General cutting back question

I've found that neither lavender nor rosemary like to be cut back to 'old' wood, so hard cutting depends on the size of the plant. I never cut branches back beyond the last green sprout unless I'm prepared to lose that bit. Actually removing a branch seems to work OK.

 

I agree, Liz, cutting back to the last green sprouts and, as you say, removing the odd branch or two to tidy / thin out is acceptable.

 

Hi LOL I do what you do every so often, and get rid of the old lavendar plants and start afresh ... like with you, they grow so quickly here and in no time at all make huge bushes which get straggly and unsightly.....I'm just about to get rid of the Papillion Lavendar (and replace with another) as it has been in for about 4 years now.... got too big for its boots :D ......it will all have to wait for a little while longer as the heat is back with a vengeance,37�° at the moment! so the only gardening I'm going to do is planning in my head, from the comfort of a comfy chair under the maple parasol !!! M-L

 

Hi, M-L. My Palillion Lavender just died ... can you kill it by overwatering? It was in a pot like my English Lavender and suddenly went all dried and brittle. The English one is find, healthy and blooming yet again, blooms most of the year actually.

Better you than me with that 37C. We're just about to pip 30C today and forecast is a drop of a few degrees coming up and cloudy ... and rain next Tuesday .... ha, ha, how can they predict that????

 

LOL ...my Papillion along with the other lavendars are in the actual garden and I never water them !! so this year, and last, and the one before ......... :D they have had to fend for themselves ...it could well be that too much water has 'upset' it ! I think you should water them deeply but very infrequently ! and give them a bit of a feed now and again. I tend to throw handfuls of universal engrains all over the place and reserve the liquid feeds for the potted plants. Down the side of the house I have lots of lavendar that back onto a SOUTH facing wall facing an open aspect ... and it gets Hot Hot Hot!! although the flowers have dried now the smell is still as strong ..so obviously no water doesn't worry them ....and the leaves look very healthy...... have another go with a new one, they are too lovely not to have ! M-L

 

Will probably do that, M-L. I don't have mine in the ground any more as they got far too big too quickly, as you say, and I have precious little space. That's why the Rosemary has got to have a severe haircut.

 

In the UK a couple of my cronies in the production trade reckon that you grow lavenders from cuttings late in year one, then cut them hard in year two maybe three or four times and sell them in year three as solid globes of grey-green with flower spikes coming up..I think if you follow this routine from the first year you can get a lavander that sprouts effectively from ground level. I cut back some lavenders in parterres to 2" every spring and despite some deaths (5%ish) they do fine. More woody plants won't take this treatment as others have pointed out above. Depends what you want to do.

PS I have tried these French lavender hybrids that are so popular in the UK at the moment. I think they look great in flower; but as the sellers advise - they are best treated as annuals. They survive the winter but seem to fail the following summer. Well, its a nurseryman's dream I suppose but I don't use them any more.