June 3, 2025 • 18 mins
In this short and snippy episode, we dig into a classic gardening technique known as the Chelsea Chop. Named after the iconic RHS Chelsea Flower Show, this late spring/early summer pruning method can help home gardeners promote bushier growth, delay blooms for season-long color, and support pollinators with flowering perennials in the garden.
If you’re looking to add more beauty to your veggie garden and boost the productivity of your perennials, this episode is your green-thumb guide to giving those flowers a haircut.
Today on Just Grow Something we're talking:
- What the Chelsea Chop is and why it's done
- Ideal plants for the technique (Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Sedum, Phlox, and more)
- Different pruning strategies and how to choose the right one
- The timing of the chop based on your climate and plant maturity
- Benefits for both aesthetics and garden health (more airflow, fewer pests!)
The Chelsea Chop is more than just a cut—it's a strategic move to shape your garden and support pollinators. Let's dig in!
References and Resources:
Save 20% on your new own-root rose plant atHeirloomRoses.com with code JUSTGROW https://heirloomroses.com
RHS Chelsea Chop: https://www.rhs.org.uk/pruning/chelsea-chop
BBC Gardener's World, How to Do the Chelsea Chop: https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/how-to-do-the-chelsea-chop/
Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I have been pretty upfront aboutthe fact that I'm trying to add
a little more beauty to my gardens this year rather than
just strictly functionality. And part of that has involved
planting flowering perennials. I'm just getting started in
this, obviously, and it has beensome time since I took my
ornamentals classes in college, so I feel like I'm learning all
over again. And that means channeling the
(00:23):
wisdom of the Royal Horticultural Society.
So today I'm just grow something.
We're getting snippy, but in a benefit, official way, we're
talking about the Chelsea chop. Now, before you panic, no, this
isn't some new haircut trend. The Chelsea chop is a gardening
technique that's all about timing your pruning just right
to shape your plants, stagger your blooms and make the
(00:46):
blooming perennials in your garden just a bit more tidy and
delightful. So grab your shears and maybe a
cup of tea and let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen, and what started
as a small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now, as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same on this podcast.
(01:08):
I am your friend in the garden, teaching evidence.
Based techniques. To help you grow your favorites
and build confidence in your owngarden space.
So grab your. Garden journal and a cup of
coffee and get ready to just grow something.
OK, so this is going to be a fairly short episode.
Not only is there just a ton of stuff going on around here, but
(01:32):
we finally got a break in the rain.
It has been raining what feels like non-stop for like the
entire month of May and you know, probably even from
mid-april, which normally, OK, this is kind of our rainy
season, but it's been an almost everyday occurrence, which has
not only made it difficult to get the summer loving plants
(01:55):
into the gardens, but it's also made harvesting and, you know,
pruning and trellising and wedding and all of those fun
activities very difficult to do.So we are on day, I want to see
it. Today is maybe day three that we
have not seen any rain. And it looks like I get one more
day of that, and then it's supposed to start raining again
(02:17):
and not stop for an entire week.So this is going to be a short,
sweet episode so I can get back outside and see what I can do
about trying to get caught up onsome tasks.
So. But if you have also been
working toward like, beautifyingyour vegetable gardens like me
this season, I thought that thistopic was timely and that I
would share. So we're going to jump right
(02:37):
into it. OK, The Chelsea chop, First
things first, what exactly are we chopping and why are we
chopping it? OK, the Chelsea chop gets its
name from the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea
Flower Show in the UK, and that takes place every year in late
May. The Chelsea chop is a pruning
(02:58):
technique that is performed somewhere around late May into
early June, depending on where you are, and it coincides with
the show, hence the Chelsea chop, right?
That is our cue in a lot of areas that it's time to prune
certain herbaceous perennials byabout 1/3 to 1/2 to encourage
(03:20):
bushier growth and delayed flowering.
So this is going to help controlthe plant size, it's going to
prevent those plants from sort of flopping over, and it's also
going to extend the flowering season in addition to just
promoting a more robust plant structure.
If you think of this is in termsof a annual vegetable in our
(03:42):
garden, you might think in some very long season areas of
Peppers. So when you hear people talking
about topping their Peppers, this is the same sort of idea.
Even though we're working with perennials here, when you're
looking at an annual like a pepper plant, if you're topping
that plant, meaning you are chopping off the top of it, you
(04:04):
are trying to get it to be more bushy and you want it to give
you more flowers and you're controlling that plant size a
little bit and you're just kind of giving it a stronger base.
That is essentially the same thing that we're talking about
here with our flowering perennials.
Now, OK, you might be wondering,why are we talking, you know, so
much about flowers? This is a vegetable podcast
(04:24):
because my gardening friends, your perennials are pollinator
magnets. So if we can stagger the blooms,
that is going to mean more bees,more butterflies, more
beneficial bugs for our tomatoesand our cucumbers and our
squashes and stuff, OK? Plus, if we're sort of
maintaining these perennials, these herbaceous flowering
(04:46):
plants and we're keeping them tidier, especially around our
vegetable gardens, this is goingto mean we have a little bit
better airflow. There are fewer hiding spots for
some of those garden pests that we don't want in there and a
little bit more room for our ownmovement and harvesting, OK.
If we can extend the bloom time of all of our sort of companion
(05:08):
perennials, the Chelsea chop is basically going to ensure a more
continuous food source for the pollinators that we're trying to
bring in, which of course is going to benefit our vegetable
crops. It also means that we're going
to kind of lend a little bit towards the aesthetics, which is
something that I kind of have a problem with.
It's going to help us be a little bit more organized, a
(05:29):
little bit more visually appealing in the garden, and
it's going to sort of integrate those ornamentals more
seamlessly with our edible areasof our garden.
It also means less maintenance. So if you have shorter, sturdier
plants, they're going to requireless staking, they're going to
be less prone to wind damage, and it's just going to make that
(05:50):
garden upkeep a little bit more manageable.
Now, not every plant loves a good haircut at this time of
year. So let's talk about what
candidates there are for this Chelsea chop method.
OK, the first thing is that we are looking for summer and fall
flowering herbaceous perennials.So things like our Echinacea or
(06:13):
cone flower, rudbeckia or Black Eyed susans, sedum, phlox,
Monarda, which is B balm, Bellflower, Yarrow, cat mint,
hellenium, these are all really good candidates for this pruning
method. We do not want to be doing this
with any of our early bloomers. So anything that is blooming in
the spring, we don't want to do this with anything that tends to
(06:36):
grow as a single stem. We don't want to be doing this
with any of our woody shrubs andwe just don't want to be
touching anything that's alreadyflowering.
This is for the sort of almost ready plants that are out there,
which means that the timing on this for your garden may not
actually coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show.
(06:58):
So if you're in a warmer climatethan I am, the time for this may
be in very early May. If you're in a cooler climate,
this actually may not happen until late June.
So that's why we want to watch what our plants are doing and
we're not relying on the timing of something that's happening in
a climate that is much differentfrom our own gardens.
(07:21):
If I had just followed these recommendations during the time
when the Chelsea Flower Show wasgoing on, so again, I think it
was this year was actually the second to last week in May, I'd
have to go back and look. But even that last two weeks in
May and first week in June, if Ihad applied this method to my
kind of wild Yarrow that grows in and around some of my garden
beds, that Yarrow was already putting up its blooms.
(07:44):
It was already flowering. So I actually would have
decreased the number of blooms that I was getting versus
increasing. So just be very specific when it
comes to what's going on in yourgardening, kind of pay attention
to what's going on with your ownherbaceous perennials to decide
when it's a good time to apply this method.
So it's just a good reminder forus when the Chelsea Flower Show
comes around that it's time to start looking at this, right?
(08:07):
So if we're talking about in ground beds, then and of course
we're planting these flowering perennials as sort of companions
and also visually appealing. This method is going to be ideal
for those larger perennials thatmight over shadow our vegetable
(08:27):
plants. So things that maybe we have
planted around the outer edges that tend to get very tall, but
we're not necessarily wanting totake advantage of that shadowing
effect that they might have on some of our vegetables and or
maybe we want them to be taller later on in the season, right?
So maybe we want to use them as a shadowing effect or a shading
(08:51):
effect for some of our vegetables, but we want that to
happen when the sun really starts to get hot.
So we want to keep them short inthe meantime, using this method
is going to kind of keep those ones in check.
So it's going to, you know, ensure the adequate sunlight for
the stuff that's in the vegetable garden and also
helping the air circulation until those plants really start
to get taller. If we're talking about, you
(09:12):
know, flowering perennials in and around outside of our raised
garden beds, then doing this printing method is just going to
kind of help to maintain a nice tidy appearance.
It's going to prevent those perennials from sort of spilling
over the edges if we have them inside raised beds.
And it's also going to help makeyou the harvest of the
vegetables easier if we're, you know, sort of spacing them in
(09:35):
together because they're just going to take up less space
after we've pruned them, right? If you are growing these
perennials in pots, then this method is going to help to kind
of manage the size of those. It's going to encourage that
more bushy, fuller growth instead of the tall kind of
wonky growth, which is going to just enhance the overall look.
(09:56):
If you were doing this on a patio or on a balcony garden,
OK, we don't need any fancy tools for this.
You just need a pair of, you know, sharp, clean garden
shears. You might want a bucket of some
sort to, you know, drop the bucket or drop the clippings
into and then take it over to your compost bin.
Maybe some gloves. If you are growing plants that
maybe give off a lot in terms ofaromatic oils that might kind
(10:20):
of, you know, make your your hands kind of, you know, it
feels sticky or tingly or whatever.
Then maybe you want to use some gloves.
The the magic window on this again is generally for a lot of
air. It's, it's late May to early
June when your plants are about half of what they're expected
size is. And so I think it's important to
(10:42):
mention that if these are new plants to you, you likely don't
want to be doing this in their first year.
So if you have just planted these, I would say let them get
settled in and do their thing the first season without doing a
bunch in terms of pruning. We don't want to shock those
plants, but we do, you know, want to be thoughtful in how
(11:04):
much we allow them to bloom too.So we may want to be snipping
those buds off to get them to sort of focus their energy into
the root development that first season, but we may not want to
be pruning a ton of the new growth back because that might
actually inhibit what they're able to do over the winter time
and come back, right? But for all of our second year
(11:25):
and beyond perennials, I think this is a good thing to do.
And at that point, we kind of know what their size is supposed
to be. And we can determine when it's a
good time to prune them back based on when they are about
half that size. And again, if you're in a cooler
climate, this is going to be later.
If you're in a warmer climate, this might be earlier.
Again, we're just looking at oursummer and fall blooming
(11:47):
perennials. OK, before we continue with our
deep dive into the Chelsea Chop,let's take a moment to talk
about a fantastic resource for gardeners looking to add both
beauty and resilience to their gardens.
And of course, that is our sponsorheirloomroses.com.
If you are inspired to enhance your garden with perennials that
respond well to techniques like the Chelsea Chop, Heirloom Roses
(12:09):
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Their collection includes varieties like Echinacea,
Rudbeckia, and Menarda, plants that we have discussed today
that benefit from this strategicpruning to promote bushier
growth and extended blooming periods.
Now, of course, Heirloom Roses specializes in own root roses.
Unlike the grafted roses, own root roses are grown from
(12:31):
cuttings of the desired variety,ensuring that the plant remains
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This method produces roses that are hardier, more disease
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perfect companions to their selection of blooming
perennials. Whether you are looking to add
(12:52):
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Grow. The link is in the show notes.
(13:12):
So choose a suitable perennial that is not yet blooming.
And then there's a couple of different approaches to this.
You can either cut the entire plant back by 1/3 to about 1/2
to give you a later more compactbloom, or you can cut just the
(13:34):
front or outer sections and leave the back to continue to
grow. So this is going to give you
like staggered flowering times. So you're going to have these
early blooms in the back and then the round the sides and the
front is actually going to bloomlater on.
So you get kind of staggered flowering and then you also get
sort of a fuller look and aroundthe front and the sides.
(13:56):
Or if this technique makes you nervous and you don't know what,
you're not sure that you know what you're doing, which is kind
of where I'm at, you can just cut like a few stems here and
there. And this is going to be a really
conservative option to kind of get you used to.
OK, what's what's going to happen here?
How is this going to work? And it's still going to give us
great results, right? So that's kind of the camp that
(14:19):
I'm in this year is like, all right, let me just cut a few of
these back here and there just alittle bit.
I'm not even quite doing 1/3. And then I'm going to let and
see what happens. This is specific to my sedums.
This is going to be easier for me to do with my sedums because
I've had my sedums for quite some time.
And so I know what size they're supposed to be.
(14:39):
And I know what they end up looking like when they flower.
And they are really tall and andwonky and they kind of fall over
and they get to be kind of messy.
So that's where I'm starting this year.
The only things that I'm touching are my sedums and I'm
probably only cutting them back by maybe 25%.
(14:59):
OK, I'm just being very careful here.
So that's OK. There's nothing wrong with the
conservative approach, right? So when we make the cut,
basically all we want to do is snip above the leaf node.
So that is where the leaf is emerging from the stem.
So remember on all of our plantswe have the nodes, which is
(15:19):
where the the the leaves come out.
And then there is that section of of stem in between those
nodes and we call that the internode.
So we want to snip just above a leaf node and we want an angled
cut so that we can prevent waterfrom sitting on that wound right
there. This is similar to how we
(15:40):
harvest our broccoli or, you know, if we're looking to try to
get more side shoots coming up from the broccoli, we want to do
this at an angle because we're going to leave the plant sitting
out there in the ground and we don't want that water sitting on
that flat surface and causing itto sort of rot on that cut
space. It's the same idea with these
flowering herbaceous perennials.We want to cut them at an angle
(16:03):
so that we don't introduce any kind of rot or any kind of
fungal diseases from that water.OK.
And that's it. There's no fancy treatments to
this. There's no fertilizer you got to
put on here to make it do anything up.
It's just just let the plant do its thing.
It's going to respond with shorter, bushier growth and a
stronger root system to boot. And of course this technique
(16:25):
works because it's temporarily stressing the plant, but in a
very controlled way, which redirects its energy into side
shoots and into root development.
So this is obviously university extension.
Studies have done this. The Royal Horticultural Society
has done trials with this. They have shown that it
(16:45):
increases the bloom density, it leads to better stem strength,
so less flopping around out there, and it's going to extend
those blooming periods, especially in the more temperate
zone. So here is your Chelsea chop
checklist. Pick your perennials, OK?
(17:06):
Are they summer or fall bloomers?
Those are the ones that we want to be pruning back.
We don't want our early ones. Check the timing.
Are they about halfway to their normal full size?
Choose your approach whether youwant to do a full chop that cuts
them back 1/3 to 1/2, if you're going to do a half a chop, which
means cutting it in the front and the sides and leaving the
(17:26):
back tall. Or are we just going to do sort
of a selective snip here and there, The more conservative
approach that I likely am going with this year.
And then just get cutting and keep an eye on what happens.
You're going to learn more aboutyour plants by just doing it.
Then a dozen blog posts or magazine articles or podcasts
could ever teach you, right? Take notes, garden journal, take
(17:49):
notes, experiment, and don't be afraid to have fun with it.
Because despite what I often talk about, gardening is as much
of an art as it is a science. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
talk again soon.
I have been pretty upfront aboutthe fact that I'm trying to add
a little more beauty to my gardens this year rather than
just strictly functionality. And part of that has involved
planting flowering perennials. I'm just getting started in
this, obviously, and it has beensome time since I took my
ornamentals classes in college, so I feel like I'm learning all
over again. And that means channeling the
(00:23):
wisdom of the Royal Horticultural Society.
So today I'm just grow something.
We're getting snippy, but in a benefit, official way, we're
talking about the Chelsea chop. Now, before you panic, no, this
isn't some new haircut trend. The Chelsea chop is a gardening
technique that's all about timing your pruning just right
to shape your plants, stagger your blooms and make the
(00:46):
blooming perennials in your garden just a bit more tidy and
delightful. So grab your shears and maybe a
cup of tea and let's dig in. Hey, I'm Karen, and what started
as a small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now, as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same on this podcast.
(01:08):
I am your friend in the garden, teaching evidence.
Based techniques. To help you grow your favorites
and build confidence in your owngarden space.
So grab your. Garden journal and a cup of
coffee and get ready to just grow something.
OK, so this is going to be a fairly short episode.
Not only is there just a ton of stuff going on around here, but
(01:32):
we finally got a break in the rain.
It has been raining what feels like non-stop for like the
entire month of May and you know, probably even from
mid-april, which normally, OK, this is kind of our rainy
season, but it's been an almost everyday occurrence, which has
not only made it difficult to get the summer loving plants
(01:55):
into the gardens, but it's also made harvesting and, you know,
pruning and trellising and wedding and all of those fun
activities very difficult to do.So we are on day, I want to see
it. Today is maybe day three that we
have not seen any rain. And it looks like I get one more
day of that, and then it's supposed to start raining again
(02:17):
and not stop for an entire week.So this is going to be a short,
sweet episode so I can get back outside and see what I can do
about trying to get caught up onsome tasks.
So. But if you have also been
working toward like, beautifyingyour vegetable gardens like me
this season, I thought that thistopic was timely and that I
would share. So we're going to jump right
(02:37):
into it. OK, The Chelsea chop, First
things first, what exactly are we chopping and why are we
chopping it? OK, the Chelsea chop gets its
name from the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea
Flower Show in the UK, and that takes place every year in late
May. The Chelsea chop is a pruning
(02:58):
technique that is performed somewhere around late May into
early June, depending on where you are, and it coincides with
the show, hence the Chelsea chop, right?
That is our cue in a lot of areas that it's time to prune
certain herbaceous perennials byabout 1/3 to 1/2 to encourage
(03:20):
bushier growth and delayed flowering.
So this is going to help controlthe plant size, it's going to
prevent those plants from sort of flopping over, and it's also
going to extend the flowering season in addition to just
promoting a more robust plant structure.
If you think of this is in termsof a annual vegetable in our
(03:42):
garden, you might think in some very long season areas of
Peppers. So when you hear people talking
about topping their Peppers, this is the same sort of idea.
Even though we're working with perennials here, when you're
looking at an annual like a pepper plant, if you're topping
that plant, meaning you are chopping off the top of it, you
(04:04):
are trying to get it to be more bushy and you want it to give
you more flowers and you're controlling that plant size a
little bit and you're just kind of giving it a stronger base.
That is essentially the same thing that we're talking about
here with our flowering perennials.
Now, OK, you might be wondering,why are we talking, you know, so
much about flowers? This is a vegetable podcast
(04:24):
because my gardening friends, your perennials are pollinator
magnets. So if we can stagger the blooms,
that is going to mean more bees,more butterflies, more
beneficial bugs for our tomatoesand our cucumbers and our
squashes and stuff, OK? Plus, if we're sort of
maintaining these perennials, these herbaceous flowering
(04:46):
plants and we're keeping them tidier, especially around our
vegetable gardens, this is goingto mean we have a little bit
better airflow. There are fewer hiding spots for
some of those garden pests that we don't want in there and a
little bit more room for our ownmovement and harvesting, OK.
If we can extend the bloom time of all of our sort of companion
(05:08):
perennials, the Chelsea chop is basically going to ensure a more
continuous food source for the pollinators that we're trying to
bring in, which of course is going to benefit our vegetable
crops. It also means that we're going
to kind of lend a little bit towards the aesthetics, which is
something that I kind of have a problem with.
It's going to help us be a little bit more organized, a
(05:29):
little bit more visually appealing in the garden, and
it's going to sort of integrate those ornamentals more
seamlessly with our edible areasof our garden.
It also means less maintenance. So if you have shorter, sturdier
plants, they're going to requireless staking, they're going to
be less prone to wind damage, and it's just going to make that
(05:50):
garden upkeep a little bit more manageable.
Now, not every plant loves a good haircut at this time of
year. So let's talk about what
candidates there are for this Chelsea chop method.
OK, the first thing is that we are looking for summer and fall
flowering herbaceous perennials.So things like our Echinacea or
(06:13):
cone flower, rudbeckia or Black Eyed susans, sedum, phlox,
Monarda, which is B balm, Bellflower, Yarrow, cat mint,
hellenium, these are all really good candidates for this pruning
method. We do not want to be doing this
with any of our early bloomers. So anything that is blooming in
the spring, we don't want to do this with anything that tends to
(06:36):
grow as a single stem. We don't want to be doing this
with any of our woody shrubs andwe just don't want to be
touching anything that's alreadyflowering.
This is for the sort of almost ready plants that are out there,
which means that the timing on this for your garden may not
actually coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show.
(06:58):
So if you're in a warmer climatethan I am, the time for this may
be in very early May. If you're in a cooler climate,
this actually may not happen until late June.
So that's why we want to watch what our plants are doing and
we're not relying on the timing of something that's happening in
a climate that is much differentfrom our own gardens.
(07:21):
If I had just followed these recommendations during the time
when the Chelsea Flower Show wasgoing on, so again, I think it
was this year was actually the second to last week in May, I'd
have to go back and look. But even that last two weeks in
May and first week in June, if Ihad applied this method to my
kind of wild Yarrow that grows in and around some of my garden
beds, that Yarrow was already putting up its blooms.
(07:44):
It was already flowering. So I actually would have
decreased the number of blooms that I was getting versus
increasing. So just be very specific when it
comes to what's going on in yourgardening, kind of pay attention
to what's going on with your ownherbaceous perennials to decide
when it's a good time to apply this method.
So it's just a good reminder forus when the Chelsea Flower Show
comes around that it's time to start looking at this, right?
(08:07):
So if we're talking about in ground beds, then and of course
we're planting these flowering perennials as sort of companions
and also visually appealing. This method is going to be ideal
for those larger perennials thatmight over shadow our vegetable
(08:27):
plants. So things that maybe we have
planted around the outer edges that tend to get very tall, but
we're not necessarily wanting totake advantage of that shadowing
effect that they might have on some of our vegetables and or
maybe we want them to be taller later on in the season, right?
So maybe we want to use them as a shadowing effect or a shading
(08:51):
effect for some of our vegetables, but we want that to
happen when the sun really starts to get hot.
So we want to keep them short inthe meantime, using this method
is going to kind of keep those ones in check.
So it's going to, you know, ensure the adequate sunlight for
the stuff that's in the vegetable garden and also
helping the air circulation until those plants really start
to get taller. If we're talking about, you
(09:12):
know, flowering perennials in and around outside of our raised
garden beds, then doing this printing method is just going to
kind of help to maintain a nice tidy appearance.
It's going to prevent those perennials from sort of spilling
over the edges if we have them inside raised beds.
And it's also going to help makeyou the harvest of the
vegetables easier if we're, you know, sort of spacing them in
(09:35):
together because they're just going to take up less space
after we've pruned them, right? If you are growing these
perennials in pots, then this method is going to help to kind
of manage the size of those. It's going to encourage that
more bushy, fuller growth instead of the tall kind of
wonky growth, which is going to just enhance the overall look.
(09:56):
If you were doing this on a patio or on a balcony garden,
OK, we don't need any fancy tools for this.
You just need a pair of, you know, sharp, clean garden
shears. You might want a bucket of some
sort to, you know, drop the bucket or drop the clippings
into and then take it over to your compost bin.
Maybe some gloves. If you are growing plants that
maybe give off a lot in terms ofaromatic oils that might kind
(10:20):
of, you know, make your your hands kind of, you know, it
feels sticky or tingly or whatever.
Then maybe you want to use some gloves.
The the magic window on this again is generally for a lot of
air. It's, it's late May to early
June when your plants are about half of what they're expected
size is. And so I think it's important to
(10:42):
mention that if these are new plants to you, you likely don't
want to be doing this in their first year.
So if you have just planted these, I would say let them get
settled in and do their thing the first season without doing a
bunch in terms of pruning. We don't want to shock those
plants, but we do, you know, want to be thoughtful in how
(11:04):
much we allow them to bloom too.So we may want to be snipping
those buds off to get them to sort of focus their energy into
the root development that first season, but we may not want to
be pruning a ton of the new growth back because that might
actually inhibit what they're able to do over the winter time
and come back, right? But for all of our second year
(11:25):
and beyond perennials, I think this is a good thing to do.
And at that point, we kind of know what their size is supposed
to be. And we can determine when it's a
good time to prune them back based on when they are about
half that size. And again, if you're in a cooler
climate, this is going to be later.
If you're in a warmer climate, this might be earlier.
Again, we're just looking at oursummer and fall blooming
(11:47):
perennials. OK, before we continue with our
deep dive into the Chelsea Chop,let's take a moment to talk
about a fantastic resource for gardeners looking to add both
beauty and resilience to their gardens.
And of course, that is our sponsorheirloomroses.com.
If you are inspired to enhance your garden with perennials that
respond well to techniques like the Chelsea Chop, Heirloom Roses
(12:09):
offers a diverse selection of flowering perennials.
Their collection includes varieties like Echinacea,
Rudbeckia, and Menarda, plants that we have discussed today
that benefit from this strategicpruning to promote bushier
growth and extended blooming periods.
Now, of course, Heirloom Roses specializes in own root roses.
Unlike the grafted roses, own root roses are grown from
(12:31):
cuttings of the desired variety,ensuring that the plant remains
true to type throughout its entire life.
This method produces roses that are hardier, more disease
resistant and longer lived, qualities that are especially
valuable for gardeners in varying climates, and they make
perfect companions to their selection of blooming
perennials. Whether you are looking to add
(12:52):
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Grow. The link is in the show notes.
(13:12):
So choose a suitable perennial that is not yet blooming.
And then there's a couple of different approaches to this.
You can either cut the entire plant back by 1/3 to about 1/2
to give you a later more compactbloom, or you can cut just the
(13:34):
front or outer sections and leave the back to continue to
grow. So this is going to give you
like staggered flowering times. So you're going to have these
early blooms in the back and then the round the sides and the
front is actually going to bloomlater on.
So you get kind of staggered flowering and then you also get
sort of a fuller look and aroundthe front and the sides.
(13:56):
Or if this technique makes you nervous and you don't know what,
you're not sure that you know what you're doing, which is kind
of where I'm at, you can just cut like a few stems here and
there. And this is going to be a really
conservative option to kind of get you used to.
OK, what's what's going to happen here?
How is this going to work? And it's still going to give us
great results, right? So that's kind of the camp that
(14:19):
I'm in this year is like, all right, let me just cut a few of
these back here and there just alittle bit.
I'm not even quite doing 1/3. And then I'm going to let and
see what happens. This is specific to my sedums.
This is going to be easier for me to do with my sedums because
I've had my sedums for quite some time.
And so I know what size they're supposed to be.
(14:39):
And I know what they end up looking like when they flower.
And they are really tall and andwonky and they kind of fall over
and they get to be kind of messy.
So that's where I'm starting this year.
The only things that I'm touching are my sedums and I'm
probably only cutting them back by maybe 25%.
(14:59):
OK, I'm just being very careful here.
So that's OK. There's nothing wrong with the
conservative approach, right? So when we make the cut,
basically all we want to do is snip above the leaf node.
So that is where the leaf is emerging from the stem.
So remember on all of our plantswe have the nodes, which is
(15:19):
where the the the leaves come out.
And then there is that section of of stem in between those
nodes and we call that the internode.
So we want to snip just above a leaf node and we want an angled
cut so that we can prevent waterfrom sitting on that wound right
there. This is similar to how we
(15:40):
harvest our broccoli or, you know, if we're looking to try to
get more side shoots coming up from the broccoli, we want to do
this at an angle because we're going to leave the plant sitting
out there in the ground and we don't want that water sitting on
that flat surface and causing itto sort of rot on that cut
space. It's the same idea with these
flowering herbaceous perennials.We want to cut them at an angle
(16:03):
so that we don't introduce any kind of rot or any kind of
fungal diseases from that water.OK.
And that's it. There's no fancy treatments to
this. There's no fertilizer you got to
put on here to make it do anything up.
It's just just let the plant do its thing.
It's going to respond with shorter, bushier growth and a
stronger root system to boot. And of course this technique
(16:25):
works because it's temporarily stressing the plant, but in a
very controlled way, which redirects its energy into side
shoots and into root development.
So this is obviously university extension.
Studies have done this. The Royal Horticultural Society
has done trials with this. They have shown that it
(16:45):
increases the bloom density, it leads to better stem strength,
so less flopping around out there, and it's going to extend
those blooming periods, especially in the more temperate
zone. So here is your Chelsea chop
checklist. Pick your perennials, OK?
(17:06):
Are they summer or fall bloomers?
Those are the ones that we want to be pruning back.
We don't want our early ones. Check the timing.
Are they about halfway to their normal full size?
Choose your approach whether youwant to do a full chop that cuts
them back 1/3 to 1/2, if you're going to do a half a chop, which
means cutting it in the front and the sides and leaving the
(17:26):
back tall. Or are we just going to do sort
of a selective snip here and there, The more conservative
approach that I likely am going with this year.
And then just get cutting and keep an eye on what happens.
You're going to learn more aboutyour plants by just doing it.
Then a dozen blog posts or magazine articles or podcasts
could ever teach you, right? Take notes, garden journal, take
(17:49):
notes, experiment, and don't be afraid to have fun with it.
Because despite what I often talk about, gardening is as much
of an art as it is a science. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
talk again soon.
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