I chop phlox, golden rod, late summer flowering daisies - shasta, heleniums etc and my pink spirea as soon as it has flowered so I another flush of new foliage in that zingy yellow/green. I divide my sedums regularly and don't chop them.
I've never tried the Chelsea chop but will have a go at my phlox this year. I do chop some earlier flowering plants after flowering and get a second flush a few weeks later.
...I wonder if there is such a thing as a Chelsea scalp...as I've not only chopped my Clematis alpina but scalped it... it needed a good seeing to as it was a tangled mess and just finished flowering... it was also harbouring masses of snails in it's nether regions... these were removed to wasteland...
While we're on this subject is it just me or are perrenial plant supports insanely expensive? I wanted about a dozen to dot around the garden for things like phlox etc... down the garden centre they were 5 quid each for a bit of plastic! That's more expensive than the plants, just seems a bit crazy to me..
Does anyone have any tips of other things you can use/recycle to do the job? If i'm going to spend 60 quid down the garden centre i'd rather do it on plants!
They are very expensive, but I make my own. I buy long, thin metal rods from a builders merchants or a DIY place. Then I bend one around a tree so it forms an arc with 2 long straight sides then I tread on each side and pull it up. You can put a plank of wood to stand on across it before pulling the sides up to make it more even. Then you have 2 rods to plant in the ground each side of the plant and a curved bit to go around the plant for less than a quater the price of the similar ones in garden centres.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
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I remember reading that Patsy. Never got round to doing it though so I'll leave it to you to test the theory
In the sticks near Peterborough
I chop phlox, golden rod, late summer flowering daisies - shasta, heleniums etc and my pink spirea as soon as it has flowered so I another flush of new foliage in that zingy yellow/green. I divide my sedums regularly and don't chop them.
I've never tried the Chelsea chop but will have a go at my phlox this year. I do chop some earlier flowering plants after flowering and get a second flush a few weeks later.
I have some very tall rather rampant rudbeckias that get the chop. Almost time!
I always chop my many sedums, and they look much better for it. What about Veronicas? Does anyone chop them back?
...I wonder if there is such a thing as a Chelsea scalp...as I've not only chopped my Clematis alpina but scalped it... it needed a good seeing to as it was a tangled mess and just finished flowering... it was also harbouring masses of snails in it's nether regions... these were removed to wasteland...
...a great sense of satisfaction all round...
While we're on this subject is it just me or are perrenial plant supports insanely expensive? I wanted about a dozen to dot around the garden for things like phlox etc... down the garden centre they were 5 quid each for a bit of plastic! That's more expensive than the plants, just seems a bit crazy to me..
Does anyone have any tips of other things you can use/recycle to do the job? If i'm going to spend 60 quid down the garden centre i'd rather do it on plants!
They are very expensive, but I make my own. I buy long, thin metal rods from a builders merchants or a DIY place. Then I bend one around a tree so it forms an arc with 2 long straight sides then I tread on each side and pull it up. You can put a plank of wood to stand on across it before pulling the sides up to make it more even. Then you have 2 rods to plant in the ground each side of the plant and a curved bit to go around the plant for less than a quater the price of the similar ones in garden centres.
I use bamboo got 2 huge thickets of it and our local woods to get twiggy supports looks natural and saves money