Lavender

Hi

I've got two lavender plants that have been a bit neglected. They are now rather big and sprawly. What should I do about pruning them. if I cut them right back to the old wood will it kill them?

Thanks

 

Hi Patti, don't cut into the old wood, it won't do them any good at all.
instead,dig the plants up(i assume they are in the ground but if they are in pots you can do the same technique but you'll need to buy some bigger pots). then dig the hole deeper and plant them back in, effectively burying most of the plant BUT do leave some of the plant showing,about a foot or so. I know this sounds very strange but i tried it and it worked!

good luck

 

Thats really good advice Glen, so good I might even try it....I only planted a lavender path last year and it's growing like crazy! Helen.xxx.

 

I'm looking for smaller lavender plants, the ones we have now sprawl all over the path and with the number of bees on it, it gets a bit awkward sometimes.
The varieties I have found so far in catalogues etc are

Miss Muffett
Lavenite Petite
Little Lottie

Has anybody grown any of these? If what comments do you have?

 

hi Mike, i haven't grown any of the 3 you've listed but i did see a path recently lined with dwarf munstead. the bloke says he'd grown them all from seed and if any died or got woody, he just dug them up and replaced them with more that he'd brought on.
they were about 12" high and looked stunning.
here is a link to an ebay sale, with a photo.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LAVENDER-MUNSTEAD-DWARF-MATURE-PLANT-99p_W0QQitemZ330144752522QQihZ014QQcategoryZ3184QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Thank you Glenw. I'll give that a try.

 

There's also one called Ellagance Sky - we have it as a hedge, and it's pretty compact and tidy. T+M do it.

http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/product/4509/1

The colour is a bit deceptive on the photo - it's really a stronger colour than that, and en masse looks like a deepish purple.