How far back can I prune my lavender? I have five plants and all have grown
to about twice the size I would like them to be. Now that the flowers are
going off would it be ok to cut them right back?

yep, hack it back as far as you dare and a little bit further, otherwise
next year's will grow on an ugly stump of dead wood

"aka Robbie" wrote in message
...
How far back can I prune my lavender? I have five plants and all have
grown
to about twice the size I would like them to be. Now that the flowers are
going off would it be ok to cut them right back?

"aka Robbie" wrote in message
...
How far back can I prune my lavender?

Don't hack it back too far! Always leave some green shoots. It will
not sprout from old wood. Gently does it. You will learn by
experience how far you can go!

Pam in Bristol

Pam Moore wrote:
"aka Robbie" wrote in message
...
How far back can I prune my lavender?

Don't hack it back too far! Always leave some green shoots.
It will not sprout from old wood. Gently does it. You will
learn by experience how far you can go!

Pam in Bristol

quite right, better to control from the start not allow to out grow then
cut back.

pk

In article , Oxymel of Squill
writes
yep, hack it back as far as you dare and a little bit further, otherwise
next year's will grow on an ugly stump of dead wood

Except that if you cut back into dead wood it may not regenerate. My
neighbour killed a whole hedge of lavender that way.

btw - the convention in this ng is to bottom post. Top posting messes up
the logical order of the posts.

"aka Robbie" wrote in message
...
How far back can I prune my lavender? I have five plants and all have
grown
to about twice the size I would like them to be. Now that the flowers are
going off would it be ok to cut them right back?





--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Kay wrote:

yep, hack it back as far as you dare and a little bit further, otherwise
next year's will grow on an ugly stump of dead wood

Except that if you cut back into dead wood it may not regenerate. My
neighbour killed a whole hedge of lavender that way.

However, when I moved into this house I inherited a GINORMOUS lavender
(we're talking 6 ft sprawl of plant here, with 1" plus diameter main stems
and don't ask about the "trunk"!!!).

I cut it back heavily in order to reclaim the path and some of the border it
was in. The plant survived this - although it never did regrow from the
major stumps.

I then cut it back VERY heavily about 2 yrs ago to move it, as I need the
space it was in for something in.

The plant survived transplatation, and has actually regrown (in areas) from
the old wood.

However, I would suggest you only try this approach on a plant you don't
mind loosing. I have been very lucky with it. Indeed, I must soon cut it
back again, before it over grows its new location.

Sarah

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
...
yep, hack it back as far as you dare and a little bit further,
otherwise
next year's will grow on an ugly stump of dead wood

I am afraid that was not very good advice. Lavender does *not* regrow
from old spent wood, so when you prune, either prune off the whole of
a limb if you just want to sacrifice it, or prune to just above a
piece of incipient new growth.

Franz

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 13:23:45 +0100, "Oxymel of Squill"
wrote:

yep, hack it back as far as you dare and a little bit further, otherwise
next year's will grow on an ugly stump of dead wood

"aka Robbie" wrote in message
...
How far back can I prune my lavender? I have five plants and all have
grown
to about twice the size I would like them to be. Now that the flowers are
going off would it be ok to cut them right back?




I have read 5 replies to the original posting. They do vary a bit!
Anyway my advice is to wait until the bees show little interest in
the lavender and then use a hedge cutter to cut the lavender back
(top and sides) to the point at which there is a 50/50 mixture of
this year's growth and old wood.

We did this a couple of weeks ago and there is plenty of evidence of
new growth, even from the old wood. Franz mentioned "Spent" wood.
Perhaps this is wood more than a couple of years old which may well
not grow any new shoots.

Using the treatment that I have described, our lavender hedge has
thrived for over 20 years and every year it bushes out to just over
two feet high by two feet wide.

Peter

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 12:06:57 GMT, aka Robbie wrote:

How far back can I prune my lavender? I have five plants and all have grown
to about twice the size I would like them to be. Now that the flowers are
going off would it be ok to cut them right back?

The conventional wisdom is that lavender doesn't take well to
hard cutting back into the wood. The corollary to this is that if
they are seriously overgrown, it's best to replace them. That's
easy enough to do, since lavender cuttings root very easily.

However, I have seen lavenders savagely cut back in later winter
-- pollarded, almost -- recover quite nicely.

I realize this leaves you with a dilemma, but be glad I didn't
mention chickens, blue skin dye, and naked dancing under the full
moon, thereby leaving you in a trilemma.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]