Viewing post #165205 by Deebie

Thanks for your help, everyone. This plant is 10+ years old. It has had 50+ stalks at one time and was quite a specimen. It currently has about 25 small ones, and is presently in an unhealthy state, as I really neglected it this year. The leaves are small and pale looking. It was so hot that the plant grew very little this year. I measured the base and it's about 32 inches in diameter. Nearly all the stalks are around the perimeter, so it looks weird. It normally blooms at 5 to 6 feet, but I didn't keep it watered (my soaker hoses kept springing leaks and I gave up on them) or fed. But I just noticed that this year it has some buds on it at 3 feet. There is no telling how I originally planted it. I was very new to gardening at the time and didn't check the rootball. My soil is sandy loam not clay. As for our weather, we can get occasional lows in the upper teens. Frequent freezes, but little snow (although we had 6 in. on one of the 3 times it snowed last winter. So the plants do die down and come back from the roots. Last winter started out brutal. In early November, we had 3 nights of below freezing temps (mid 20's) before we even had frost. The plants were not prepared for that and I'm sure they suffered. Well, it sounds like I should just take cuttings and discard the rootball. Who's going to dig that up?