When Agapanthus grow too large, they need to be separated. So, you need to know how and when to divide Agapanthus if you want to get the most flowers out of them.
Divide agapanthus after 3-4 years (evergreen) or 6-8 years (deciduous). To divide agapanthus, you must take them out of the ground, remove old and damaged foliage/roots, and then cut the bulbs into medium-sized plants.
Why Should You Divide Your Agapanthus?
Many people think that dividing agapanthus is a past-time or something that only benefits the gardener! But, they are wrong.
Dividing your Agapanthus is beneficial to the plant too! Overcrowding of agapanthus often results in poor blooms, and the soil quality can suffer as well.
Your Agapanthus could also be suffocating other plants, robbing them of minerals, water, and air. Sometimes when dividing up, retaining the younger shoots and discarding the older plant will give better flowers.
Dividing your Agapanthus every 3 to 4 years will promote better flowers on your Agapanthus.
Related Read – How Often Do Lily of the Nile Bloom?
When to Divide Your Agapanthus?
You can choose to dig up and divide your Agapanthus when they have finished flowering. Not before as this would disturb flowering and doing so will forfeit flowering for the whole year!
Alternatively, you can split them in spring, just as the new growth is making an appearance. However, you should not expect too many flowers for the year, as they would still be settling down and establishing themselves.
When to divide agapanthus also depends on whether your Agapanthus is an evergreen or deciduous variety. The dividing timetable is slightly different for these two variants of plants.
1) Dividing Deciduous Agapanthus
Spring or early summer would be the best time for you to split and transplant your deciduous Agapanthus. Or even when you see the foliage has died back, which is in autumn. The deciduous varieties should really be divided every 6 to 8 years.
But if you see they are not really flowering all that well, you might want to thin out the Agapanthus sooner.
2) Dividing Evergreen Agapanthus
Evergreen agapanthus plants need dividing a bit sooner than deciduous agapanthus and waiting will not help.
Divide evergreen agapanthus every 3 to 4 years. Do it in spring when new growth appears or in autumn after flowers are spent.
The methods by which these two variants are divided are the same and do not require anything extraordinary.
Do Deer Eat Lily of the Nile (Agapanthus)? Ways to Deter Deer
Preparing to Divide Agapanthus
Depending on what quantity of agapanthus you have and what space they occupy, planning could be necessary.
Here are a few preparatory points for you to follow before carrying out the task of dividing your agapanthus plants.
What Tools Will I Need to Divide Agapanthus?
Agapanthus leaves are thick, naturally making them hard to cut through and cut off! Therefore, any pruning activities will require the right tools of the trade.
- Expelling the plant from the ground will require a shovel or fork that is sizable and capable of penetrating the soil deep enough.
- Another tool you will need is a sharp knife that will cut through the foliage as well as root matter.
Failure to carry the right tools can result in difficulty dividing your plants.
Where Should I Plant Agapanthus?
Areas closest to the native growing location of agapanthus are most ideal to plant them. Straying too far from native growing conditions will lead to poor health and may possibly kill your agapanthus.
Plant agapanthus in a sunny spot with fertile and well-draining soil. Also, water appropriately to avoid your plant succumbing to transplant shock.
Ready to plant agapanthus plants? Find out if Agapanthus like full sun.
What Should I Do After Planting Agapanthus?
After dividing your agapanthus, what comes next?
Well, naturally, you will want to make sure that your agapanthus is looked after to ensure success. You can take precautionary measures to ensure that the plants grow and that too at the soonest. Here are some 3 tips to keep agapanthus happy:
- Water the plants appropriately
- Make sure they are planted in the full sun not full shade
- The soil must be fertile enough and well-draining
Provide this and your plants have every reason to grow!
How to Divide Agapanthus? Step by Step Guide
You should first and foremost, have the new site ready. Be it a bed in the garden or a new container. You will want to keep your agapanthus out of the soil for the shortest possible time. The longer it stays out, the more evident the signs of transplant shock!
Despite many people saying dividing agapanthus is hard, you’ll see that this is not as difficult as they say. Follow these steps to divide agapanthus grown outdoor on the ground
Dividing Fixed Agapanthus
- Choose a tool that will penetrate the ground with fairly little effort. Push the garden shovel/fork into the ground close to the clump of Agapanthus. Add a bit of force and gently lift out the whole clump of Agapanthus from the ground. Make sure you remove all the rhizomes and roots from the ground.
- Once the Agapanthus is out of the ground, you can inspect the clump and start discarding dead portions. Old damaged leaves can be removed, and so can flowers since they will die anyway. Besides, the energy needed to sustain them is better used to bypass transplant shock symptoms.
- Take a bit more time to also inspect the plant and catch any disease or pests that may already be infecting the plant. This time is to remove them before the infestation becomes severe and consumes your agapanthus plant. Consciously remove dead or dying roots and bulbs as they could be harboring disease.
- Cut and divide the clump into smaller plantlets using a sharp knife. This step is important and requires you to be mindful of what size you divide agapanthus plants into. This is because smaller clumps take longer to flower!
- Once satisfied with the clumps, and before replanting, remove ⅔ of the foliage to provide enough space and chances for new green growth.
- Then you can replant them on your selected new site or the existing site. The ideal site would be in full sun with relatively fertile and well-draining soil.
- Perhaps you can help them off to a good start by adding a bit of fertilizer to the soil. Give them a good, deep watering and your job is done, for now at least!
Want your agapanthus to flower as soon as possible? Read about why your agapanthus is not flowering and how to fix it.
Dividing Potted Agapanthus
Potted Agapanthus also needs dividing since they easily outgrow their pots. The only solution is to divide the plant so that it can still fit in the pot. Here’s a numbered guide on how to divide agapanthus.
- Remove the Agapanthus from the pot, if the plant has been in this pot for many years it could be root bound. Therefore it would be quite difficult to pry out.
- After removing the plant, dust all the soil off so that you may clearly see the root ball and plant base. Take off any dry and dead leaves.
- If there are many shoots, you can divide them, if the shoots are small, divide two shoots together. Keep the mother plant on her own and intact.
- You may cut away some roots and then cut through the rootball, with a large knife, to separate the plants.
- The plants can now be potted up separately. You can add a slow-release fertilizer by mixing it with the potting mix.
Points to Remember When Dividing Agapanthus
- While excavating the plant from the ground be sure to not leave any matter behind as it can grow into an entirely new plant.
- Large clumps of agapanthus don’t bloom very well, but very small clumps also take longer to grow.
- Failure to sterilize your agapanthus plants can result in infection, followed by poor degrading health of your plants.
- Failure to remove and eradicate pests and diseases can cost you your agapanthus!
- Agapanthus needs extra attention after dividing and transplanting as they can suffer from shock.
Having flower issues, here are reasons why Agapanthus flowers flop.
Conclusion
Evidently, dividing agapanthus is an inevitable activity that you must carry out to maintain optimum health and flowering quality. But still, questions regarding how and when to divide agapanthus remain.
- Divide agapanthus every 3 to 4 years to ensure it flowers better since it will get more space and resources to do so.
- As for how to divide agapanthus, you must uproot the entire plant, prune it, remove damaged and infected matter, then split the bulbs equally into reasonable sizes. Then replant them in ideal conditions.
Now that you know how and when to divide agapanthus plants, we don’t expect you to have bushy gardens.
Also, planting Mint? Find out is it possible to harvest Mint without killing it.
FAQs
The best time to repot agapanthus plants is in Spring. Just as new growth begins to show and the plant has already flowered. That’s because doing so before flowering may affect output.
Agapanthus cuttings are best taken from the roots, taking a rhizome will be the fastest way to grow agapanthus. Otherwise, a “cutting” would refer to a divided section of the plant containing leaves and bulb with roots. Essentially it is an entirely separate plant that you can plant.
