Monty Don's 'Chelsea Chop' gardening trick ensures longer-lasting flowers

14 May 2024 , 08:23

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Monty Don's trick could guarantee long-lasting flowers (Image: BBC)

This simple gardening hack could make all the difference to your blooms.

We all want to get the most out of our greenery. Without the proper care, many plants won't bloom for very long and you'll only get to enjoy their beautiful flowers for a couple of weeks - or even just a few days - before the petals fall and you're left with just the green leaves until next year.

But according to gardening expert Monty Don, there is a simple technique you can use to ensure your flowers last as long as possible. However, you'll need to head out into the garden this week if you want to get the best results.

In a post on Monty's monthly blog, the Garderners' World host spoke about the 'Chelsea Chop' trick, which can help to extend the flowering season of certain plants. The technique gets its name because it should be carried out in the weeks around the Chelsea Flower Show, which begins exactly one week from today on Tuesday, May 21st.

The author of The Gardening Book - which can be bought on Amazon for £13 - said: "The Chelsea Chop is a way of extending the flowering season of late-flowering herbaceous perennials such as heleniums, sedums, Lysimachia or solidago (Golden Rod). If you have several clumps of these plants then cut one of them about halfway up the existing growth. If you have just one big clump then reduce just one-third of the plant in this way."

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Monty explained the Chelsea Chop technique should result in the pruned section producing "side shoots" that will bear extra flowers that bloom "a few weeks later" than the uncut growth. This should extend your plant's flowering season "into autumn", giving you more out of your garden.

And while you should be thinking about pruning some of your plants this month, one thing you shouldn't be touching is your lawn. Monty Don is one of many gardening and wildlife experts throwing their support behind "No Mow May", an initiative that encourages gardeners to put away their lawnmowers for an entire month to allow their grass to grow and become a thriving ecosystem for important pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

The gardening guru previously said that he would recommend not mowing your lawn until June 21st, but other experts - including Sir David Attenborough - believe you should hold off until the middle of July. David said: "It's all about the timing. Delaying mowing until mid-July allows birds and insects to complete their breeding and flowers to set their seed."

Zahna Eklund