The weather in Enfield this spring has been CRAZY..at the beginning of April we had a flurry of SNOW and the last two weeks of April it was blazing HOT..since then its been quite wet and as I speak it's absolutely piddling down outside...as for the Chelsea chop..well I'll leave all that hard work to you younger folks..I just give my plot a good old fashioned HAIRCUT every spring and a good clear up..and it looks smashing....Happy Gardening you lovely people.
Also,have you had a look in those 99p stores (Andy the scientist)They've got decorative metal flower supports,and although they're a bit twee(butterflies and frogs etc etc)they're fine for the job and would blend in very quickly...aaaannnnd they're only 99p each...Happy gardening.
Always chop the sedums which seems to work well. Think I read somewhere it can be done to Heleniums, it would be good to reduce their height a bit, does anyone know if this can be done say in a couple of weeks when they are a bit bigger ?
Last year I was too busy for Chelsea Chop so it was the Hampton Hack. Have done sedums for years, and rudbeckia, haven't tried heleniums but in view of other comments will try this year. I have done aster amellus but it is so late this year I don't think I'll bother. BTW I believe it was Geoff Hamilton who advocated the 'bent wire' thingy when he did GW.
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I chop half my white phlox and pink phlox and helleniums. Fantastic results - flowers right through summer!
The weather in Enfield this spring has been CRAZY..at the beginning of April we had a flurry of SNOW and the last two weeks of April it was blazing HOT..since then its been quite wet and as I speak it's absolutely piddling down outside...as for the Chelsea chop..well I'll leave all that hard work to you younger folks..I just give my plot a good old fashioned HAIRCUT every spring and a good clear up..and it looks smashing....Happy Gardening you lovely people.
Also,have you had a look in those 99p stores (Andy the scientist)They've got decorative metal flower supports,and although they're a bit twee(butterflies and frogs etc etc)they're fine for the job and would blend in very quickly...aaaannnnd they're only 99p each...Happy gardening.
I chop my sedums every year & tried it on my phlox last year with great results.
Always chop the sedums which seems to work well. Think I read somewhere it can be done to Heleniums, it would be good to reduce their height a bit, does anyone know if this can be done say in a couple of weeks when they are a bit bigger ?
Last year I was too busy for Chelsea Chop so it was the Hampton Hack. Have done sedums for years, and rudbeckia, haven't tried heleniums but in view of other comments will try this year. I have done aster amellus but it is so late this year I don't think I'll bother. BTW I believe it was Geoff Hamilton who advocated the 'bent wire' thingy when he did GW.
Jaybee, regarding the bent wire thingy that I wrote about on page 1, I first got it from Alan Titchmarch, years ago, when he did GW.
Monty includes clumps of Geranium/Cranesbill in the Chelsea Chop - this year my geraniums are so late they have not flowered yet!
Yes, everything is so late this year that I wonder whether it will be wise to do a chelsea chop because we may not get any flowers at all then!
Gaura Rosyjane - I divided mine last autumn. Both looking a bit straggly - would they benefit from being cut back, I wonder? Not grown gaura before.