Over-wintered sage propagating itself

[marlingardener]

I overwintered several herbs in pots in the barn. I took them out this morning to get used to the outdoors, and found that both of my culinary sages had propagated themselves. A stem had laid down in the soil, put out roots, and I have two baby sages!
I'd never encountered this with sage, so I'm not sure when/how/if I can separate the new plants from "mama". Can anyone help me with this dilemma?

 

[zigs]

Same happened with my Gooseberry bush

Have a dig around the roots, if they seem established then separate them.

 

[marlingardener]

Zigs, I followed your advice and very gently probed at the base of the new plants. They seemed to have pretty extensive roots, so I cut them free of the big plant, then took up a ball of dirt with the roots and put each baby in it's own 4"pot. I did this yesterday, and as of this morning they haven't wilted down, or shown any signs of stress.
Thanks for the good advice! Now all I have to do is find two new homes for the little sages.

 

[zigs]

Nice one

Did you water them in well?

 

[marlingardener]

They were watered in very gently with rainwater from our rain barrel. The only thing left to do is to sing a lullaby to them tonight. Last night they were freshly transplanted and I didn't think they could survive both the move and my singing.

 

[zigs]

Don't be too soft on them, I walked past the compost heap with my new Gooseberry.

Stopped and pointed saying "See that, that's the ones that didn't make the grade."

Nothing like a bit of terror to get them going

 

[marlingardener]

Ah, Zigs, "tough love" works on teenagers and plants!