Hi All-

I have a neighbor who would like some of my Stellas and I was wondering how do I go about splitting them?? Do I need to dig the entire plant up?? Can I just take a spade and cut through it?? How does this work??

Josh

Hi, Josh
I also have several clump of Stella to divide. You can lift the entire clump and then cut like a pie. You can use a spade but I have a large chef knife that is handy to use. I hope this helps.

On the more expensive ones, I try to lift and gently pry them apart but sometimes you will need to cut the roots.

I have taken a shovel and shoved it right in the middle of a clump and cut it in half and dug out the part I wanted to give away and left the other in the ground; didn't phase them a bit. with Stella of course a shovel will be too large so a spade should be fine. I would NEVER do this with expensive ones though

I'm a huge fan of Juli's hose method, but it depends on how much time you have. I've very rarely needed to resort to sharp objects, but I'm not generally in a hurry when I'm dividing them.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

Ok, so with the expensive ones, do ya'll tend to dig up the entire root ball, then break it apart from there? How does this work? The stella was pretty tough to cut apart. I couldn't believe how compact it was!

Someone turn on the heat! Its 49 in NY this morning..not liking it one bit! Josh

I used a knife with Stella, for exactly the reasons you said. For most of mine, I dig up the entire clump, and use the strong jet of water to get all the dirt out of it (I'm also removing bermuda grass or clover from the clump at the same time). Then I'll use the strong jet of water to help me get my fingers between the roots so I can wiggle them apart. It's kind of like untangling Christmas lights. (and for me, an expensive DL is any one that I paid more than $5 for )

Same here Mary! I could never take the stress of having a $100 daylily! I'd have to sleep in the garden with it to make sure it survived! I'm too cheap for those anyway!

In the little experience I've had, some daylilies increase different than others. Some seem to grow a new plant that isn't attached to the original, but the roots seem to be tangled together. Others seem to grow off of the side of the original, and they are stuck together at the crown. I sure do prefer to divide the ones that aren't stuck together, and I panic a bit when cutting apart the others. Haven't lost one yet due to being careless when doing this, but it always worries me. Therefore, I only divide if I have to do it.

You can either dig the whole plant up and use a sharp knife to cut the root ball or just use a shovel and cut down through half or more depending on how big it is. I prefer to dig the whole thing up unless it is too big because I can clean it up that way before I put it back in the ground. I use alcohol to sterilize the knife I use just in case. Stella is tough and should easily recover any dividing.

I had some too big to be gentle -- so I took a shovel and divided it into 4 huge clumps... I bet it had 100 fans in one division. I best divide sooner next time!!

Two large screwdrivers work well to pry large clumps apart - easier than a knife, IMHO, as I have broken knives trying to get clumps apart! The plus side of screwdrivers is that they don't damage the plant quite as much.

There is also a dividing tool ( no commercial interest in this!) that some people swear by. Sorry, I don't have the link but know that my buddy Nikki Schmith made a Utube video about it!

Here is a thread about the divider

The thread "Don's Daylily Divider" in Daylilies forum