The Chelsea Chop: Orlaith Murphy

Now, at the end of May,  is the ideal time to perform the ‘Chelsea Chop’ to keep perennial plants compact and reduce the need for staking, while also extending their flowering period.

This technique derives its name from the renowned Chelsea Flower Show, held in late May, which coincides perfectly with the best time to give your plants this beneficial trim.

Herbaceous perennials, which die down to the ground each winter but have roots that remain alive and send up new growth each spring, can quickly become leggy and prone to flopping over as soon as the soil warms up.

The Chelsea Chop: How to Do It
The primary goal of the Chelsea Chop is to cut back herbaceous perennials by about a third to a half. This encourages the formation of side shoots, resulting in more compact, bushy growth and reducing the necessity for staking.

An added advantage of cutting plants back in this manner is the delay in their flowering. While the flowers produced on pruned plants are usually smaller, they are more numerous, prolonging the flowering season and ensuring a burst of color in your garden later in the year. To extend the display even further, you can chop some plants while leaving others untouched, thereby staggering the flowering period. Alternatively, you can trim some stems on a plant by a third while leaving other stems on the same plant uncut. The uncut part will flower first, followed by the trimmed part.

List of Plants Suitable for the Chelsea Chop
Here are some plants that respond well to the Chelsea Chop:

Helenium
Rudbeckia
Sedum
Phlox
Echinacea
Aster
Solidago (Goldenrod)
Nepeta (Catmint)
Campanula (Bellflower)
Helianthus (Perennial Sunflower)
Implementing the Chelsea Chop on these plants will help you maintain a tidy garden and enjoy an extended flowering period throughout the growing season.

Happy gardening
Orlaith