Revitalize Perennials with the Texas Chop

A midsummer shearing—often called the Texas Chop in reference to the famous Chelsea Chop that U.K. gardeners perform around the time of the annual Chelsea Flower Show—is the secret to a beautiful perennial garden.

By this time each year, flowering perennials start to look ragged. They are overgrown, blooming less than normal, and starting to get floppy or crowd other plants out.

The solution is to cut plants back by roughly 50% to reshape the plant and stimulate fresh blooms.

Here is an example of what a dramatic difference a July shearing can make for a perennial’s appearance (this is a mass planting of Texas Rock Rose):

The fastest way to shear is to use hedge trimmers. You can either cut the plants straight across or angle your cuts to create a particular shape. You can use pruners for smaller plants or when you want to be more precise.

Either method is fine. You can play around with this. I will be pruning my Salvia 'Mystic Spires Blue' in one straight line to create a hedge-like effect when viewed from afar.

Some plants, like Salvia greggii, often need to be cut back more than once in a growing season to maintain strong bloom.

Most perennials will only need a hard cutback once in July and can be maintained for the rest of the season with deadheading. It’s important not to delay the shearing process into August, however, as plants are less likely to recover well in the extreme August heat.

The amount you cut back will differ from plant to plant. If you are unsure how quickly a plant will recover from shearing, limit shearing to only 30%. Plants that put on a considerable amount of growth in one season like Texas Rock Rose can tolerate a harder pruning of 50% or more.

In general, plants that have only one bloom per stem like coneflower or rudbeckia are best maintained with regular deadheading back to lateral buds, as shearing will leave unsightly bare stems. Plants that benefit from shearing are bushier in nature.

For more advanced perennial pruning techniques, I highly recommend the book The Well-Tended Perennial Garden. ​

After shearing, you can help plants recover by top-dressing surrounding soil with compost, replenishing mulch, and providing a little bit more water than usual if rainfall is scarce.

Unsure what to do with perennials later in the year as winter approaches? I’ll delve into that in Low-Maintenance Gardening with Perennials and Self-Seeding Annuals on September 13. ​

Happy chopping!

CWL

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