
Cindy Stockett - Horticulture
"The Chelsea Chop"
Handout provided by Cindy 6/13/2022
Cut the plants back by a third or half to delay bloom and limit size.
"The Chelsea chop (so called because it is usually carried out at the end of May, coinciding with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show) is a pruning method by which you limit the size and control the flowering season of many herbaceous plants."
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pennstemon
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phlox
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campanula (bellflower)
Benefits: Leggy perennials tend to not be so floppy as they grow shorter
Delayed flowering will extend or stagger bloom times
Good candidates for the Chelsea Chop:
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asters
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upright sedums
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heleniums
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goldenrod
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shasta daisy
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rudbeckia

Method 1
Chop back clumps of perennials by one-third to one-half using shears. This will delay the flowering until later in summer and keep plants shorter and more compact.
Method 2
Cut only half the stems back on a plant, which will extend the season of flowering rather than delay it.
"Garden chores for April"
Things to Do...
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Weeding - stay on it!
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Mulching
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Dig and Divide (donate some to the Plant Sale!)
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Plant trees & shrubs (don't forget to keep well watered over summer)
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Plant summer blubs
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get ready for dahlias
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set out cool season vegetables
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bait for slugs - use cheap beer to create traps
Presented April 11, 2022 by Nancy Kappelman

Garden Chores for March
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Plant bare root roses and trees
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Cut back deciduous grasses
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(use gloves to pull out dead stems)
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Leaf clean-up - save for leaf mold!
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Prune trees and shrubs
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Dig/divide snow drops
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Prune group 3 clematis*
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Plant sweet peas and hardy cold vegetables
*If it blooms before June -
Don't prune!

"Garden Soil Choices"
Presented March 14, 2022
Stop using non-renewable peat moss!

Say yes to using COIR! (natural coconut fiber)



Crape Myrtle Lagerstroemia
"Small Trees for the Pacific Northwest"
Presented February 14, 2022

Serviceberry Amelanchier

Garden Chores for February:
Weed! and apply compost
Divide your hostas - pot up for plant sale!
Prune your roses, apply compost
(use BloomDriver in June)
Prune your Clematis, but remember-
"if it blooms before June, don't prune!"
Use Jacks Classic Blossom Booster to fertilize
Fringe tree -Chiananthus virginicus
Flowering Dogwood - Cherokee Sunset
Cindy helps define the real meaning of some catalogue gardening terms:
"robust grower" - probably a garden bully
"A favorite of birds" - avoid planting near cars, sidewalks, or clotheslines!

Cindy says...
It's time to order from your Catalogues!
Presented on January 10th, 2022


Hellebores" presented 12/13/2021
