Perennials: Dividing overgrown Heuchera - need some advice, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
I have had the experience of worrying about when to divide heuchera. I tended to wait for a long time until they were heaving and scraggly.

I'm no expert on these but what I did successfully last spring is this. I always divided mine in spring (I am in your zone). By then they are often heaving bit. I would either tear them apart or take a sharp shovel and cut through them. I removed anything that looked dead. Then I buried planted them more deeply than before, so that the roots were further down. Then I surrounded the base with compost and soil. They came through beautifully. I would hesitate to do this in fall. I've never tried it, but I think the possibility of loss is much greater.

I do not think that there is any need to grow heucheras in pots, unless you are subject to special circumstances. I was moving three years ago, so I put a struggling heuchera in a pot. The first picture shows how horrible it looked after spending the winter in a pot in the garage. I moved in December and could not get it into the ground. This was in April.

The second picture shows it six weeks later, after I put the plant in the ground and gave it lots of compost and light fertilization. A much happier plant!

This spring I divided that same heuchera into three plants. All are thriving.

So, my advice would be to fill them in with soil and compost now, make sure they don't dry out, and ruthlessly divide them in the spring and bury them deeper.

I hope this helps. I am sure that others will have good advice.