Perennials - How to Care for Them
Why Divide Perennials?
Gardeners love
wildflower perennials because
they grow so easily. These offer beauty at an inexpensive price.
However, they multiply quickly and can grow out of control, clumping and
may even taking over other planted areas. To prevent this from
happening, there comes a time when you must devide perennials in your
garden. If you don’t divide these, they will eventually look ill kept.
Even so, there are also other reasons why you want to eventually
separate them.
Avoid Holes
Perennials grow very quickly and
they usually begin to clump together. When these aren’t divided every
three to four years, then spots of these clumps often die out, leaving
gaping holes.
Protect from Fungal Disease
Large clumps of perennial roots are susceptible to insect infestations and fungal infections.
Flowers
When
you don’t devide perennials and they multiply, these become overcrowded
and have fewer or smaller flowers than those that are well spaced.
If
you replant in different areas, then you control the plants, which is
especially important when the plants are aggressive and tend to
overwhelm neighboring plants.
More Plants
Besides, when you
divide the perennials you create more plants of the same variety. This
offers an inexpensive way of adding new plants to other areas of the
garden.
When to Dig Up and Seperate
Many gardeners ask
themselves when to dig up and seperate perennials. Actually, these are
very hardy plans so you can dig them up to replant in different areas
any time from Spring to Fall, however, there are two seasons that are
best for doing this; spring and fall. These seasons are cooler than the
summer, so the weather and soil conditions are less stressful to the
plant. Just be sure to divide them when the plants are large enough.
Perennials
are beautiful and very easy to grow. However, they do take some
maintenance and you do need to dig them up and separate them every
couple of years. This is an easy process, but one you should do in the
cooler months of spring or fall. Remember, separating allows you to
plant small clumps of plants in different areas of the garden.