DIVIDING AND CONQUERING IN THE PERENNIAL GARDEN
I enjoy Springtime in my garden more than any other time of the year. The season is filled with excitement as some of the early bloomers start showing their fancy pants off as if they were preparing for the grand ball.
I start seeing their tiny pink, green or white bloomers of stems begin reaching out from beneath the winter’s leafy brown blanket as they search for their perfect view of the sun, not too bright, not too dark, not too hot, not too cold bending and leaning in the way that they feel most beautiful.
I have tended the garden of my allotment since the early 1980s. It began as a blank canvas of green lawn and over the next 30 years I have begged, borrowed, bartered, and stolen perennial plants and seeds to expand the plain green landscape to a colorful bouquet, wishing for an arrangement of every color as well as interest to the visitor in every season. I have something blooming in every month except December, at which time I add brilliant red ribbon and twinkling lights to celebrate the season of Christmas, and so it is a distraction to my rather drab December garden.
I am always excited when a visitor finds something striking in my garden, and I can see by the twinkling in their eyes and the swooning enthusiasm, that they might would like a small division for their own garden. Most of the time it is not the best time or season to divide, but I remember. And come spring, as the new plants emerge, I divide bulbs, take new growth hard wood cuttings of the blackberries and raspberries, cut scions of the hydrangea, viburnum, and forsythia to root and then I deliver the gift to an unsuspecting neighbor or friend. Believe me when I say it is one of life’s greatest joys to give, and receive, of the divisions of plants in one’s garden.
