I came back from a sun-drenched New York turning all kinds of firecracker red and butter-gold yellow to my own mellow autumn palette. We’d briefly considered not getting on the plane, hiring a car and chasing the autumn colour upstate and beyond, but once I got home to our burnt oranges and buttermilk yellows I was glad not to be rushing after anything. It is time to ground myself and sort out the garden.
I fell hard for the native garden at New York Botanical Garden, a collaboration between the landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden and the garden’s own horticultural staff. It takes a refined palette of complementary colours, uses interesting plants that love their spot, and repeats this formula over various habitats. Like most stylish gardens, this works because it recycles its best tricks: the right plant in the right spot, repeated. This doesn’t limit what you grow, it’s just making sure there’s a rhythm to your space. One of everything is very tiring on the eye.
If you have a perennial that does well in your garden, looks good whatever the weather, and is big enough, lift and divide. One happy plant easily becomes several and, in time, several more. As the garden begins to die back, this is the time to take stock. It’s easier to rid yourself of plants that aren’t working when autumn has begun to take its toll.
If the weather permits, lifting and dividing can carry on all winter. In reality, this mostly happens from now till early December and again in February, if the soil is not frozen. The rule of thumb for perennials is this: if it flowers in early summer you can divide in autumn – the likes of geraniums, euphorbias, hemerocallis, delphiniums, primulas and epimediums. If it flowers in late summer/early autumn – such as asters, helianthus, heleniums, phormiums, sedums, and ornamental grasses – divide in spring.
You can break this rule – I have, plenty of times – but if you do, be kind. Make sure your divisions are large enough that the plant isn’t struggling to re-establish. If there’s a threat of rotting off, pot up your divisions and put them in a cold frame or the lee of the house so the worst of the weather is kept off. When replanting, top-dress with homemade compost to keep the weeds down. Feed the new growth in spring, and insulate the roots.
As to how you divide, the best way is prising the root ball apart with two forks back to back. For tougher specimens, use a spade to slice off sections. Discard any woody middles, cut down tall stems that may rock the roots in winter winds, and replant divisions quickly to avoid them drying out. If you can’t, then store the plants in old compost sacks with holes punched in. Robust perennials can sit for a month or more in such a home.
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