Spring officially begins in less than two weeks. Do you know where your perennials are?

They’re likely sending up green shoots, lots of them, actually.

If you haven’t wandered through your yard lately, do it now, for these last days of winter are a joyous time indeed for the proactive gardener.

Not only can you putter outside in the increasingly longer light to plant berries and other bareroot botanicals (a steal at nurseries now), but you can also divide perennials to multiply the coming season’s bounty.

Dividing plants – best done on the mild overcast days of early spring or fall – is one of Tina Wilson’s favorite gardening tricks.

Dividing gives her free plants, which she can replant, share with friends or donate to the Arlington Garden Club’s annual sale.

“I’m el cheapo,” said Wilson, a master gardener whose ever-growing garden near Arlington is almost an acre. “I’ll buy a plant I know I can divide later and just be patient.”

Hostas, ferns, daylilies, sedums, grasses and Siberian and Japanese irises are just some of the self-propagating plants Wilson has learned to take advantage of during her 12-plus years of gardening in the Northwest.

Using pitchforks, a small spade and a garden handsaw – sometimes all three – Wilson can turn one large plant into two, three, four or many more, sometimes enough to create an expansive display.

One of Wilson’s proudest propagation projects started with a single 10-inch pot of root-bound lamb’s ears, purchased for about $4, probably at half price, back in 2002.

She put it in the ground and waited.

When 2004 rolled around, Wilson split the perennial into numerous small clumps and planted them into a curvaceous bed in the front yard. Today the border is established and lush with lamb’s ears.

Though you’re better off dividing some plants shortly after they bloom or in the fall (peonies and bearded irises, for example), you can take your tools to most perennials in the spring, when soil is typically moist and easy to work – and the sun isn’t blazing.

“We don’t have the hot weather that they do in some areas of the country, so it’s easier for us,” said Snohomish County master gardener Susan Lewicki, who recently divided astilbe, heuchera and many other plants in her yard for multiple plant sales. “As long as you don’t do it on a hot dry day, you can pretty much divide any perennial in early spring.”

Of course, there are plenty of exceptions and conflicting opinions on when to divide specific varieties of plants. If you really adore a plant – or if you’re dealing with a particularly tender perennial – be sure to consult a gardening authority or book for advice.

Some perennials shouldn’t be divided at all, according to Fine Gardening magazine, which discourages the dividing of trillium, garden sage and candytuft to name a few.

But once you’ve established that a plant can and should be divided, fear not, said Arlington Garden Club president Linda Follett.

“This is what everyone is doing in their yards,” Follett said. Arlington Garden Club members are dividing plants now in anticipation of the club’s sale in May, she said.

“New gardeners, especially, are afraid to do this. They think they’re going to kill their plant.”

Some gardeners don’t understand that dividing perennials, which can be done every two to five years, is actually good for most plants – if not necessary for their survival.

Daylilies, for example, will eventually stop blooming if you allow their root clumps to grow endlessly in one place.

Dividing brings blooms back, rejuvenates the rest of plant and gives you an opportunity to amend the soil underneath the mother plant, too.

You may have to wait a season for some bloomers to come back in full force, Wilson said. “But they’re better for it.”

Plants often regain their glory if given enough time, Wilson said, who shared an old gardening adage: “In the first year they sleep, in the second year they creep and in the third year they leap.”

Some plants, such as Siberian irises, will eventually die out in their centers if left to their own devices. Wilson digs, divides and replants hers to keep planting clusters shapely and full.

“It’s just a bunch of old junk there,” Wilson said pointing out the dead areas on some of her irises. “Replant the outside healthy areas and toss the inside.”

Though most plants, especially those with more modest root clumps are easy to divide, plan ahead – and get help – if you want to take apart large clumping plants, such as ornamental grasses.

When Wilson broke apart a large carex, Ice Dance, in her yard, she was grateful to have Follett’s help.

“You can break your shovel and the handle will go flying by. Hear it creaking?” Follett said as she and Wilson struggled to pry the carex apart as the plant crunched, crackled and groaned.

Though their tools stayed in place, it wasn’t easy wrestling with such an unwieldy, stubborn plant.

“It seems like a cruel thing to do to a plant, but you have to kind of manhandle it,” Wilson said, stomping a pitchfork through the top of the evergreen grass. “Don’t worry if you lose a few leaves. As long as you keep the roots intact, it comes back.”

Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.