On Sat, 5 Apr 2003 08:41:58 +0100, "K" wrote:


"Nick Harrison" wrote in message
.. .
: Hi,
: I've a couple of these grown from seed now 7 and 8 years old.
: I believe these like to be pot bound but now the huge tangled mass of
: tuberous roots leaves hardly any room for soil in the 25litre pots.
: They are flowering at the moment (or about to) but I thought I'd try
: and divide them later in the season.
: Has anyone done this? Do you try and prise the roots apart or cut
: through them with a bread kinife or something? Looking at he leaves
: there is an obvious point of division but when I tried repotting last
: year the roots were entangled but quite fragile.
: Any suggestions?
: Regards,
: Nick
: Nick Harrison Lancaster UK

Can't answer your question, Nick, but wondered if this is their first year
to flower as I was told - on this group - that they take about 7 yrs. Mine
are about 3 yrs old, which reminds me I must repot them soon.

K

Hi,
Thinking about it, you're probably right about year of flowering
although I think mine were sooner, year 5/6. Anyway it's not the first
year of flowering more like the fifth/sixth year so my memory is
playing its tricks (becoming more frequent). They're probably more
like 11/12 years old.
I love them. One flowers more than the other 2 or 3 flowers instead of
1. I vaguely remember some discussion on the group last year about the
need/appropriateness of dividing but not how to do it. The root system
is amazing but daunting. I imagine it will set the plants back in the
short term but as I said there's barely room for soil in the pots. I
have sort of repotted them in the same size pots a couple of times in
the last four years and top dressed them in the intevening years but
there is so little soil the water runs straight through when I water
them.

Nick

Nick Harrison Lancaster UK