Why I Oughta...

A couple of seasons ago (Summer 2021), I planted three Allium Serendipity in the IB2DWs bed after being influenced by Erin the Impatient Gardener .  I've had Allium Summer Beauty in the garden since the beginning and Serendipity felt like a nice improvement - at the time.  I mostly just ignored them.  Until this Summer.   When I noticed that they were, indeed, an improvement over Summer Beauty. Why? They bloomed a little bit later.  And for MUCH LONGER .   Fall is the season for dividing perennials, so I picked up my shovel and got busy. Here's the before - two nice-sized clumps of Allium Serendipity: I took those two and made five total plants.  Why five?  A hedge, of course.  I split one in two - in the hopes that those two larger clumps had a better chance of survival.  If I killed the smaller clumps by dividing them too late, or not watering them in enough, or having them heave this Winter...at least I still had what I star...

Earlier this month, I identified the Elijah Blue Fescue ornamental grasses that are planted in the IB2DWs bed were ready to divide.  One of them was suffering from 'center rot', while the other ones were just not performing.  Were they suriving?  Yeah...but not doing what I wanted them to do.  So, I've opted to include them in my annual 'Fall Dividing' program.   I started the  process with three Elijiah Blue Fescue clumps that I planted in April of 2022 .   I took the one with center rot and pulled it out: And, I pulled out the other two and divided them.   Here, below, is a look at the 'best' one of the bunch with a nice root ball: I used my Hori Hori to divide the clumps.  Like the Everillo sedges that I divided recently, it wasn't as easy as dividing grasses.  The root system is different and not-as-easily 'splitable'.   See below for a Elijah Blue Fescue grass divided in the Fall: I started with three and no...

The original (to our garden) sedges - Everillo Sedges - have been in the ground since the Fall of 2020 .  They're bright grasses in a dark, shade garden.  But, I don't think that I've been using them in the right ways - as I've planted them in a colony together with very little matrix-planting around them/interplanted with them.   They've been mostly neglected and suffered a bit from rabbits .  Below is a look at the 'pre-dividing' planting of these sedges: A closer look at the one on the top of that photo shows that there's some 'center rot' going on and there are a number of smaller, independent sedges.  This is just like what is going on with the Elijah Blue Fescue grass IB2DWs .  Below is a look at the carex in question that I decided to divide: There's a small buckthorn seedling coming up in there that is (obviously) due for removal.  But, It is easy to see a number of sedges here.  I opted for dividing this clump into five.  Three ...

Last Fall, I divided two Shaggy Shield Ferns into four clumps and transplanted them to the edge of the border with the hopes that they'd take the spot of some (fallen-out-of-favor) Ostrich Ferns that I had in this bed.  I planted them in a row and then attempted to water them in all Fall.   Earlier this Spring, I stuck six (6) Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the same bed both in-front-of and behind the locations of the Shaggy Shield Ferns .  At that time....(Late May), I thought that I had lost ALL of the divided ferns as none of them had thrown up new growth.    They all appeared dead.  A setback when it comes to dividing ferns.   Fast forward to today.  I was puttering around and realized that SOME of those Fall 2022 Shaggy Shield Divided ferns had made it.  I had two ferns last Summer, divided to make four small ferns.  Today...I'm back up to three Shaggy Shield Ferns.  See below for a photo showing the Shaggy Shields ...

A couple of years ago, I planted some Elijah Blue Fescue grasses in the IB2DWs bed along with some other blue-colored plants like Cat's Pajamas Nepeta .   Those grasses have never thrived, but they seemed to have survived over the years - despite that being what I'd consider a 'hard-to-grow' area.  Between the poor soil, the adjacency to the driveway and the lack of irrigation, it isn't a great growing bed.  But, like I said...these seemingly have survived.   But, like all grasses, it appears that Elijah Blue Fescue grasses suffer from center rot.  And need to be divided every few years.  How can I tell?  Have a look at one of the crowns of the blue fescue grass below - with three distinct tufts of blades emerging from the edges: Here, below, is a look at another one of them where you can see the center of the grass is brown'ing out and showing no growth: Everything that I've read on the Web tells me that these need regular dividing and tha...

Late last year, I dug up, divided and transplanted a number of Summer Beauty Ornamental Onions (Allium) around the backyard - including four divisions around the tree-swing Northern Red Oak tree .   I also dug and and divided a large Christmas Tree hosta (that I really like) into three new divisions and planted them behind the allium, closer to the tree trunk . How have those divisions done?  In less than one year, they seem to have recovered quite well.  See below for a couple of photos showing the Summer Beauty Allium, spaced with some polka dot annual plants and the Christmas Tree hostas behind them: They are better than what was there before - a ring of hostas.  And, I've learned that I can pretty sharply divide Summer Beauty and move them around.  Note to self for Fall 2023 dividing.

That photo (above) shows the five Ghost Ferns (Athyrium 'Ghost') that I planted (as a set of four) in the Spring of 2021. They were from the Morton Arboretum Spring sale and they've thrived since they were added to our backyard shade garden.  Why are there five Ghost Ferns when I planted four?  No...they're not spreading ferns like the Ostrich Fern that sends out underground runners.   The reason that there are (now) five of these ferns is because last Fall, I divided one of them into two .   At that time, I only divided one because I was a little afraid.  I didn't want to kill all of them off. I did the same dividing with some Shaggy Shield ferns and my fears were well-placed as not all of the divisions made it this year.   But, the Ghost Fern division not only survived, but it appears to have had a good year and is a vigorous, healthy fern.   Why do I bring this up?  First...to remind myself and to help prioritize my Fall d...

Last Fall, I went around and divided some of the ferns that had been clump-growing in our backyard - including one of the Japanese Ghost Ferns.  I had four of them ( see this photo from last Summer ) and decided to divide just one of them (read: I was scared to divide all of them) and stick the new division in the ground adjacent to the other four.   How did that division go?  See below for (now) five Japanese Ghost Ferns: Pretty great to see this division take and has me thinking about dividing the other three this Fall.   However...there is another side to this fern-division story.  The Shaggy Shield Ferns that I similiarly divided last Fall?  Those divisions....didn't take.    I started with two Shaggy Shield Ferns that I split up into four ferns .  What do I have now?  Just two ferns.   Win some (Fall perennial divisions), lose some (Fall perennial divisions).

I recently took notice of this pair of hostas that are planted right in front of the hops vine in our backyard (photo below) and thought that they were a really nice shape and foliage structure.   Why?  Because, I didn't divide these last Fall.  Last August, I included these in a roundup of 'dividing candidates' , but it appears that I left these as-is.    What variety are they?  They had white and purple flowers last year .  And they turned 'green apple green' color, too.  So....know that and using the "What Hosta do I have?" tool, I'm *pretty sure* that these are Honeybells Hostas .  I have a bunch of what I'll call 'ratty' or real common Lancifolia Hostas in the borders that I'd like to replace over time - and these beauties (ahem...Honeybells Hostas) are (once again) 2023 candidates for dividing and popping into the location of the 'ratty' ones.  

Last Fall, like the previous ones, I went about trying to dig up, divide and transplant some of the perennials that we have in the garden .  Why?  Well...because...they're 'free plants'.  Nothing better than that, in my mind.  One of the perennials that I went ham-on in the backyard were the multiple colonies of Summer Beauty Allium that are planted around the backyard.  I divided one clump of these Summer Beauties that were in the south beds and divided the clump into four smaller plants and planted them around the base of the Oak tree - the tree-swing tree.  Here's that post from mid-October showing the four plants .   This Spring brings good news - as all four Summer Beauty Allium have emerged in their spots.  See below for a photo from this week showing the tips that have emerged for their first growing season in this bed: These are WELL ahead of the hostas and grasses that are planted in this bed.  I'm looking forward to seeing thes...

On Friday, I posted a look at my initial attempts to divide some of our existing Summer Beauty Allium clumps in our backyard to create more new, 'free' plants.  As of that post, I was up to 27 'free plants' created through division.  Pretty good.  But, I had time and knew I had a few more viable Summer Beauty Ornamental Onion plants that were large enough to divide.  I also knew that I had a spot around the front of the Tree Swing Oak tree that is currently planted with hostas, but gets more shade than hostas typically like.  So, I dug those out and relocated them back into the understory garden bed. And, I dug up some Summer Beauty Allium from the southside beds , divided them and relocated some smaller plants to around the Tree Swing Oak tree.  Here, below, is the 'before' look - before I started to divide these.  My shovel is right in front of one of the clumps I divided. I added some of these divisions right next to the existing colony.  See ...

Third in the Fall dividing for "free plants" in our garden post series.  First was the roundup of 22 hostas .  Then, yesterday I showed three net new ferns .  Today, I'm sharing a look at my first attempt at dividing some Summer Beauty Allium.  I have a couple of colonies of Summer Beauty in our backyard beds.  First, the one closer to the house.  I dug up one of the Allium and divided the bulbs to make a second plant.  I tucked the original one back in the same hole.  See below for the 'after' - the division came out of the Allium in the middle of the photo: Here, below, is what the clump looked like: I decided to plant this one trial division in the sideyard, in between a couple of the Disneyland Roses: I repeated this trial exercise with another of the larger Summer Beauties in the further-back-section.  I took from the plant at the very top/middle of the photo below.  And dug it into the spot at the very bottom/middle of the photo be...

Yesterday, I posted about the 22 new hostas that I (now) have in the garden thanks to the magic of perennial plant Fall dividing.  I also went about dividing some other plants in the garden:  Shaggy Shield and Japanese Painted Ghost Ferns. First up, the Shaggy Shield Ferns.  I should have included these in my recent ' ferns that still look good ' post, but I missed them.   I p lanted these two - along with a pair of Tassel Ferns - in May of 2021 .  A year-and-a-half later they're doing really well.  Grew up and out.  Below is a photo showing how big and proud these two ferns were pre-dividing. They are a thicket of fronds. Because I didn't love where they were located (kind of hidden), I decided to dig them both up.  I also dug up a handful of Ostrich Ferns and relocated them back around the tree swing tree.   Below is what one of the Shaggy Shield Ferns looked like including the root clump.  (I wired up the fronds to keep the...

Fall is - maybe - the most productive I'm in the garden all season.  The cool temperatures sure help.  But, so does the fact that you can get pretty great deals on plants at the nursery in October.  And...couple that with this being the best time to divide perennials means I'm out there making lots of additions to the beds. My 'NEW free plants' scorecard this fall reads like this:  2 hostas under the Oak , 2 Bressingham Blues by the Viburnums and 2 Lancifolia Hostas in the fern garden .   That's six new plants so far. But, the past weekend saw even more dividing and transplanting.  First up, the hostas that are sitting under the Frans Fontaine Columnar Hornbeams.  They've struggled from what I think is either sunburn or frost burn the past few years.  They are very likely getting TOO MUCH sun.  Below is a photo showing a larger hosta in the middle with my spade showing how I was going to divide this one.  And, to the right is a sma...