How to divide hostas

Listen to this radio story (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Jennifer Dubindorf, Earth team coordinator, Natural Resources Conservation Service

My neighbor, Sharon, has a beautiful garden full of many varieties of hostas. I need to go over there when she's dividing them and bring a few home. While the best time to divide hostas is in spring, you can split them any time during the growing season.

Hostas hit peak growth when they're about five to seven years old. You don't have to divide them, but Jennifer Dubindorf is a hosta expert and says the mother plant will tell you when it's ready to "kick the kids out of the house."

"You know they need to be divided when part way through the growing season they start to split like the Red Sea," Dubindorf says. "They start to lay over even before they bloom, especially in the middle. They get kind of hollow looking, and the leaves start to die out. It's gotten too crowded."

Start dividing by digging out the entire plant with a spade or pitchfork. Rinse the loose dirt off the plant, and then separate the hosta into sections, according to where the "eyes," or little leaf clumps, are. The plant can be cut in half, quarters, or pie-shape pieces. If it's a really small hosta or an expensive one, use a sharp knife for more accurate divisions.