Supposedly the plant will sprout new growth from the chop, leaving a bushier, more upright plant. I threw some of the cuttings into soil so I could grow new plants.
My friend T gave me a beautiful pot of mystery sedums for my birthday last year. It included this beautiful blue and white variegated specimen (maybe 'Frosty Morn'?), along with a sprig of what looks like Autumn Joy and a tiny bit of pure white sedum (all unlabeled, sadly). I want that white one to flourish so I chopped the others, hoping to temporarily give it more sun (though how it will photosynthesize is a mystery). I want to try and extricate it at the end of the summer and maybe propagate more of it.
I'm really digging the different colors of sedums commingling here. Flower floosie, shrub whore . . . I might be turning into a sedum strumpet.
I learned about this from The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, a great book. I like the name Chelsea chop though :-) I also do it to Veronicas and Asters.
ReplyDeleteI've never actually had the nerve to do this on most plants (well, except, as Ryan mentioned, Asters). I always seem to miss that sweet spot of timing...and then they're flopping :-( I hope you get that all-white Sedum to grow on...maybe you'll have cuttings to share in the future (hint, hint)!
ReplyDeleteI really need to read more books on plant care. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna lie--I had a mini daydream of propagating that thing and luring Annie to my yard where she would declare it awesome, buy it for her site, and name it after me. Which is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBut I also had a mini daydream of successfully propagating it so I'd have something at plant exchanges that people would actually want!
The chop is absolutely necessary and the plant recovers easily, especially sedums. Your green and white variegated one looks like Frosty Morn. I have lots of it --- just be aware it wants to revert to all green. You will see solid green "branches" and you are supposed to cut them off to keep the variegation, but I lost that battle on many of mine and they are all green now. Flowers are just as pretty, but the white edges are gone. Mmmph.
ReplyDeleteHappy chopping. Be ruthless, tall sedums crave discipline.
This is really good to know--thanks, Laurrie!
ReplyDeleteI've been cutting stuff back lately as well. In addition to asters, I do it to solidago, agastache, heliopsis, and monarda. Works nicely to produce shorter, bushier plants.
ReplyDeletehow does one know they are not *already* a plant strumpet? I ask because I might be one.
ReplyDeleteIf you're starting to wonder, it's probably too late. You're a plant strumpet.
ReplyDeleteMine has never flopped either but mine are all two years old or less. I figured they would eventually. I think dividing them probably works just as well, though this is was easier. :)
ReplyDeleteBeep bop boop bleep bloop. This message was sent from the future.
The Chelsea Chop, I love it! I can't abide floppers and I have Autumn Joy all over my garden so I need this.
ReplyDeleteI've been so slack, need to get out and chop a few more things or it's the flop again this year.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm wondering what else I should be chopping . . . :)
ReplyDeleteI have never seen that all-white sedum before! It's awesome!
ReplyDeleteI think it must be a fluke. But it's so cool, right?
ReplyDeleteI feel like a freak gardener in that my Sedum never flops (yet, of course now it probably well).
ReplyDeleteI hope you have great success with the albino, my brother in Phoenix had an albino Agave pup a few years back, I too had visions of fame...or at least a very cool plant. Of course once he removed it from mom (severed the umbilical cord) it died...