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Dividing new plants straight from the nursery
philmcc17
Posts: 4
I've just purchased a couple of Crocosmia from my local nursery, both are in 1L pots, seemingly freshly shipped from Holland.
As I've been busily splitting lots of the herbaceous perennials already in my garden it got me wondering - is it wise or decidedly daft to try and split these newly purchased plants to increase my stock?
I wasn't sure whether this would encourage lots of vigorous new growth or if the stress of likely already having been split off a larger plant to put in pots for sale the plants would already have undergone some stress and would want to have a year or two to recover before being split.
Any thoughts from those more experienced than me greatly appreciated.
0
Posts
I would just go for it if the potted clumps are big enough.
The only downside is the plants will be a bit weeny and might need a bit of nursing. But they'll certainly clump up for next year. I just split a pot of Salvia Caradonna three ways and it seems to be fine, but it was a congested pot.
I tried splitting a new pot of crocosmia after they had started growing. They sulked for a year, and didn't flower that year. Another pot just plonked in did well. I don't think they like being disturbed while actively growing. I would split them up when they die down in autumn.
Phillipa is right - the plants are too young to split and although they spread, they need to build up before this happens. The big showy bracts of flowers come from the large corms so let let them bulk up.
As they are in only 1 litre size pots, they will not be ready for dividing . As previous comments have stated, it's the size of the root ball that defines when a plant can be divided and would normally take a few years growth before propagating