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carrie630

Dividing catmint - temps in 80s

carrie630
16 years ago

I would love to divide a huge clump of walker's low nepeta - it's really in the way and I am wondering if I could divide it now while temps are still warm. I am home everyday to water (although I know it doesn't like wet feet)... Also, it's in a bad area right now because we have a new sprinkler system and it's getting watered everyday - which is not good for it, plus it is flopping and splitting in the middle... a mess so to speak.

Thanks for any replies

Carrie

Comments (4)

  • leslie197
    16 years ago

    Up here in the north I can pretty much move anything I want when I want, and fall weather will probably get here a bit before the official First Day of Fall. Anyway, I can't really advise you about what you should do. What came to mind when I read your post is a) Don't you have a lot of season left to go yet? Might be better to wait till fall weather is closer & b) Did you cut back your Walker's Low after its first big flush of blooms? Even in my shorter season catmints need a hard haircut at least once a season. Mine were cutback about the first week of August and have regrown & are now blooming again. Yours probably need two haircuts each season at least. I am always amazed at how neat & tiny the plants are after being cut back. A haircut might solve some of your problems at least temporarily.

    As for the sprinklings, mine get it too. Doesn't seem to bother mine much, but I don't have to water a lot here, so that may make a big difference. I really appreciate catmints because, despite their drought tolerance, they do well in my wettish clay soil as long as I plant them a bit high. And it gives me a soft grey green foliage plant (silvers & greys are a bit hard to find for my garden) when the flowers are gone - making a nice extended season for only a few moments of clipping time.

  • carrie630
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks, leslie - I actually divided the huge clump into three and moved them because I was replacing it with some flowering spirea shrubs. The catmint was way too big - should have been divided two years ago and I let it go way too long - it wasn't looking pretty. I did cut it back but I still didn't like the way it looked because it was too big in proportion to everything else in the garden.

    Here's a picture from early April - it's been replaced with a nice flowering spirea and my borders are filled with profusion zinnias now (you can see the little seedlings from April) and they aren't being toppled by that big catmint anymore. Yay!!

    Carrie
    {{gwi:268544}}

  • leslie197
    16 years ago

    Here's a picture of my Goldflame Spireas in late April just starting to leaf up - with Princess Irene tulips and the weedy green thing is an orange oriental poppy just starting up. Our gardens are very different!! Hard to me to even imagine my Walker's Low that big in early April - they're still dormant and the leaves & debris haven't even been cleaned out of the beds by then.

    {{gwi:268545}}

  • carrie630
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    leslie - I am a former New Yorker living in NC - yes, coming from New York, this sure has been an unusual experience having blooms so early. By mid April, my verbena bonariensis are blooming, salvias, stella d'oro lilies and so many more. My daffodils are nearly finished by March. It sure is different here in the South - especially this year with temps in the 100s - but our growing season is much longer. The only thing that I wait for (as you can see the little seedlings) are the zinnias which need lots of days of warmth and sun to bloom.

    Carrie

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