This is my pot of English daisies. They have no buds and they're way overcrowded. I googled to see if I could get some good advice, and the only thing I found is confusion. Some people say they're annuals, others say biennials, and yet the species name is Bellis perennis and my supplier says perennial. Or actually, I just checked: two out of three suppliers say "biennial", the third says they're biennial in warm climates and perennial in cool climates. Wow, that's so not helpful.
What I did find however is one guy who says you "should" (I hate the word "should", if you're new here) buy them from a nursery because from seed they take a long time to flower. So there you have it.
This did not solve my crowding problem, so I decided to divide them. I could also thin them, but, I've made my choice.
First I dumped them out of the pot, and you can see there are lots of roots right on the outside. That's not good for them.
I broke off two clumps (left) from the original mass (right). Separating them makes a horrible noise as the little fine roots break. Technically I know that plants can survive some root breakage and this is for their own good (I hope), but I still find that sound really awful.
Detail of the separated clumps.
I repotted the original mass. I thought I could just stick it back in the pot and pack some dirt around it, but it had lost a lot of height in all the manipulations, so I had to add quite a bit of soil to the bottom first. Then I did the other two. I didn't get the height of the clumps quite right so I had to pile up dirt over the top of the roots. Then I gave them some bone meal, to help re-establish the roots, and some water.
Hm. They still look crowded after division. Maybe I'll have to thin them as well. Or maybe some will die from being transplanted and I won't have to.
I'll let you know if they survive. (Well, duh. That's the whole point of this blog, innit?)
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