echinosum writes



Having a lavender hedge, I have discovered that there are two theories
on pruning lavender, and proponents of each often deny the other could
possibly work.

Theory 1 is that you should prune in late summer after flowering. In
this theory, you should only prune in the green area, if you prune a
stem down to bare wood it will probably die in the winter. This is
what lavender farmers do.

Theory 2 is that you should prune in spring, but late enough that there
won't be a serious frost to get into the cut wood. In this case you
can
(if necessary, eg to rejuvenate a leggy plant) prune back into the old
wood, and it will shoot out from the old wood, though you will probably
lose a few branches, and you should expect fewer flowers after a hard
pruning.

I think the proponents of Theory 1 worry about frost getting into the
wood and if you are harvesting the flowers you won't be so worried
about appearance from Aug-March. But I like to leave the dry flowers on
through the winter. It also depends on variety. I wouldn't prune
French Lavender as hard as I would dare with normal lavender.


I didn't think the dying off was anything at all to do with frost, and
simply that lavender doesn't always shoot from 'brown' wood. With spring
pruning, I have seen both scenarios - lavender re-shooting, and lavender
dying.

--
Kay