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Mid to late summer is a good time to think about dividing some of the plants in your garden. After all, chop a plant in half and you get two. And it’s free. Chop again, and you get four.

Not all plants are easily divided. Woody shrubs and perennials, for instance, and single trunk plants don’t take kindly to the treatment. But boatloads of plants in your garden are no-brainers.

Agapanthus are some of the easiest plants to dig and divide.

Feel free to divide any of the strappy plants such as agapanthus, amaryllis, day lily, iris and other bulb plants. Take a whack at ornamental grasses, many ferns and ground covering sorts like Baby Tears and thyme. On the easy list are succulents and some of the clumpers like yarrow, Shasta daisy, lirope and alstroemeria.

Plan to divide and replant on the same day. And work in the morning or late in the day when it’s cool. Divide using these easy steps:

•Prepare your destination holes before you dig. If you’re planning on dividing agapanthus for instance, prepare the planting holes in advance so your divisions can go back in the ground without delay.

A suitable planting hole will be large enough to accommodate the new plant. It’s up to you to amend the backfill with compost. If your entire garden consists of richly amended soil, by all means amend. If you grow your plants on the lean side, and they’re happy, you can skip the compost.

Dig your plant out of the ground with as big a root ball as you can manage. Remember that it’s the tiniest feeder roots farthest out from the plant that help the division adapt quickly – not the bigger stabilizing roots. The more tiny feeder roots you include in your dig, the better and faster your division will adapt.

Dig your plant out of the ground. Use pruners, a serrated bread knife or super sharp spade to cut it in half. If the division is very large, you might cut it into fours. If you need a lot of a plant that is easily divided, like lirope or agapanthus, divide more.

Bulbs can be pulled apart by hand.

Reduce the top growth to an equal size to the root ball or smaller. A divided plant can’t support much green growth as it is trying to adapt with its compromised roots. Cut back top growth with scissors or your pruners.

Get your division into the ground at the same level it was growing previously. For irises, that usually means that the rhizome is planted even with the soil surface, or a tad above it. Some bulb plants grow near the soil surface, while others are buried deep. For clumpers and most strappy plants, be sure the entire root ball is sunk into the ground and the crown sits above the soil surface.

Don’t forget to replant the parent plant.

Keep your division moist for a month or so, and provide some sort of shade by blocking the sun with branches or draping shade cloth in the area.

Don’t expect big things from your plants for at least a season, and sometimes two.

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