Splitting Black Eyed Susans and Pruning

Stanley says, “I have a black-eyed Susans that someone would like to have. When can you transplant them? Also, I have a large bush that needs to be cut back. Is it better to do it in the fall or spring? I do not know what the bush is. It does not have a flower, but it’s very bushy. Inside is very woody.”

I would really like to see what it is, if you want to take a picture and bring it up to the nursery. We’ll take a look at it and we can give you a better recommendation.

Without knowing the exact species of the plant, I’m going to tell you that the spring is by far the best time to do that type of hard pruning. It’s very very important that the plant has good moisture. Generally in the spring that happens for us. But if you were to do that in the fall, and then we have a hard winter, that’s two strikes. 

You never want to get into a two-strike situation. You ideally trim it in early spring, we’re talking probably beginning/middle of April. Generally the brunt of winter is gone by then. You fertilize it really heavily with all season fertilizer, and then if we don’t get the spring rain you definitely need to water it as well. 

And you can get a lot of the plant species to do what’s called back budding. They’ll push all kinds of buds out of the bottom of the stems and the plant will fill out and be very nice again. Getting rid of any dead parts is always a good idea. But that’s the best advice I can give without knowing the species of the plant.

As far as the black-eyed Susans go, usually you want to split them after they’re done flowering. You can do that in the fall or the spring, transplant them and divide them. It’s very easy to do, but easiest in the spring. All in all you can do it in the fall. 

You just want to dig it up, and then use a sharp spade and just cut right down in the center of it, and you’ll have two chunks. It is actually very good to do that with a lot of perennials.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).