Guide to dividing Hosta plants

Our garden expert shows you how to divide hostas. You'll learn about the benefits, the right time and technique of dividing hostas and spreading the color and joy around your garden.

Hi everyone, this is Scott from Spring Hill Nurseries and today, on step-by-step gardening, we're talking about dividing hostas. As you know, hostas are one of the best perennials for your shade garden. Hostas grow very quickly, so you want to divide the plants to keep them healthy. They grow from spring through fall, so the best time to divide is either early spring or in the fall. Just like today! The first part of dividing your hostas is to make sure you have the right tool. You want a good flat bottom shovel, not a pointed spade. A pointed spade can damage the roots of your hostas. So, when you're digging your hole, it's very easy. Just dig that hole all the way around your plant about three to five inches from the base. Let's take a look. So, here's my hosta. We're going to go out about three to five inches from the base. We're going to go all the way around so we can get that plant out in one shot. Let's dig that hosta. Okay, so I've dug up the plant, now let's pull it out here. Alright, look at this, this is a great looking plant. This is going to be excellent and very easy to divide. There are a couple of different ways you can divide. You could use a big knife, like a bread knife or you could use a saw. You could even use your hands. I find the easiest thing to do it is just use the shovel. Alright, let's split it. So, you're just going to want to move your foliage here a little bit so you can see the center of the plant, put your shovel in there, okay? A good chop, let's see what we got. Okay, alright, this is going to be perfect. Now come take a close look at this. See this, each of these is called an eye root and each of these eye roots could be its own plant, so you can have lots of new hosta plants. Now if you're just dividing it to keep it healthy like we did today, just one split right there in the middle is perfect. All you've got to do now is plant another hosta plant. Let's go find a good spot. Okay, so now it's time to plant the hosta. This is the easy part. All you have to do is dig a hole that's two times the size of the root mass. I've already dug mine. You want to add a little bit of plant food to the hole, about two teaspoons per square foot, okay! You want to mix that around with your good soil-compost mix. Just simply place the plant in the hole, backfill it. Then when you're all done, you'll just give it a nice drink of water, add a little bit of mulch around the planting area, and you're all done! That's it. So, dividing hostas, very easy and good for the plant. Jut dig it, split it and plant it. For Spring Hill Nursery's step-by-step gardening, I'm Scott. Thanks for joining me.