I would love to hear your recommendations:

I've read the best way is to prune hard to 9 inches immediately after the first flowering leaving some small shoots below cut. Dead-head for the rest of the flowering period, with possibly just a light trim to polish off the season, but no later than mid-September.

elsewhere i've read u trim back flower spikes as soon as they've faded, cutting back to jsut below first set of leaves. then tidy up the subsequent flower spikes in spring.


personally i like lavender seedheads, and want to leave pruning them for as long as possible, especially since its very sheltered here and frosts don't start till mid-Oct at very earliest.

Can i just leave pruning till end of sept, and if so how hard should i cut into them? if i do this do i also need to prune again early spring?