When to lift/divide oriental poppies? (Conflicting info online)

[LemonJuiceFromConcentrate]

We have two established clumps that need dividing.

One website says ‘Propagate by division in spring’ and another says ‘Lift and divide large clumps in autumn’.

Totally confused. Can anyone help?

Never lifted or divided anything before and I really don’t want to make a mistake and lose the plants.

We always divide in autumn. If you get a warm period in the spring they can often never re-establish. So that advice might have been from someone living in a wet area for example.

Thank you. That’s interesting — a warm period stops them establishing? I would not have intuitively understood that at all.

We do live in a somewhat wet but not especially warm area (Scotland).

So I’ll cut back after flowering as usual, and then do the division when we’re sorting out the garden in autumn; makes sense.