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katgardener

Dividing Iberis

katgardener
9 years ago

I have an Iberis given to me by a friend. It is very happy and starting to crowd out a neighboring plant (a Firewitch Dianthus). Is it safe to divide or cut it back? If so, before or after it blooms?

Comments (2)

  • Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
    9 years ago

    Hi KatGardener,

    I assume you have the hardy perennial candytuft, Iberis sempervirens! If you don't ignore all this!!!

    Since candytuft blooms in spring, whatever you decide to do, wait till after it's done blooming or you'll miss all or most of this year's flowers.

    After they bloom it's a really good idea to cut them back 1/3 to 1/2 every year. That keeps the plant compact and full. But cutting it back won't solve your "crowding" problem! It'll actually make it "bushier" so it might make the problem worse!

    Iberis s. is a semi-woody perennial, and it grows primarily from a single crown that can't usually be easily divided, but after a couple/few years stems around the outside of the plant that are in contact with the soil can root, so if that's happened with yours you "should" be able to carefully remove some of those rooted sections to replant them wherever you want them. If you look at the base of the plant and it's still all coming from a single crown, you can't divide it, or "separate off" any rooted pieces yet. Hope that makes sense!

    But you could dig up the whole thing and move it further away from the Dianthus, or to a completely different spot. Again, I recommend waiting till after it blooms if you decide to do that!

    'Firewitch' blooms a little later so if you did it now/soon you should be able to dig/move that one without interfering with the bloom if you possibly want to do that to solve the problem!

    Hope that gives you a enough ideas so you can decide how you want to handle the situation!

    Welcome to RMG! When you have time go to the "Who's Here in 2014" thread and introduce yourself a little more!

    Happy spring,
    Skybird

  • katgardener
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks, Skylark

    You can see from my picture what my problem is. I just checked for woody rootings, but it all seems to still be from a single crown. It is just growing over the Firewitch, and I expect that without sunlight and air, the Firewitch will begin to die back. There is a bit of overlap on the blooming times of the two, so I really like having them next to each other. The Iberis has lots of buds on it, so I'm certainly not going to cut it back at this point!

    I had not realized that Iberis was a woody sub shrub, so thank you for letting me know. The only others that I knew of for sure were Santolina and lavender.

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