pruning lavender

I have two rows of lavender growing up either side of my front path, it has taken quite a battering over the last few days with heavy rain, the flowers seem to have gone back quite a bit I was wondering if I should cut them back now or not ? :confused:

 

I usually trim back when flowering is finished,not much left by then though because I cut all through the season and have the house full.I have Hidcote varity,grew them from seed,(I knew the gardener, shhhh)

 

Hi

I don't really know too much about gardening. We moved into our first house with a garden at the beginning of last summer. I planted some lavender and this year it seems to have taken over the entire flower bed! How much can I trim it back? Should I wait until the end of the season?

 

Not particularly appro po of the subject but;
When I first moved into my present home, there was an odd almost triangluar shaped flower bed at the front which I decided to have as a lavender bed. So I put in four shrubs but three died in the first year.

What I didn't know at the time was that there was a huge range of types - I though a lavender was a lavender was a lavender!!

So I unwittingly replaced them with plants that have a totally different habit being smaller, deeper in colour and flowering at a different time!!

Now while the first one has gown quite large and is squeezed between two gates the others have room to grow unfettered.

The joy of gardening! It's a steep learning curve, aint it!?!



[ 20. August 2005, 06:53 PM: Message edited by: michaelmasdaisy ]

 

Lovely picture.

Golden rule with lavender is not to prune into the old wood. However to keep it from getting woody and leggy, you need to prune hard as previously advise down to the first leaves of this seasons growth when the flowers start to fade.

Gorgeous plants and the range is large - including grown as standards. I love them the bees love them - great plants

 

Hi, i bought two lavender plants at a garden centre this spring. Knowing how large they can grow i asked if they were dwalf as i wanted them for the side of a path to my front door.
I was assured they were.
They are huge! Spawling right across the path.

 

Thank you for all the advise. I'm still not sure whether to start pruning the lavender or not. Although lots of the flowers are starting to die, there still seems to be quite a lot of fresh flowers...and it is still covered in bees!

 

Wait til its stopped producing new flowers - you can cut the dead flowers back to the first leaves above the old wood - but I find that a bit fiddly. So I wait til their is now new flower bud and the prune it. Mine too has got a mixture of dead flowers and new flowers.

 

Okay I'll do that. Thank you.