What should I ‘Chelsea Chop’?

[ErrolTheDragon]

Somehow I’d got the idea that the ‘Chelsea chop’ was a technique employed by the garden designers to get plants as they wanted them for the show until late last year I belatedly learned that it’s about pruning various plants now for bushier growth later.

So… what should we be chopping now, and how much by? And what plants should absolutely not be chopped?
I think I need to do the Michaelmas daisies which usually get to about 6’ tall but I’m sure there must be others that might benefit.

thanks!

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/11-plants-to-chelsea-chop/

I usually do the hardy geraniums - Rozanne gets very out of hand in my garden if I don't. And catmint. I've got enough else going on in the garden at the moment that those flowering later is good.

It's cutting things which have not yet flowered so you have some flowers later on.

I cut about a third of my campanula plants back, for example, so I have 2/3 that bloom now and the rest that flower later in the summer.

This might be a daft question, but what about things that haven't flowered yet? My hylotelephiums aren't at full height yet, and neither are my achillea. Should I chop them now?

I do the large sedum as it flops open late in the year if I don’t.

I do half the stems of my campanula lactiflora. I love its flowers without doing the chop so doing half gives me those, but then I get later flowers from the chopped ones too.

I have tried sedums in the past but they just didn't flower as well afterwards so I don't do those any more.

I'm not really sure it's that worthwhile, not in my garden anyway. I only do the campanula as a Chelsea chop, the hardy geraniums and other things get cut back a lot later in the season when their flowering dwindles off and that can make them reflower or at least get a fresh lot of leaves.

Look up which plants can be suitable, don't try anything that isn't on the list. If you want to try I'd do half the stems, so if it doesn't work you've still got flowers.

You can’t do the chop on things that have flowered, it’s in things that haven’t but will soon.

So choosing to delay flowering on a proportion of plants in your garden to spread out the time you have flowers.

Thanks. Some of these plants are new so I was wondering whether they need a year of maturing first.

I think it depends where you live as well. In Scotland we have a relatively shorter growing season in much of the country so if you Chelsea chop there's a good chance that flowering will be delayed so much they won't flower at all! You have to know how your plants fare in your local conditions really.

We chelsea chop a load of our phlox and it works very well on them.

Good point re the flowering season. I’m in Lancashire so about central in the U.K.

I'm north west too and generally (unless it's a really crap year - do get a flowering after I've chopped).

Unless you do what I did last night when I wasn't really thinking and instead of taking a bit off....I took it right down to the ground....oops.

I’ve been out this morning and chopped one clump of Michaelmas daisies, one of the campanula latiflora and a couple of the sedums. I’ll take a look at some of the geraniums though I think I may be too late for them.

My nepeta is in full bloom and already flopping over. Is it too late for a Chelsea chop ?

I'm surprised at the Rozanne, mine are still quite small and definitely don't need a chop atm. I did chop them back in Aug last year as by then they were v messy, they came back lovely in a few weeks.

Are yours very established? Mine were planted autumn 2023, so this will be their 2nd full year.
We are also very dry though, and I think maybe that is holding mine back atm.

Mine are probably on their 4th year now - and one in particular was huge until last night... The other 2 are fairly compact still but will grow big in a few weeks. Nice to know yours came back after a chop.

I've cut back my cosmos down to 2 sets of true leaves to make them bush out

Funnily enough that exact question was asked on the 2pm Chelsea show.

And yes, too late but don’t worry! With nepeta you can cut them back hard after flowering and you’ll probably get a second flowering later anyway.

Errol, I’m in the north and I definitely get a decent flowering for the things I’ve chopped.

Thank you @MoistVonL

So (newbie here), I have things which are in bud, but not in flower. Should they be chopped, or will that blow it for the year? I also have some penstemons which only went in a couple of weeks ago. Should I leave them alone this first year or chop away?

My shasta daisies were very leggy last year - would they benefit from a chop? They're not flowering yet.

I thought Chelsea Chop was a haircut!

My Rozannes aren’t very big yet either, especially the one that’s in the shade- but the one in the sun I’m going to try to grow more upwards than outwards, like I do with Ann Folkard.

What are you going to support the upwards growth with?

My mum sent me a picture of her Rozanne with flowers today, I'm most put out as I got it for her and mine are nowhere near.

I just used canes and string last year, but I’ve got a nice metal obelisk for the Anne Folkard this year.