So...has anyone done the Chelsea Crop...

..on their Sedums yet?

I have, earlier this week on one of mine, just as an experiment to see if it works.

I've also shoved some of the off-cuts into a glass of water until tonight when I'll pot them up and see if they grow - from web research Sedum cuttings are incredibly easy to root.

 

Yes Aaron,and it broke my heart ,but it's for the best......I hope.

 

I was thinking about doing it this week - cutting a third of the stems out, yes? Mine always flop over before the summer's out, so worth a go...

 

I felt the same...but I too hope it's for the best.

I suppose new growth appears from the sides, rather than continuing to grow from the cut?

 

Is it just on Sedums? I have loads this year.

 

Apparently it works on most late flowering perennials, but especially well on Sedums making them less resistant to flopping over as they get bigger.

 

What - so just clip off the top third of the clump?

 

Delphiniums too? :( It would make me cry!

 

So...has anyone done the Chelsea Crop...

I must admit I thought it was some sort of haircut. Perhaps an updated Eton Crop?

 

Delphiniums are not classed as late flowering perennials.

Yes, with Sedum, take a deep breath and cut off the top third.

 

As SussexG says - it can be done on quite a wide range of plants such as Echinacea, Helenium, Phlox, Sedum and Solidago etc. I suspect you could do it on Delphiniums as well - but who wants short bushy Delphiniums.

There was an article in the May RHS Garden magazine on this. It said that the chop will make the plants shorter and bushier with more, though slightly smaller flowers. It will also set back the start of flowering a bit, but they will flower for just as long. The closer the plants are to flowering when you give them the chop, the more you will delay flowering.

One variation, is to just chop part of a clump of plants - perhaps the front. This way you will get a longer total flowering period as you will have unchopped plants flowering earlier, and then chopped plants following later.

 

Now that, Peter, is extremely cunning!

Mine didn't flop at all last year so I'm going to try the partial chop!