Here are the three, 2-gallon Karl Foerster Reed grasses I bought.

Here is one of the grasses after the root ball was cut in half.

And, finally, the six new grasses after they've been re-potted. This was taken just after they were divided, but it's a week later and they're still doing fine.

This is a nice quart-size hens and chicks (Sempervivum) from Glover Perennials which I want to divide to get a lot of smaller plants. I've taken it out of the pot (one little plant broke off in the process so it has already been planted.Here is a close-up of the root ball--this is an excellent early-season pot, with a rich dark, fairly loose organic growing medium and roots showing to the bottom, but not root-bound. Basically, you tease this apart and the little hens and chicks can be snapped off and replanted. If you find one that doesn't yet have roots, leave it attached (the attachment is about pencil-lead think, usually about an inch long, and is tough enough if you're gentle) to one that does have roots (usually a larger one). I fill the pot about half full and hold it at an angle so the soil surface is diagonal to the top of the pot. I then lay the little plant on the slanted surface, holding the plant slightly above the dirt, and add dirt to the pot, turning it upright and shaking gently as I do so. This results in roots facing down and the plant nicely settled in the pot.

Once the pots are done (I use recycled Proven Winner pots and trays a lot because they're light-weight, handy and I get them free from work when we plant up our flower boxes). You'll note there are several pots with two "hens" (one hen and one chick?) and I replanted a cluster of about five back in the pot they came in. This I'll use as a "mother" plant, meaning, as it sends out more small plants, I'll re-pot those to add to the garden. I never divide and plant directly in the garden as it is a stressful operation and I can monitor growth, watering and exposure to sunlight much easier with a tray of plants than in the garden itself. Oh, and, yes, I labeled them after I took the above shot!

I also divided some nice #2 size Karl Foerster Reed Grasses and hope to get those pictures up this weekend.

Tradescantia - final divisions

Here are the plants all potted up (recycled pots!). The two on the right have modest root systems and the three on the left have small root systems--this way I can see if I was too aggressive in separating the crowns.

They're in the shady spot with the Grandprize Hostas and we'll see how they do.

Tradescantia continued

This shows some of the divisions and the size of their roots. I may have gone a bit far in dividing , but the books agree this is a pretty tough plant, so we'll see. The key is to just keep them moist and shady and see what happens.

Tradescantia (trad-es-KANT-ee-uh) divisions

I have to go in to work earlier than normal today so am putting this on now. It got cool overnight after two days of heat so it'll be a nice day at the garden center. I need to try not to "find" anything else to get! :-)

I'm not sure where I'm going to put this plant but it has nice flowers and it looked like a good plant to get to learn and, again, the ability to divide it and make many little plants from one pot is always appealing to someone who has to be careful about how many plants they buy.

This is Tradescantia 'Marielle Andersoniana'.

Here is the plant out of the pot. The roots are sort of fleshy which is usually a good sign for dividing, especially in summer.

Dividing a White Flower Farm Grandprize Hosta

This Grandprize hosta from White Flower Farm sucked me in with its pretty lavender flowers, despite the fact that we have lots of deer on the property (I use a spray repellent). Of course, the other thing I liked about it was that it had plenty of offshoots so I was able to divide it into eight smaller and three larger plants.

These are the divisions four days after they were split. Kept in the shade and well-watered they all look to be doing fine. I had to cut off the flower stalks, so the plants would concentrate on root growth, but I'll be able to enjoy the flowers next year.