How to Separate Hydrangeas

I love flowers and my favorite flower landscaping flower is a hydrangea.  The only thing that could make this beautiful plant more appealing would be a fragrant version (I’m talking to you botanists).  When I began the landscaping plans and process of a beautifying the outside of a blank newly built home, I quickly learned a few things; landscaping the outside grounds for our new home is exciting, stimulating and expensive!  One hydrangea can easily cost over $20 a plant.  This can add up quickly and leave you with a hole in your wallet or a hole in your landscaping plans (because you didn’t have enough money to buy all that you wanted)!  The wonderful news is that hydrangeas can easily be separated, you just have to know what to look for when buying a plant.

First of all, I always shop the clearance area of the big box stores.  I like Lowes garden area the best because they have a clearance section that runs throughout the entire growing season, whereas Menards typically just has a percent off of a plant at the end of the season.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s still good but it’s usually pretty slim pickings and sometimes not super healthy looking plants.  Lowes will put plants, both annuals and perennials, that have stopped flowering for the season at 50% off.  So now that $20 hydrangea is $10.  But that’s not the end of your savings!

The trick is to look at the base of the hydrangea.  If you see only one trunk coming out of the dirt, move on to the next plant.  What you are looking for is two or more trunks that are spaced as far apart from each other as possible.  This will allow you to use your garden pruners to separate the trunks from each other while keeping an even amount of the roots with each trunk.

Step one:  Select a hydrangea with two or more trunks.

Step two:  Remove the plant from the container and rotate it so the best place for you to cut into is facing up.

Step three:  Starting at the bottom of the dirt, gently pull the dirt and roots into two (or more if you are separating more than two trunks).

Step four:  Position your garden pruners between the two trunks and gently wiggle the bottom part of the blade down into the dirt while the top blade stays above the dirt.

Step five:  Plant your shrubs into the desired places and water daily as they acclimate to their new environment.

Follow these steps and you will end up with hydrangeas for $5 a piece or less!  The next season your plants will come back fuller, stronger and more beautiful than the original plant you started with.