Transplanting or Splitting Hostas?

Hi, Susan, I'd written a long answer to your question but lost the whole thing when I tried to edit it, so I'll give you the short answer: yes you can! Just be sure to do these things: 1) have a second person to help (if at all possible) to help separate the leaves before you cut and to hold the container you'll put the cut-out part in, 2) make sure there won't be a frost until after you get your new plants into the ground, 3) your helper should gently separate the leaves into front and back sections to expose the middle of the plant that you will dig down through (with a sharp shovel blade) and hold the sections apart while you are cutting it, if possible, 4) be sure to cut through the hosta you're dividing so that you are taking the back half of the plant (preserving most of the appearance of a whole plant with the front half), 5) put the dug-up part into a flowerpot and water well, and 6) water the hosta in the ground to help it bounce back.

When you plant your new hostas, it is fine to set them so that the leaves are touching on neighboring plants if they are foundation plantings. Come spring when they come back up, they'll quickly put out new leaves and fill out into the mounded plants we love. Good luck!

Dear Susan M.S.: Yes, you can absolutely split hostas and replant them at your new home! Here's how: Plan to do this as close as possible to the time that you will be moving, as long as there hasn't been -- or isn't going to be -- a freeze. If you can move the plants right into the ground at your new home, put the plant into a grocery sack after you divide the old plant. Even better would be to put the new plants into flower pots.

To divide the plant: clear the area around the hostas to be divided. Use a sharp shovel. You need to cut across the plant from side to side to keep it from looking like you hacked the planted hostas. If you leave the front half of the plant and fill the dug-up back half firmly with soil and then water the remaining part of the plant very well, it will do fine and possibly won't look as if you've taken half the plant!

It's easier doing this if there is a second person to help hold the hosta leaves apart as you carefully cut into the plant, and to help gather up the plant after it is cut away from the one still in the ground.

Before cutting into the plant, gently separate the front and the back leaves, and if you can, straighten out leaves and stems that are growing there.

You'll put your shovel blade between these sections and push down firmly to push the shovel blade way down through the hosta into the ground below. This will cut through the plant, but there is no other way to do it.

Gently pry up the back section that you have cut loose. (There will be leaves that will be cut, but that can't be helped.) Your helper should have the grocery sack handy so that the plant can be kept together and won't lose a lot of its soil as it is transferred. If you can put your new plant into a pot with adequate soil, this is even better!

When you get it to its new location at your new home, be sure that you dig a big enough hole for the new plant so that it will be planted at the same depth of the original plant. If you are making a row of hedging plants (like foundation plantings), the leaves can touch each other side-to-side, since they will fill out that way anyway. Be sure to water the new plants thoroughly. By the time they come up in the spring, these new hostas will look as if they have always been there! Good luck!