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do you do a "Chelsea chop ? if so what plants !
Samie Cain
Posts: 6
in Plants
I have "chelsea chopped" my tall sedum for the past 2 years , and i find it worked really well , does anyone else have a chop around chelsea week and if so what do you chop ?
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I always seem to be busy doing other stuff this week, but my sedum always falls over. I will give it a go.
I agree - sedum responds particularly well to the 'Chelsea chop'. i tought I might try my perennial sunflowers (helianthus?) this year but they are not tall enough yet!
Ok Sedum chopped. Made a lot of stuff for the compost heap. Maybe I was a bit overenthusiastic.
Thanks for the reminder! I'm so far behind this year, I'd forgotten about chopping the sedums. Will do it tomorrow (fingers crossed)
I'm leaving mine as they are. Chopped them last year and the flower heads were smaller. Lots of them but smaller. I prefer them left to there own devices. I just divide them every couple of years so they dont fall over.
I'm going to have a good chop this year (if I get round to it). Some might not work, I won't do theose next year. I shall do the sedums, heleniums, asters and lychnis chalcedonica which has already fallen over having had its suporting weeds removed. Might be more when I get out there and look. Campanulas, they might benefit and those over tall creamy coloured ones that look like scabious but aren't. As years go on there are many more plants with names on the tip of my tongue.(Or maybe further back than that)
In the sticks near Peterborough
I have applied the Chelsea cop to my phlox for the past few years and the results are very impressive. I chop about one in three stems and as a result have a far longer display of flowers.
I always do the sedums, phlox, taller campanulas, turtleheads- they look good if they are 'layered'. Definitely saves the need for frantic late staking when they all flop after heavy rain/late in season.
This yr being 'late' shall start it next week. J.
Phlox is the only plant I do this to.
With regard to sedums I've just been reading Christopher Lloyd's suggestion to stop them flopping - dig them up each year (and split if you wish) Breaking the roots, as you're bound to, apperently keeps the plants more compact and stops them splaying out in the centre.