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Proctor's Garden: Transplanting and dividing houseplants

Rob Proctor has tips for transplanting your house plants or divided them once they've outgrown their current pots.

Your green thumb can get rusty in winter. People are sometimes hesitant to re-pot or divide their houseplants because they're afraid of making mistakes. With the days getting longer, plants want to grow. It's an ideal time to transplant or divide them.

Plants in small pots will benefit from getting transplanted. If they've been in their pots for a while, they'll likely be quite rootbound. Knock the plant out of the pot with a minimum of pulling, which would just damage the stem and roots. Try running a serrated knife between the pot walls and the root ball to loosen it. If a plant won't budge you may have to break the pot. (Cover it with a towel if you use a hammer to avoid injury.) 

Don't give a tiny plant a great big pot. Think about when you buy new clothes or shoes for a child. You don't buy a size 9 shoe for a little boy and hope he'll grow into it someday. A small plant in a big pot will just rot. So pick a pot that's just a few sizes larger than the original. 

Eventually, a plant may outgrow its pot and can be divided. Every plant is different but the clump formers can be broken apart or cut into pieces. Replant each piece in fresh soil.

An older plant, such as the mother-in-law's tongue that we divided, may yield many new plants. 

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