I like dividing perennials nowish, when they're still all pointy noses. These big blue sieboldiana hostas seem to emerge later than all the green and variegated varieties, maybe because sieboldiana leaves take longer to warm up. They are somewhat lizard-like, forming large, primordial, corrugated blue domes.
I have a theory about large, well-established hostas: they don't notice when they are divided. I think they have "spatial memory" and simply fill out to the same circumference even if you have removed half of them.
I have noticed this enough times in different circumstances to come up with this theory. So I'll watch these two bits (in my suite's garden) and see if my hypnotherapist is correct. I mean hypothesis.
One reason for dividing perennials (hostas included) before they unfurl is so that you won't damage tender flimsy unfurling leaves. Another reason is so that the division will unfold into its new home as its own fully-formed entity, instead of looking like...half a plant you hacked off.
Another point about my "spatial memory" hypothesis is that it doesn't work if you keep dividing the divisions. Perhaps it only works for halves. Otherwise that would be too miraculous. I also think that if you divide hostas into tiny (say, 3-nose) bits they take forever to get big again. I know this because garden centres sell 3-nose hostas for $12-$15 and they take...forever.
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