Rudbeckia - Can I separate them now?

[grannysmith]

Hi everyone

My rudbeckia have done really well in my garden every year and so now that we are redoing the garden (we just completed an extension on our house and so the garden has been changed substantially), I am taking out everything that failed or struggled and replanting the whole lot with the stuff that did really well.

The rudbeckia came up trumps in its location and so I read somewhere once that I think I can separate it out and plant clumps of it elsewhere?

I have to admit, this was awhile ago and so I'm not sure if I have the right end of the stick, but there seems to be a nice lot of it now, and so if I wanted to try this, any suggestions?

I'm assuming that if I dig carefully and lift it out with roots/dirt balls I should be ok trying to transplant it, but is there anything else I need to know or do?

And is autumn an ok time to try this? Or do I need to wait for spring?

Once again, thanks tons for all your help/ideas and suggestions. They are VERY gratefully received!

[vicky]

If it's still in flower I'd leave it for a bit as it will be at it's most vunerable. As soon as it has finished flowering it is fine to move and divide now (and right up till next march ish when it starts to grow again).
Try to keep some earth around it, but rudbeckia are so tough you don't have to be too gentle!

[grannysmith]

Thanks vicky!

It's nearly finished flowering but the flowers are dying back a bit now, so I'll leave it a bit longer then. Yeah, it's a tough plant all right, because it's growing right up against a fence with a ton of sycamores behind it in the park behind our house.