Fast Way to Propogate Hostas

I'm a gardener who is always looking for a better or faster way to get things done.

With this Instructable I'll show you a fast way to propogate hostas using a few gardening tools you may already own. Note that this will only work in the spring when the plants first start to poke through the soil. Once the leaves have unfurled it's too late and you'll have to wait until next spring or do the old fashioned dig-and-split.

The tools you'll need are pictured here.

- A long handled bulb digger/planting tool

- A narrow trowel or dandelion digger.

Let's get started.

This looks like a good spot. Step on the bulb digger until you reach a depth of about 4-5".

Remove the plug of soil from the ground and deposit the soil into an empty flower pot. This is where the trowel or dandelion tool come in handy. You'll need this soil later.

After a few years, hostas spread and are ripe for splitting. Find an area of the plant that has 2-4 "spikes" close together.

Carefully set the bulb digger over the "spikes" and step on the digger.

When you reach a depth of 4-5", twist the handle of the digger. If the spikes don't turn with the digger, the plug won't pull out. Step on the digger again until the spikes turn, then pull up the digger with your new plant inside..

Bring the digger to the first hole you made and carefully push the new plant out of the digger using the trowel or dandelion tool.

I find it easier to remove the plant from the top of the digger by holding the digger horizontally and pushing on the bottom of the plug.

Place the plug into the hole and press firmly around the edges.

Dig a hole for a second plant as you did for the first.

Instead of placing the soil in the flower pot, deposit the soil in the hole that was left when you extracted the new plant.

you have reached your goal or run out of host plants.

Then, take the soil in the flower pot and fill in the last hole you made in a host plant.

Don't forget to give everything a good watering.

Enjoy!