Indyrose I'm currently re-doing an area where the hosta have been living for
nearly 10 years without being disturbed. There are layer upon layers of
crown before one get's to the actively growing area. I tend to
carefully peel back these layers instead of hacking them with a shovel
(sometimes I have to use a knife) and keeping as much of the roots
together.

Will these pieces of older crown that have been buried under the new
growth begin sprouting eyes again now that I've "liberated" them? -- or
will they remain forever dormant? It appears that they have all that is
needed to get going again, since they are no longer crowded out.

Indyrose


a lot of people have different ways of dividing up hostas some use shovels,
picks, knives or whatever way they can to get them apart.
if u wish to keep most of your hosta for replanting dig a bit of distance away
from your plant this should enable u to get pretty well all of the root base.
then take your hosta and set it in a pan of water to soak, leave it there for
quite awhile overnight if need be. what u want to do is loosen the soil away from the roots.
once u have the soil all off of the roots u slowly start pulling the plant apart
bit by bit. this will enable u to get a lot of pieces of hosta to replant that would otherwise end up being destroyed.
the crown pieces can be replanted and will develop new growth as u have mentioned they are now liberated from all of the other growth. good luck with your hostas. cyaaaa, sockiescat.