Topic: splitting pinks

[grawrc]

Can anyone please advise me when and how to divide pink plants? Also is it possible to prevent them from getting messy and sprawling?

[manicscousers]

ours are messy and sprawly too, anne..I don't divide them though, I just take cuttings and trim them back  :)

[grawrc]

Thanks Mal. Would now be the right time or wait till spring?

[Toadspawn]

They don't divide easily because there is often just a single multi branched stem.
After flowering cut them back fairly hard and they will produce new growth and maybe a second flush of flowers.
Cuttings are best taken in early summer. Select short shoots without any flower buds. Just remove a few of the bottom leaves and stick around the edge of a pot. I use multi purpose compost. You can put the pot in a polybag to maintain a high humidity but this is not always necessary.
I have found over the past two/three years that if a pink is growing in a pot and it has become straggly, separate the stems and push them around the outside of the pot and then dump a hand full of compost in the middle. After several months or possibly longer most of the shoots will have developed roots and can be removed and grown on  as separate new plants. This might work in the plants growing in the garden, just dump a hand full of compost on the middle of the plant and leave it to see what happens. If each shoot roots then you have new plants without very much hassle.

[Pesky Wabbit]

Unless they are a special variety or have personal attachement, why go to all that trouble when you can buy new for £1.00 a pot - nice, fresh, compact, tidy, just about to flower new ones.

[shirlton]

I took around 30 cutting of  a rambling one of mine in the summer and I have just potted them on into 4inch pots. By next spring they will be quite reasonably sized plants

[Robert_Brenchley]

Unless they are a special variety or have personal attachement, why go to all that trouble when you can buy new for £1.00 a pot - nice, fresh, compact, tidy, just about to flower new ones.

Why spend £1 a plant (which soon adds up if you want a lot) when a spadeful of soil in the middle of a clump at the right time of year will induce it to layer, and each stem becomes a new plant for free?

[aggie]

I agree with Robert. I took 5 cuttings form 5 differant variety's in August and all have taken. I potted them up into 3" pots about two weeks and all are growing just fine. In the spring I shall have a lovey show of pinks all for just a few minutes work and no cost.