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Perennials are a favorite type of garden plant for many gardens as they will bloom for several seasons without replanting. Perhaps one of the best qualities of perennials is that you can divide them and make more plants for free! Dividing your perennials periodically is important as it will keep them from getting overcrowded and help insure healthy lush plants.

Many perennials can be divided easily, but this does not hold try for every variety. In general, division is easiest with perennials that grow in clumps or ones with an expanding root mass. Perennials which stem from single taproot typically cannot be divided but can be duplicated by using root cuttings or seeds.

It is important to divide the plant at a time when the plant is most likely to be receptive to this procedure. Fr plants that come up in spring and summer, the best time to divide them is in the fall Perennials that bloom in the fall or late summer should be divided in the spring.

You can divide perennials with a minimum of preparation. If you will be replanting the divisions, you should have already decided on the new area and prepared the soil to accept the new plants. If you are dividing to give the plants to a family member or friend, have an appropriate receptacle handy to put the division in.

Loosen the soil, gently, around the plant clump that you plan to divide. You can use a spading fork to scrape up the dirt and be sure not to damage any parts of the plant. The clump should then be sliced with a garden trowel and divided into four parts. Make sure your trowel is sharp so you get a clean cut, otherwise your plants could become damaged. Break up the four sections by hand into four inche by four inche sections. Plant the small sections immediately.

When you are dividing plants, make sure you thoroughly wet the soil a couple of days before you do the division. This will make it easier to dig up the clump for division. Also, you should add compost or some other organic material to the soil both around the original plant and in the soil where the new divisions will be planted. This will give the plants the nutrition they need and help them to grow strong in their new area of the garden. Once the new plants are in place, make sure you water thoroughly and fertilize appropriately.

Planning your perennial plantings and divisions can help you grow your garden without having to spend extra money. All it takes is a little bit of time and patience and you can have a large full garden on even a small budget!

Lee Dobbins writes for Backyard Garden And Patio where you can get more great gardening and landscaping tips.

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You can hear the wailing from here. “Why aren’t my bulbs blooming?” “There are a lot of leaves on them but not a single flower.”

The overall cause of a bulb not producing a bloom is either the bud wasn’t formed or it was damaged in some way. No bud equals no flower.

Here’s why your bud might have been killed:

There wasn’t enough sunlight last summer or you planted your bulbs in too shady an area. For the most part, spring blooming bulbs want full sunshine for at least six hours a day. If you do not give them enough sunshine, they may live but not have enough energy to produce a flower bud.

You might have cut off the foliage last year before it yellowed naturally. If you cut off the foliage before it yellows, the bulb will not be able to get enough sunlight to produce a bud. Remember Doug Green’s number one rule for growing bulbs, “Grow the foliage, the flower will take care of itself.” You might have tied up the foliage over top of the bulb to give yourself room to plant annuals. This is an old trick that won’t go away but is still not recommended for growing good bulb leaves. (Do you think you’d grow very well if you had to hold your arms over your head all the time?)

You might have planted them too early last fall. Once the bulb had rooted and the ground was still warm, it might have started to produce a flower bud. Once that bud emerges, it either lives or dies on the soil temperature. An emerged bud that hits frozen or too-cold soil is going to die and this means there won’t be another bud for the following spring.

Perhaps you overfed or overwatered those bulbs. Overwatering bulbs will most often kill them because they will rot (think of leaving an onion in a glass of water). Spring flowering bulbs have developed in areas where there is winter-cold and spring-rains but summer drought. When you water your garden in the summer to keep the annuals and perennials happy, you are making your bulbs unhappy. Too much water and the bulbs will disappear taking their flowers with them.

Perhaps the bulbs have grown up magnificently and multiplied. If so, they might simply require dividing to produce flowers again. This is not likely in a normal garden setting but possible. You can tell if there are scads of leaves all coming from the same small area if the bulbs are too crowded.

You want to know if it is a disease. The odds are that it is not. Bulb diseases either disfigure flowers or kill the bulbs. None just kill off the flower bud.

The odds are it is a cultural thing and not a disease. You just have to figure out what you need to give the bulb to make it happy. You can do this at Doug Green’s flower-garden-bulbs.com website

Remember, grow those leaves to make the flowers bloom.

copyright Douglas Green 2005

Doug Green is an award winning garden writer with over 30 years experience in the horticultural industry. His bulb website is at http://www.flower-garden-bulbs.com and his garden blog is at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com

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Do you want to know more about Garden Clubs? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Gardening Club experts.

What’s in Store for National Home Gardening Club Members?

The National Home Gardening Club offer many benefits to its members.

It is said to be the largest home gardening organization with paid membership. For a nominal fee, various benefits are available.

If you choose to become a member the National Home Gardening club, you will be entitled to the following perks.

1. Members can enter competitions to win free gardening products such as gardening accessories, tools, and other gardening supplies.

2. A coupon will be given to members to claim a free gardening shears.

3. Members can also access a free trial subscription of the Gardening How-To Magazine.

4. They may be eligible to test and keep gardening tools such as pruning shears. These are some of the products tested by members in the past two issues of the Gardening How-To magazine:

- Honda Harmony Lawn Mower
- Miracle-Gro Garden Weed Preventer
- Sunflower Garden
- Cobra Head Precision Weeder and Cultivator
- Preen ‘n Green

See how much you can learn about Gardening Club when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

5. Members can enjoy a free directory of public gardens, which contains information about lush gardens, arboretums, and conservatories throughout the US.

6. They can interact and talk about tips, ideas and methods with other members.

7. Members can obtain gardening and landscaping tips and plans for the completion of various gardening projects.

8. They have access to the members-only gardening website.

9. Members can also preview gardening books, gardening videos, etc.

Indeed, the for-members-only benefits are that grandiose. They are all for the gardening enthusiasts to grab.

After the 30-day trial, you can continue your membership for only $1 per month.

Many garden-lovers think this is a small price to pay for all these privileges.

That’s the latest from the Gardening Club authorities. Once you’re familiar with these ideas, you’ll be ready to move to the next level.

Bill McRea is the publisher of Garden Facts also Garden Decor and Landscape Trees Landscaping and Gardening with information and products.

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