Artichokes

[Bluliz]

Can anyone tell me if I can split my very large Artichokes - they seem to have made some off shoots which are growing well. They have been in my veg.patch for 2 years.

[northepaul]

Which type of artichoke do you mean?

[Florence Fennel]

^^^^^ what Thea said - do you mean the root of Jerusalem, or something to do with Globe?

[alex-adam]

I assume they are globe artichokes (like thistles) - if so, just carefully remove the offshoots, low down with some rootlets and plant them in new locations about 3ft apart. Generally artichokes are reckoned to be fully productive for about four years, so your two year old is in its prime. I wouldn't try to split the parent plant, just let it crop again. If the crop is OK then leave it for another season or two.

a-a