Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Spring/Summer/now Fall Projects.....cont'd......, 0 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Well, Guys!
Knocked off one of my biggest, procrastinated projects today!!!! So glad it is done!

I e-mailed this to a couple people--that I had e-mail addresses for. So--this text is pretty much c/p of the previous one....Didn't want to write it all over again.

I finally did it!!!!! After a struggle worthy of a trophy, I succeeded in removing my Clivia from it's "pot-of-ages" (about 35yrs.) and spent about 2 hrs. in hacking it apart into 12 lg. divisions and 4 small ones. Lost a lot of roots in the process--as I had to use a knife to cut most of the divisions apart.
Oh, well! They will have to survive!

I had planned to re-pot them in, maybe, 6" pots--but, obviously, that won't do.
HAH??? Just looking at the divisions, nothing less than a 8"-10"pot will do!
Do I REALLY need to go shopping for pots????? My shed is full of them! However--most of them are UGLY and USED! Since I am hoping to sell some of these potted divisions next Spring (assuming they will root in OK) they need to be in presentable pots. NOT those black, Nursery pots.....Have to now scrounge in my shed and my basement and see what I have .
AGAIN--I have created a time frame to accomplish something I had NOT planned for. And--so my life goes! (Post note--I DID accomplish it! ALL of it! Done!!! ) Doing a happy dance!

BTW--The 12" pot it was in is indestructible!

After a while of banging on the sides and bottom of this pot with my heavy rubber mallet ( I was being conservative)--I took my 4lb. sledge hammer and started hitting away--as I had come to the conclusion that I will have to break the pot in pieces to remove the plant. I hit gently-- at first--then full force--and the pot did not even crack! Kept wondering WHAT it is made of???? Some kind of a polymer???

It did, eventually, loosen the root ball enough, though, that I could pull it out. I am glad that the original pot did not break--(as I wanted to honor Helen's Mom who started this plant in it--close to 35 yrs. ago. Helen is my friend who gave me this plant 3 years ago)--by re-planting a couple of the bigger divisions back in it. Let it live another 30 years!!!!! Or even 50 yrs.! (They DO!) I will be long gone!

After I succeeded in getting it out of the pot--I put the root ball on the lawn and rinsed all the soil off of of it. In the bottom part of the pot--the roots must have been rotten--as there were NO firm roots in the bottom 3rd of the pot. No wonder! All the rain we have had. This plant sat totally exposed to the elements. Sun AND rain! Will know better next year!

SO! Here is the root ball right after I pulled it out....