Over the last few years we have had
innumerable discussions regarding the moving and division of peonies.
At the risk of being repetitive I am
going to give a litte "tutorial".
This week Bill and I spent quite
some time lifting, moving and dividing several peony plants. Think we
had six different ones which fell prey to the spade!
I will include the link to the
picture album which has a few more miscellaneous shots.
Our purpose for the most part was to
divide an interesting variety to pot up , sink in the ground over the
winter and have for sale at our annual spring sale....people are always
asking us if we have peonies and we have to say -spring is not a good
time to lift and divide! We have planned ahead in this instance.
Here is one of the volunteers as it
was, in the wheelbarrow...trim off the foliage to about 8-10 inches or
so....it could be left, but it makes minimizing eye damage harder. This
clump had tag along lily of the valley, but that is another story!
Next procedure is to wash all the
soil off the root mass to expose the roots and eyes...
Here it is half-done...
After being washed, you can see every eye...
Next is the 'painful' part....the
entire root mass is divided into sections with a sharp and robust
knife...
The result of all that cutting is a selection of nicely eyed,
root-trimmed pieces to replant...
Here is a closer look at a typical piece
ready for planting... there are usually 5-8 eyes in each piece. They
were potted in 1 or 2 gallon pots at the proper depth.
They
could have been planted in a garden bed as well. It is important
that they be planted at the same depth as they were prior to
digging. Too deep and they willnot bloom as well.
Removing most of the old root mass seems to
stimulate very good new root development, so that the seeming lack of
roots isn't a problem. When moving whole plants....damage to the roots
causes more problems than the rigors of division.
Here are the candidates we chose for
our onslaught...
This likely will not cover all aspects ,
but hopefully will give a visual to some who haven't ventured here!