Chelsea Chop // Hampton Hack // Enthusiastic Elbow 😁 

Chelsea Chop // Hampton Hack // Enthusiastic Elbow 😁
Every year at the end of May, just after England’s Chelsea Flower Show, is the time for what is known as the Chelsea Chop which you can do to any perennial which has not yet flowered. You can cut every stem down by one-third to one-half and doing this will delay the flowering time by a few weeks, but will produce more flowers because the plant will produce more side shoots to grow the flowers on. It will also prevent taller leggier plants from becoming straggly and flopping over.
At the end of June, just after England’s Hampton Court Flower Show, you can do a similar thing, and this is known as the Hampton Hack.
In this video I show you how to do the Chelsea Chop on two completely different types of perennial - a Cephalaria Gigantea (Giant Scabious) and a Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. I also show you how to make cuttings from the Sedum as well.
And finally, I show you how to rejuvenate Osteospermum to gain a second flush of flowers, a process I have named ‘The Enthusiastic Elbow’ 🤣
I hope you find this video helpful and give the Chelsea Chop a go on your perennials.
If you’d like to join my Facebook page, also called The Enthusiastic Gardener, you can find it by clicking this link:
/ the-enthusiastic-garde...
Have fun in your gardens!
Janette, The Enthusiastic Gardener