Chelsea Chop

To chop, or not to chop? That is the question.

I only heard about this for the first time last year and whilst taking advice on what plants to chop back, I had mixed results.Can you lovely people tell me which plants you will behead this year, and those you leave alone and perhaps the reasons why, if any

I will chop my sedums. I find they do not look good when they flop over and the stems break easily  and I like to make new plants with the cuttings.

I used to do it with buddleia, resulting in a neat and compact shrub and I'll be chopping all the geraniums that I divided earlier.

I chop my cranesbills, but will be doing it much later than usual because of the weather, as they are only just coming into flower.

Interesting that Botticelliwoman does buddleia, as I always cut mine down to about 12" in March, and it responds well.

I chopped all my Sedum Spectabilis last year, except one as a control.  I have a lot of these plants around my large garden as the bees and butterflies love them.  I was a bit apprehensive as to what would happen but they flowered beautifully and stayed upright and squat - unlike the unchopped plant which looked dreadful.  I will see which plants benefit from the Chelsea Chop this year and do it again.

Other plants which respond well are:

Anthemis tinctoria (Golden marguerite)
Echinacea purpurea (Purple Coneflower)
Helenium (Sneezeweed)
Phlox paniculata (Garden Phlox)
Solidago (Goldenrod)

i normally do it..but this year my plants have not grown as much as normal.. might do my sedums.. as they are growing pretty much as normal.. but my echinaceas are not that big at the moment..

may well miss it this year.