Question
We are in Northern New Jersey and recently bought an older home whose yard
has been neglected for many years. We have Hostas-gone-wild in the
backyard and a very bare front yard. (We had to remove two large Mountain
Laurel bushes from in front of the house - they were ailing and so overgrown
that they were pushing against the house and leaning on the roof).
What I'm wondering is if we can divide the hostas from the backyard and
transplant them to the now bare front area. There are already several hostas
in the front and they should do well in this spot since there's plenty of shade.
The bare area is also sloped, so hostas seem a good solution until we can
tackle a more involved "master landscaping plan" in a couple of years.
However, I know that now is not the appropriate time of year to divide/
transplant the plants - will we kill them by trying to do this in the summer?
Or, are we better off just getting some new plants for the front and tackling
the back yard overgrowth in the fall or even next spring?
Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hostas are very tough plants.  If you divide them and don't expose them to too much sun, you will probably divide them successfully.

Don't bother buying new Hostas.  If you have Hostas now, you will be doing yourself a favor and saving a lot of money by dividing them.  Plus you get better at everything you do.  Practice makes perfect!

They won't look like much this year.  Give them a year.  Next year will be better.  The year after that, probably outstanding.

Go easy on the fertilizer -- and hold off completely for a week after dividing.

Good luck.  Keep me posted and thanks for writing.