Transplant small sections into pots.

Gather up some old pots or cell-packs, and some potting soil.  I like to use potting soil that already contains fertilizer, since I can trust it to already have the right proportion mixed in for me.    

This couldn't be easier:    put a little potting mix in the bottom of the container and lay your hosta section on top of the soil.  

Then fill the container up with potting soil, tucking the roots in gently but firmly.

I potted up several sections of varying sizes.  I put the ones with the smallest root system in the cell pack, and the ones with larger roots in the 4" pots.   

I got 14 new hosta plants out of this one clump!!!!   That will give me plenty for my yard, plus some to give away to friends.

And I still had all of these left over.  These were larger clumps, including the two sections of the large-leaved hosta.  For these, I planted them into the garden just like I did the first clump.

For the ones that I potted up, I set them over by our fence near the hose... that will make it easy for me to water them (probably daily while it's hot) and make sure they stay shaded.  I'll check them around September to see how big they are.  If they've grown enough, I'll plant them in the garden before fall. If not, I'll let the leaves die back, then will store them in my garage over the winter.  It's ok for them to freeze, actually, since hosta roots planted in the garden freeze too when the soil freezes.   In the spring, they'll come back just fine. If they're still small, I may keep them in the pots for a little while before planting them. Just keep them watered, and give them a boost of fertilizer in the spring.  

Special Notes:

• The best time to separate hostas is really in the spring, when the leaves are just beginning to emerge.   They're easier to work with, the leaves come out in a beautiful circular clump, and it gives the roots all summer to recover and re-grow into a larger clump before fall.
• The second best time to separate hostas is really in the fall, at the end of the growing season when the weather has started to cool off.  This takes the stress off the plant  from the heat, and allows the roots to start to recover without worrying about supporting the leaf growth.
• BUT you can divide hostas ANY time of the summer, as long as you take care to keep the new clumps well watered and fertilized.   They're very resilient plants.
• If leaves are damaged during the dividing process, that's ok.   The roots will either send up new shoots, or, if it's too late in the season, the roots will bide their time until spring, when they'll recover nicely.

Now that I've taken care of this small clump, maybe I'll turn my attention to these large established clumps that I uncovered when I did my stairway garden clean up.   .... Or, maybe I'll let them stay lush and full this year, and tackle them in the spring.  :-)

Do you have hostas in your yard that need to be divided?   Do you have other methods for this job that you'd like to share?  Did you follow these instructions in your own garden?   Let's chat in the comments!! I'd love to hear from you!

Got soil problems?   Check out this article about how to fix your clay soil:

The hosta clump I was working on in this post are in our North Side Yard garden area.  Check out this post to see how we totally transformed this part of our yard over the last few months:

Hey, before you go, why don't you click on over to see what was most recently blooming throughout our yard?   Lots of stuff was putting on a show, even in this new garden!   See it here:

Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest to get more tips and information about relaxing in your yard and garden. 

  

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