Now is the time to lift and divide those perennial plants that may have outgrown their space or maybe they aren’t flowering as well as they should be due to overcrowding. Shrubs and trees that are in the wrong place and were screaming to be moved earlier in the year can all be moved during this dormant season. A good idea for any gardener is to get used to taking regular photographs of the garden. Try and remember now the jobs that you said you must do during the winter. Was there a shrub that you wanted to move? A perennial that you said you must lift and divide?  Photographs will jog the memory and remind you of the clump of perennial life lying beneath the soil and show you the shrubs that you thought were wrong during the summer.

It’s very easy to bulk up on your plant numbers by dividing perennial plants that have died back for the winter. With a strong shovel or spade lift the clump out of the ground, identify the growing shoots and with a good sharp knife, secateurs or spade simply divide the plant so that each new division contains at least one growing tip. These plants can then either be grown on in pots, given away as gifts or planted directly into the ground where they will continue to prosper and multiply in size over the coming years. It’s also nice to pass some of these extra plants onto friends and other interested gardeners.

Plants that can be divided in this way include:

• Hosta
• Echinacaea
• Delphinium
• Lupin
• Verbascum
• Astilbe
• Gunnera
• Geum
• Dahlia
• Anemone japonica
• Chrysanthemum
• Geranium
• Iris
• Rudbeckia
• Sedum
• Dicentra
• Sedum

This is one of the things that is great about gardening. It is this passing on of knowledge and interest and surplus plants. I couldn’t tell you how many plants I have in my garden that have been given to me as gifts. Whenever the plant catches your attention it reminds you of who gave it to you, often the plant has outlived the benefactor, thus making the garden a truly living and wonderful entity.