Growing & Propagating Astilbes


Astilbe



My White Astilbe is looking fabulous at the moment!

I thought I'd share a few additional pics and have a look at the best tips for growing Astilbes, as this is such a gorgeous plant I'm also keen to try to propogate some more, so I've been looking at ways you can do that - here's the lowdown on growing and propogating Astilbes.

Plant Type and Growing Conditions

Astilbes are herbacious perennials, so they die back and start from scratch each year. They tolerate some shade and prefer damp conditions. Mine is in the shade of an apple tree and next to a pond, but it does get some full sun and seems fairly happy with this.

Flowers

Astilbe flowers are known as panicles and they appear fluffy because of all the tiny little petals. They can be red, pink or white like this one.  They flower between June and October depending on the conditions and variety. They look great against big leafy plants, the delicate panicles create a beautiful contrast.



You can see up close the pretty panacles, not yet fully in bloom.



Here the Astilbe panicles are fully in bloom and looking 'fluffy' - they sway beautifully in the wind.

Astilbe Propogation

I have yet to try but the advice is to divide Astilbes every 3 to 4 years. I've had this one since we moved in nearly 5 years ago so I will look to do this next spring. I'll add some pictures here of what the roots look like.

Here's a useful video to show you how to do this - from most of the videos I've looked at they usually divide the plants into 4 - so that's 3 free plants I'll need to find a new home for!



In winter I usually leave the flower spikes on and then do my tidy-up in the spring once all the insects and birds have taken any tasty bits they need.

Let me know in the comments if you grow any Astilbe varieties, I'm not 100% sure which variety this is - looks very like pictures of Astilbe Younique.