Every few years you should dig up perennials from the ground and cut them with a bold cut right through the root ball. This step sounds brutal, but it's a boon for the plants.
Veitshöchheim (dpa / tmn) - Older perennials can get younger again - and thus become stronger. To do this, they have to be shared.
Perennials are plants that grow over many years. Their most memorable feature: when they have faded, the superficial parts usually die. But the rhizome remains, hibernates and shoots again the following year.
Another characteristic: the parts of a perennial above ground do not become wood over time, as is known from the new shoots of trees and shrubs. One speaks therefore that herbaceous perennials grow. Well-known perennials in the garden are columbine, Funkie, Lillie and Delphinium.
Old perennials no longer bloom splendidly
When perennials are a few years old, they often weaken and no longer bloom so splendidly. And they are sometimes more susceptible to diseases. In many perennials such as grasses, one indication of this is that the clusters become bald on the inside.
For this reason, the Bavarian Garden Academy advises for some perennials such as asters, maiden eye, delphiniums and daisies and for grasses such as the Chinese reed to divide in spring when the soil, which is often damp in winter, has dried somewhat.
Divide into fist-sized pieces
The clumps are dug out of the garden soil and the loose soil around the rhizome is shaken off, explains the garden academy. Then you divide the rhizome into several pieces with a sharp knife or spade - each with a minimum size of a fist and several healthy shoots or buds. The experts advise that excessively long and damaged roots can be shortened to 15 to 20 centimeters.
Then the pieces come back into the garden soil, which has been loosened well and improved with compost or potting soil. Surplus pieces can be given away.
The sharing only needs to be repeated every few years. For some perennials, however, it is not advisable in spring, but only after they have blossomed - for example with chamois, commemorative, Caucasus forget-me-not and other perennials that bloom directly in spring.