...the Chelsea Chop is valuable.
This year I could not carry out the Chelsea Chop due to my shoulder so I figured I would experiment whether it was actually worth doing it. Every year since having a garden, I have cut back the foliage of certain herbaceous perennials, particularly hardy geraniums. This does delay the flowers for a few weeks, but the advantage is a bushier plant with more flowers. It is called the Chelsea Chop due to the procedure being carried out around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show in May.
The experiment has shown that the geraniums are taller, obviously, but that makes them prone to becoming flattened more easily during foul weather, and that they need more by way of support. Therefore by the middle of June they are having to be cut back. This will provide a new flush of foliage and further flowers later in the year...but that happens anyway with doing the Chop, but leaves an ugly gap at the wrong time (before neighbouring plants are flowering, such as hebes) The conclusion is then that next May the Chelsea Chop will return.
The magenta hardy geraniums seem to have suffered more than any of the others and most of them have now been cut back. This will also allow other plants to breathe and have their turn in the limelight.
The photos never quite show the colour correct on these Eryngiums. They are really very blue.
TMTC swapped the white bistro set with the potting table as we reckon it looks too nice to be hidden.
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