If the plant is well established, what I do is, chop it in half with a machete or sometimes into quarters. A few culms may die but the overall division will be fine.

The less you disturb the soil around the roots/rhizomes, the better recovery period for the plant.

Kt

I usually just take a root pruning saw and saw right down the middle. As kentuck says, don't mess around with the roots...just re-pot the two halves immediately.

You can probably get 2 good divisions by chopping the whole thing in half, but if you only have 12 culms on it, it would probably be much better if you let it put on some more culms before you mess with it because I've had a neighbor that did the same thing to a rufa that is similar to that in size. The result is although both divisions survived, the divisions were however set back quite a bit in culm proliferation and size so after 1 year, they are both under 1ft tall, the same height as the original before it got divided. I believe that without division, it would have probably been over 2ft and much more established enough to take many more divisions.

If your rufa is similar to mine, it should be able to shoot all season long and a 12 culm plant could possible end up being over 100 culms along with increased size if potted up in very good soil and pampered.

I looked closer and it is more than 12 culms and it is about three feet tall. Thanks

Sorry about the other message now stuck at the top. I had technical difficulties posting and am not sure what happened there.....

buyorsell-
Once in a while GardenWeb has technical difficulties and those stuck messages get posted. Yours isn't the first....