Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Chelsea chop - some already flowering?

joannajmillerjoannajmiller Posts: 45
in Plants

Hi, I have a bed of lots of perennials including echinacea and echinops and I'd read that both are great candidates for the chelsea chop.

However, alot of my echinops already have flowers (not yet turned blue) and some of the echninacea are showing flower buds too!

Do you just chop this off?

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,146

    If they're already blooming I wouldn't give them the full Chelsea chop, but you could carefully chop one stem in three which would extend the flowering season. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Papi JoPapi Jo Posts: 4,254
    I don't give my echinacea the Chelsea chop as I don't find it necessary. Here is a short list of those perennials which I've found respond well to the Chelsea chop in my garden:
    • milky bellflower 'Loddon Anna'
    • penstemon (all kinds)
    • perennial phlox
    • obedient plant Physostegia virginiana ‘Bouquet rose’
    • blue sage 'Amistad' Salvia x ‘Amistad’ (needs lots of pinching to prevent it from growing all leggy)
    • dusty miller Senecio vira-vira (needs lots of pinching to prevent it from growing all woody)
    • Michaelmas daisy (all of them need a lot of pinching)
    Agree with Dove about the preferred method: chop one stem in three to extend the flowering season. Over the years you can experiment by varying the following parameters:
    • plant type (they do not all react the same to the chop)
    • time of year (do not chop too early nor too late)
    • chop one in two or one in three, etc.










Sign In or Register to comment.