Any tips on splitting Aruncas.

I am just about finished potting up plants for my last charity plant sale….last as getting ancient and they are hard physical work producing huge numbers( around 700) pots of all sorts of plants.
I haven’t offered Aruncas before and thought it would be something different for my band of loyal buyers who have supported the sale over around 12 years.
I now remember why I have not offered it before! Holy hell, with a mammoth effort and a pick axe I managed to lift 3 large chunks, now I am trying to split the chunks so they will be small enough to fit in 3 ltr pots.
I have tried 2 hand forks back to back and battered them into the chunks with a mallet, no good. I think I will have died before I saw through the chunks with a pruning saw which is having pathetic results. Short of a chainsaw which I don’t want to use as soil blunts a chainsaw very quickly I am a bit stumped and considering replanting the chunks in defeat.
There is an extremely hard woody base to the plant and surface roots. Will I kill the plant if I attack it effective sideways, cutting the roots from the woody base. Trying to split the clumps as you would Hostas is not working. If you think splitting big Hostas is hard work it’s not a patch in Aruncas! Hope someone can come up with a smart suggestion before I give in and replant.

 

Never grown it so can't really say but sounds tough enough to survive being chopped up with a spade.

 

WE had the same problem getting rid of a phormium. We ended up taking an axe to it.

 

Update. Went out again determined to split the damn thing. Result sore shoulder and below

I think a spade is the answer but will need help as tried with 2 garden forks post the hand trowel giving up the ghost. There is no way I can get two spades into the clump/s back to back. I will volunteer a neighbour! If that doesn’t work it’s replant or bonfire. The way I am feeling about the wretched plant bonfire is favourite.

 

You dont need two spades, just one and hack away until you cut through the main base of the plant, or alternatively an axe as Baalmaiden suggests

 

Thanks, off out again to give it a go. With the trouble this has caused I will be asking a lot of money for the chunks.

 

It'll be dark soon.

 

You are not wrong @pete ! Just in as semi dark, well if the poor plants survive the brutal attack with a spade as suggested it will be a miracle. All are now either in 3 or 5 ltr pots so time will tell if they have given up the ghost or not.
I on the other hand am basically crippled, hurt everywhere and have opened the bar. I know it is not quite 5 pm which is usually the time for bottles to be opened but need something to deaden the pain!
As this is the finish of my potting up for the sale I did a quick count up of how many pots I have filled. I thought it was about 700, it’s actually just over 1350 I knew I’d done a lot but not that many. Gawd hope I get lots of buyers or will be left with a shedload.

 

Well done.

 

Sterling work @hailbopp !

 

A Newcastle Drain Spade is your answer. It'll even chop concrete blocks in half.

 

Oh you are absolutely right! A friend of mine has one and I used it to, with huge difficulty, get rid of some hellish bamboo a couple of years ago. If only I had remembered it would have saved me huge amounts of time and a sore shoulder!

 

Thanks Shiney, you will be well aware just how much effort is involved with running plant sales. Yours looked amazing especially with doing teas and entertainment. I draw the line at supplying vitals altho wine has been opened when I have had some of my loyal regulars come to buy!
This is the last sale of any size as A I have pretty well sold the majority of my spare herbaceous plants, B many of my regulars have already got what I am selling and C physically it is pretty heavy going these days( go through the equivalent of a skip load of compost!) and I spend so much time getting plants ready for sale, doing the admin, (I send out about 300 lists of plants available) and running the sale over about 3 weeks my own garden gets away from me. If I could just have an open garden sale over a weekend say that would not be so bad but I live on a single track road with few passing places and while I can have about 10 cars on the driveway if first in line wants to spend ages here then everybody else is blocked in so the only way is to stagger people coming by appointment which works fine but takes up a lot of my time.
I hope Simon has a Newcastle drain spade, they are brilliant at getting rid of all sorts hefty bamboo included!