50 ALPINE PLANTS 
roots that the divisions come away with a proportionate 
amount of top growth attached. 
The best season at which to divide alpines must be 
decided by circumstances. The majority of plants have a 
definite season of growth, and a period of rest. If the rest 
is so complete that the whole plant becomes inactive for a 
season division and transplanting should take place just 
at the time of reawakening, for thus the separated portions 
will quickly take to the new soil and growth will proceed 
before decay can set in. There must, however, be exception 
to this rule in the case of certain plants that bloom first, 
then make new growth, ripen off, and go to rest. Take for 
instance hepaticas. These bioom quite early in the spring, 
the flowers bursting even before their leaves. Obviously, 
if the roots are disturbed just as activity commences the 
flowering season would be spoiled. Immediately after 
flowering, however, the real production of new growth and 
new crowns begins, and continues through the summer, 
ripening off in autumn, then resting until the flower heads 
rise in the early months of the new year. 
It is therefore the proper thing to lift and divide 
hepaticas as soon as they have finished blooming, for that 
is the time when root activity is greatest. Quite a number 
of other plants should be treated in similar fashion, a little 
observation of habits sufficing to enable them to be picked 
out. Those plants that flower in autumn may for the most 
part be divided in early spring, because that will give them 
the benefit of a long period of growth before they have to 
endure the strain of flowering. Generally speaking late 
autumn is not a good time for dividing alpines, because the 
