Lavender hedge
 

Alla Bezroutchko wrote:
Hi,

I am trying to create a lavender hedge. I have planted some lavender
last year in autumn, it is growing fine at the moment and just starts
flowering. Should I let it flower or should I cut off the blooms to make
it grow more green shoots? When and how should I trim it to form a hedge?

By the way, after asking the opinion of the group last year about
planting out lavender cuttings, I did an experiment - planted out some
in October and repotted the rest. The potted cuttings stayed in an
unheated garage where the temperature sometimes went down to -5 degrees
Celsius. All the potted cuttings survived, while about a half of the
planted cuttings died, mostly broken down or washed out by heavy rain.
The planted out cuttings that survived are bigger and bushier than the
potted ones though.

Alla.

Let it finish flowering, then trim the flower spikes off, that will
encourage it to grow and it will become bushier.
Mike

Let it flower.

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.

Lavender hedge
 

Hi,

I am trying to create a lavender hedge. I have planted some lavender
last year in autumn, it is growing fine at the moment and just starts
flowering. Should I let it flower or should I cut off the blooms to make
it grow more green shoots? When and how should I trim it to form a hedge?

By the way, after asking the opinion of the group last year about
planting out lavender cuttings, I did an experiment - planted out some
in October and repotted the rest. The potted cuttings stayed in an
unheated garage where the temperature sometimes went down to -5 degrees
Celsius. All the potted cuttings survived, while about a half of the
planted cuttings died, mostly broken down or washed out by heavy rain.
The planted out cuttings that survived are bigger and bushier than the
potted ones though.

Alla.

Lavender hedge
 

We have done the same with the cuttings and have now got plenty of lavender,
which we are growing around the front of our largest bed. We couldn't
believe the price of lavender plants at the garden centre and have found
propagation a simple matter of doing as you said, just keep them in a
greenhouse to protect them from the worst of the weather. Presto, nice
healthy plants with an almost 100% success rate.

Check out our site at www.pennix.co.uk

wrote in message
ups.com...

Alla Bezroutchko wrote:
Hi,

I am trying to create a lavender hedge. I have planted some lavender
last year in autumn, it is growing fine at the moment and just starts
flowering. Should I let it flower or should I cut off the blooms to make
it grow more green shoots? When and how should I trim it to form a
hedge?

By the way, after asking the opinion of the group last year about
planting out lavender cuttings, I did an experiment - planted out some
in October and repotted the rest. The potted cuttings stayed in an
unheated garage where the temperature sometimes went down to -5 degrees
Celsius. All the potted cuttings survived, while about a half of the
planted cuttings died, mostly broken down or washed out by heavy rain.
The planted out cuttings that survived are bigger and bushier than the
potted ones though.

Alla.

Let it finish flowering, then trim the flower spikes off, that will
encourage it to grow and it will become bushier.
Mike

Lavender hedge
 

" writes

Alla Bezroutchko wrote:
Hi,

I am trying to create a lavender hedge. I have planted some lavender
last year in autumn, it is growing fine at the moment and just starts
flowering. Should I let it flower or should I cut off the blooms to make
it grow more green shoots? When and how should I trim it to form a hedge?

By the way, after asking the opinion of the group last year about
planting out lavender cuttings, I did an experiment - planted out some
in October and repotted the rest. The potted cuttings stayed in an
unheated garage where the temperature sometimes went down to -5 degrees
Celsius. All the potted cuttings survived, while about a half of the
planted cuttings died, mostly broken down or washed out by heavy rain.
The planted out cuttings that survived are bigger and bushier than the
potted ones though.

Alla.

Let it finish flowering, then trim the flower spikes off, that will
encourage it to grow and it will become bushier.
Mike

Trim it back further than that if you want it to be bushy. But don't
trim back further than the lowest green leaves on the stem, as they
don't always grow back after that treatment.

--
Kay

Lavender hedge
 

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

Lavender hedge
 

K wrote:
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.

Me too. The longest I've kept a plant is 8 years, a French one which
reach 1m10. And that I think was a miracle. I've experimented on my
allotment with them, and by neglecting them they have faired as well as
the ones at home, pruned in spring. However, the best show of lavender
hedges I've seen was at the Salford Sainsbury's in Manchester. I was
astonished by the longevity of these plants - hundreds kept on that
parking lot for well over 6 years, severely pruned in spring. Sadly,
they all died this year and still haven't been replaced :o(

Lavender hedge
 

I live in central Scotland and have 2 borders of lavender. One border was
planted 2 years ago and the other 6 years ago. Although facing south, one
border gets an east wind, the other is protected. My problem is that all
the plants have become very woody although I pruned them after flowering in
the autumn. The east wind has killed some and reduced the new growth of
what's left of the 2 year old border. I plan to take cuttings from my 6
year old plants, but not sure how to do this? They are starting to flower
just now so intend leaving them till they finish. I'm new to trying to
propogate from existing plants!





"La Puce" wrote in message
oups.com...

K wrote:
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.

Me too. The longest I've kept a plant is 8 years, a French one which
reach 1m10. And that I think was a miracle. I've experimented on my
allotment with them, and by neglecting them they have faired as well as
the ones at home, pruned in spring. However, the best show of lavender
hedges I've seen was at the Salford Sainsbury's in Manchester. I was
astonished by the longevity of these plants - hundreds kept on that
parking lot for well over 6 years, severely pruned in spring. Sadly,
they all died this year and still haven't been replaced :o(