A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Dividing ferns?

Should people divide ferns or just keep increasing the size of the pot as the plant grows? If they can be divided do you just hold it in the middle and pull apart/cut it? The fronds are sometimes so easy to fall off I'd rather NOT divide it.

Hi. I don't know much about ferns, but we do have some massive "mounds" of ferns. Earlier this spring, I divided some of it. Ferns multiply by sending out little roots that look like strings and after 6 or 8 inches, the little root will sprout a new fern. I dug some of the smaller, younger shoots up and cut the root at the skinny part and then transplanted them to a different part of the yard. Lilies of the Valley are the same. Alot of the ferns died because of really hot weather that we had and I wasn't home to take care of them when it got soo hot, but the roots are still doing just fine in the ground and the ferns will come up again next year where I planted them. I hope this helps you a little bit. I don't know what will happen if you keep the fern together. I do know that the massive one that we have is about 7 years old and its HUGE. You can barely walk out that side of the patio because its soo big!!

I know somebody who split their fern into quarters, by pulling it out of the pot and pulling/cutting it apart. It suffered afterwards due to being baked in the sun for hours then being drowned, in an attempt to fix the previous mistake, then falling victim to two cats. Finally though they have recovered and are doing fine, dividing them shouldn't harm them too much.