Spring is a great time to divide certain perennials in your garden. Division produces more plants for your garden or to share with a fellow gardener.
It also provides the opportunity to remove old, dead growth and encourage new growth. And you can take advantage of having more plants to do some re-designing of your garden beds.
It’s also easier to divide plants when they are small and just starting to leaf out, and the plant has the entire growing season to get re-established in its new location.
For more plants and how and when to divide them, see How and when to divide perennials.
You can download the Dividing perennials spreadsheet to find information specific to 125 common perennials.
Perennials that should be divided in spring
| Common name | Scientific name |
|---|---|
| Anemone | Anemone spp. |
| Artemisia | Artemisia spp. |
| Balloon flower | Platycodon grandiflorus |
| Beardtongue | Penstemon digitalis |
| Bee balm | Monarda spp. |
| Bleeding heart | Dicentra spp. |
| Delphinium | Delphinium grandiflorum |
| False blue indigo | Baptisia australis |
| Plantain lily | Hosta spp. |
| Jacob's ladder | Polemonium caeruleum |
| Japanese spurge | Pachysandra terminalis |
| Blazing star | Liatris spp. |
| Maidenhair fern | Adiantum pedatum |
| Milkweed | Asclepias spp. |
| Monkshood | Acontium napellus |
| Mum - garden | Dendranthema xgrandiflora |
| Obedient plant | Physostegia virginiana |
| Ornamental grasses | |
| Pinks | Dianthus spp. |
| Sedge | Carex spp. |
| Stonecrop | Sedum spp. |
| Toad lily | Tricyrtis hirta |
| Turtlehead | Chelone spp. |
| Virginia bluebells | Mertensia virginica |
| Yarrow | Achillea millefolium |