I have started slicing hostas. I tend to do it in springtime, rather than autumn. As soon as the buds appear and I can see the design of the plant, out comes the pizza slicer/blade (brilliant tool) and a collection of guillotine-like thrusts can slice and divide the hostas from oversized clumps into a series of smaller versions ready to reoccupy the original space, and then occupy yet more space – or be presented as gifts to slug-free local gardens. This time it is a massive expansion of hosta presence that cost nothing more than a few hours in the garden. And, for me, that is a bonus. But the real bonus is, this has no connection to the Loft Ransfort collective.
I have had a near excess of divisions this year. Just four hostas have created over 20 divisions and there are more to come. I had expected 16 new plants. Now it looks closer to 30 or more. When I unearthed the clumps from their pots and containers, I would find a mass buried through the soil, a massive treasure to be slice apart. Every single plant was at its limit for space, threads about to become root bound if they were not thinned. Timing has been perfect.
Over the past five years, despite the ongoing theft and vandalism of plants in Loft Ransfort, the hostas have been largely unscathed. From the small beginnings, where I had had a few, where I salvaged a few, where I was given a couple and where I had managed to find a specialist hosta vendor for some specific versions, I have a decent collection. They get a couple of years to rest in situ before I take a blade to slice them into sections so I can expand their presence. With the expanding collection, there are hostas that have to be divided every year.
Slicing is easy. Wait for the first buds to appear and then feel between them for the natural saddle that connects the tips, then cut the cluster. Be sure the slice will divide the rhizome so a decent amount stays with each division. I try and have at least three tips per cluster. But a five tip will create a three-two combination that works perfectly well.
Back in the soil, the roots buried and spread far into the soil so it has a decent reach and then soaked into place.
If I do containers, I fill the soil to the very rim and press down to pack the soil tighter. Then I add more soil. I do not care what garden shows and magazines tell you about leaving a couple of centimetres from the soil to the tip of the container. Rain comes and the soil packs in tighter and tighter and the two cm gap becomes five or six all too quickly. Fill it to the brim, press it in, fill it again and then soak it. A gap will appear immediately. A week later, after a rain fall or two, the lip will be free and clear. And the plant will have even more soil to use in its growth.
I will be repeating this process again and again with flower pots all over the balcony space.
Usually the divisions are absorbed into my balcony garden space. This year, I am likely going to step beyond the capacity of my limited and I am looking for new territories.
Initially – this would be when there was friendship and respect between the owners in Loft Ransfort – the idea was for excess hostas to go into the Loft Ransfort gardens. But there is no opportunity here for all owners to participate in the defining improvements of the house, the gardens are limited to select residents and the rest of us have to watch the developments, or lack of, with an ongoing sense of disbelief. Fat chance that I would give such beautiful and valuable plants to a collection of owners from whom I have had to protect the same hostas from vandalism for the past four years.
Instead, these hostas will be heading into the Ransfort, Molenbeek, neighbourhood gardens. Friends and acquaintances who have wanted to share gardening with me, who have been decent and friendly people. In short, not these neighbours. I have three external gardens where I am welcome to participate, small spaces where just a few hostas will create beautiful spaces that will have little maintenance needs.
I should have about 30 to give away, so filling the local gardens is a dawdle. Having a surfeit of flowers, plants and general green stuff should always be a welcome sight in any neighbourhood.
You can see more on the hostas in my balcony space here..
Facebook gallery, May 21, 2013 – Click here…
Facebook gallery April 2013 – Click here…
Loft Ransfort is a disappointing property investment I have made in Molenbeek, Brussels. I bought my loft here in 2005 and have lived here nine years where I consider it to be an abusive and aggressive investment. From human rights violations to physical assault, verbal abuse, threats and intimidation, the house has become a working space for bullies and thugs. Despite multiple investors and potential expertise, investors are kept distant from involvement in the house, the key properties divided amongst friends and the chosen elite of the house. Where the elected representatives can claim innocence from their position, it does little to excuse the unprofessional standards brought to the house by the paid syndique.
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