Can I Chelsea chop french lavender? I have a young plant (bought last autumn in a 9cm pot, now in a 2l pot, soon to be planted out), already flowering, but I would like it to be bushier. Can I chop it back slightly now and get more side shoots and flowers later this year?
@edhelka , no it wouldn't work on lavender ,sorry. @Fire, l am a woman with at least 5 salvias in pots and another 11 on order 😊. No idea where l'm going to put them all, l will worry about that later !
@Papi Jo is there a more complicated answer? Would it regrow leggy? Or only one new shoot from every old branch? When I see lavender among plants recommended for the Chelsea chop, is it for the English version only?
@Papi Jo If you google chelsea chop, it's on several lists. It doesn't make sense to me (for any type of lavender), so I guess many of these are wrong, but who knows. I would still get flowers because there are buds lower than where I would cut it. But maybe it just needs time. I planted it in the ground for now and leaving it to its own devices.
If you trim back your flower stem you will maybe encourage the plants to thicken but you will lose flowers. Best to let thel flower then remove the whole flower stalk once they fade so it doesn't waste energy on seed production. That will thicken up your plants for you and you 'll still get to enjoy the flowers and so will the bees and hoverflies.
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I was just catching up on Friday's GW and the jobs for the weekend included the Chelsea Chop which reminded me of this post.
In the show Monty says to cut back any perennials that haven't flowered yet by about a third. My whole bed is perennials that were planted from quite small back in March and are still growing and none have flowered. I'm assuming that as they are still quite immature plants I should just leave them alone? Or would they benefit from being cut back a bit to encourage more growth?
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@Fire, l am a woman with at least 5 salvias in pots and another 11 on order 😊. No idea where l'm going to put them all, l will worry about that later !
a) lavender is not on the "suitable for " RHS Chelsea chop list;
b) if you trim it now you won't have any flowers.
See https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/popular/lavender/growing-guide
I would still get flowers because there are buds lower than where I would cut it. But maybe it just needs time. I planted it in the ground for now and leaving it to its own devices.
If you trim back your flower stem you will maybe encourage the plants to thicken but you will lose flowers. Best to let thel flower then remove the whole flower stalk once they fade so it doesn't waste energy on seed production. That will thicken up your plants for you and you 'll still get to enjoy the flowers and so will the bees and hoverflies.
I was just catching up on Friday's GW and the jobs for the weekend included the Chelsea Chop which reminded me of this post.
In the show Monty says to cut back any perennials that haven't flowered yet by about a third. My whole bed is perennials that were planted from quite small back in March and are still growing and none have flowered. I'm assuming that as they are still quite immature plants I should just leave them alone? Or would they benefit from being cut back a bit to encourage more growth?