Divide Bulbs Now For Spring

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - If you bought some bulbs, you might use this holiday week to get them in the ground. Every fall when I plant new bulbs I find old ones that need dividing - like daffodils that have grown a twin or tulips with baby bulblets attached!

Some people suggest dividing bulbs in the spring after they bloom so you can find them by the leaves. But in springtime, when the garden beds look so pretty, I have no desire to go digging around messing things up, do you?

Other gardeners divide them in September, but I can't imagine disturbing happy annuals to get to the bulbs either! It just seems so much easier to divide bulbs when you're already knee deep in the soil with a trowel in your hand.

So, late fall is when I find them, pry them apart, dig new holes and put them in. I've divided bulbs this way for years and they do just fine. Did some of them not bloom? I couldn't tell you, I don't do a bulb census, I just replant all the baby bulbs I find as winter is beginning, and enjoy whatever comes up in the spring.