Your Expert Guide to Early Spring Gardening in the Hudson Valley
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Your Expert Guide to Early Spring Gardening in the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley Magazine did a great article on early spring gardening advice.
They interviewed local professional Gardeners and Garden Designers, including Victoria Coyne from Victoria Gardens. :)
The advice she gave is something she also talked about on the March episode of the Garden and Home Show with Sally Spillane on WKZE:
Divide but be “quick and quiet.”
“If we’re on a job site and we know we’re not coming back for a month, and there’s some giant Siberian iris that wants to eat the world, we will dig it up then and put a smaller piece back in,” says Coyne. “I always say even when you’re doing those divisions or transplants at the so-called wrong moment, do it quick and quiet: decide where it’s going, dig that hole, prep it, then go get that plant, don’t talk when you’re moving it, put it into its hole, tell it how happy it’s going to be there, give it a big drink of water, and don’t forget you moved it. If we get a dry period— and the way weather patterns are so bizarre these days sometimes we’re dry even in April—you do you want to remember your transplants will need a little extra help to get through the season.”
Read the whole Hudson Valley magazine article.
Tips for dividing plants:
Either dig up the whole plant and cut it in half or fourths or dig out half and leave the other half in place.
Pre-dig and pre-water holes where you are going to move your divisions or transplants.
Water! A whole bucket of water will help that transplant take root.
Some of our favorite perrenials to divide in the spring:
Siberian iris
Hosta
Ornamental grasses
Lamb’s ear
Stonecrop sedum
The general rule is divide fall blooming plants in the spring and divide spring and summer blooming plants in the fall, because you are giving the plant plenty of time to recover and become established before it puts out the energy to flower.