Hacking Apart a Very Pot Bound Clivia
Judy Glattstein (Tue, 25 Apr 2017 17:38:01 PDT)

A friend who will be moving is clearing out the 20 ft by 20 ft sun room.
I collected his orange clivia late last week because yesterday was my
garden club's divide and multiply workshop, geared towards garden
perennials that will be sold at the early July arts festival. The clivia
would be a high class addition to our usual offerings.

I have never divided a clivia. First effort was getting the dang thing
out of its pot. I seriously thought I'd have to take a hatchet to the
pot but eventually out it came. If there wasn't any soil left in the
root mass it wouldn't surprise me. After fruitless twiddling and
plucking at the tight root mass (reminded me of when one of the cats
takes a skein of yarn and runs through the house, under chairs, up and
down stairs, then saunters off leaving me with the tangle) I dumped it
in a bucket of water to soak for a while.

The roots loosened but not sufficiently to do much good. Casting a
prayer to the gods of chlorophyll I went at it with a serrated knife.
Ended up with three very nice divisions, all with goodly amount of
roots. Two good divisions with minimal amount of roots. And one division
with lots of roots and a growing point but no leaves.

Took everything home and let them sit in the garage overnight, then
potted them up this morning in a very gritty mix. Did not water.

Delivered one of the best divisions back to the original owner. Will
keep one for myself. Will tend the others until early July and the plant
sale. Fingers crossed for their survival and recovery.

This is no doubt the wrong time of year to do this sort of plant
butchery but it was when the occasion presented itself.

Be gentle while scolding me, but any suggestions / advice on followup
care would be welcome.

Judy in New Jersey, where it is raining
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