DO THE CHELSEA CHOP

Words by Jessica Peace

Want to keep your perennials (the ones that come back year after year) up right and raving all summer long? Time to do the ‘Chelsea Chop’.

WHAT THE F’S THE CHELSEA CHOP?

It’s just hacking back your later flowering perennials at the end of May - when the Chelsea flower show is on the telly.  Perennials that can be ‘Chelsea chopped’, will take a hacking down to a half and come back fighting fit until early autumn.

WHO GETS THE CHOP?

When choosing for the chop, think which your plants that get too leggy; your safe bets include: echinacea, helenium, phlox, sedum and anthemis - the ‘dyer’s chamomile’.

RATING

Got to be awake for this one