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Should you cut back lavender plants


How to Prune Lavender | Garden Gate

By: Sherri Ribbey
Learn how to prune lavender to keep it covered in flowers and looking good.

Prune for healthier lavender plants

An annual pruning is an important step for long-lasting lavender (Lavandula spp.and hybrids) plants. Without it they grow a large, lanky, woody base that can split open — it looks bad and shortens the plant’s lifespan. Here's how to prune lavender so it looks (and smells) great year after year.

How to prune new lavender plants

Start pruning lavender when it’s small to encourage your new plant to focus on making more roots and branching stems, which results in a nice mounded habit later. The dotted line in the illustration above shows you how to cut foliage and any flowers back by one-third to one half before planting. With the outside stems slightly shorter than the center ones so the plant will have a mounded growth habit from the start. You may get a light rebloom. Go ahead and remove those too.

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How to prune established lavender

Lavender grows quickly, so by the second year, the plant should be about twice as big and ready for pruning once the blooms are spent (or cut blooms while they're still fresh and make a luxurious lavender sugar scrub!). Follow these simple steps to keep your lavender looking great for years to come.

Step-by-step lavender pruning

1. Look for wood
Find the woody base of your lavender plant - that's the spot where soft green growth meets woody stem.

2. Prune the soft growth
Follow the stem 2 to 3 inches up from the woody part of the stem that's marked on the illustration and remove the rest.

3. Shape the plant
To keep your lavender growing in a tidy mounded habit prune lavender stems like the illustration shows with the outside stems lower than the middle.

4. Deadhead reblooming varieties
Get a second flush of blooms quicker on reblooming varieties with deadheading. To do this follow the stem back to the first set of leaves and snip it off. Don’t cut back as far as you did during pruning.

Lavender pruning "Don'ts"

There are a few things you want to avoid when pruning lavender.

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Published: Feb. 28, 2018

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How to prune lavender: and when to, for the best results

Knowing how to prune lavender will keep these gloriously scented plants in good condition for years to come, and ensure their structure remains neat and dense, too.

Learning how to grow lavender from cuttings and seed is not difficult. However, if not properly pruned, the plants will become woody and unattractive after a couple of years, requiring replacement. 

‘Annual pruning will improve flowering and prevent lavender becoming woody,' says plant expert Sarah Raven , who suggests pruning lavender immediately after flowering has finished. 'Remove shoots to within one inch (2cm) of previous year’s growth,’ she says.

As well as being an essential plant for adding fragrance to the garden, lavender has long been prized for its therapeutic and culinary properties. It’s also one of the best plants for pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and is one of the best fly repellent plants, too. 

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

Bear in mind that there is more than one kind of this aromatic herb to enjoy in your garden. English lavenders, such as Hidcote and Munstead, are the most popular, and the hardiest. 

Other European varieties – namely French and Spanish lavender – are less hardy, and so you will need to take extra care when pruning. However, if you stick to a few golden rules, you can apply them to all of your lavender plants.

How to prune lavender – an expert guide

Many gardeners are overly cautious when pruning lavender, as they worry about cutting too far into the stems, which can harm the plant. However, knowing how to prune lavender the right way will prevent this from happening.

‘Don’t be afraid to prune lavender – the plants can become leggy and woody very quickly, and effective pruning will prolong their lives,’ says gardening expert Leigh Clapp.

Follow our simple step-by-step guide, and your plants will flourish for years to come.

What time of year should you prune lavender?

There are two times of year that you should prune lavender: in fall after flowering and in spring. And though you may have heard different opinions about when to prune lavender, and how often to do it, it is best to tackle the plants in two stages: ‘Trim after flowering in fall, then prune in the spring,’ says Clapp.  

Don’t prune lavender too hard after summer ends, or the plant may struggle to survive the onset of colder weather. Instead, think of fall pruning as a way to harvest lavender for drying and scenting your home. Knowing when to harvest lavender really does depend on what you are planning to do with it; some uses require lavender to be cut as the blooms open, others as they begin to fade.

If you forget to prune your lavender during the summer, then it’s best wait until the following spring, especially for less hardy French, Spanish and Italian lavenders.

And when you do prune lavender in spring, only do so after you see new growth begin to appear.

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

Where do you cut lavender?

When pruning lavender, it's important to cut it in the right place to ensure future healthy growth, and this is a smidge above side branches or leaf nodes. This part of the plant tends to be green. Go any lower and you'll be cutting at the woody part of the plant, which isn't always advised, though some garden experts say you can do this – more on that below.  

'Sometimes you may want to cut into the woody growth simply to tidy up the structure of an older lavender plant,' says Homes & Gardens' Gardens Editor Rachel Crow.

How to prune lavender in its first year

Lavender only requires a light trim in its first year, but to avoid the plants from becoming leggy in future, it’s important to get them off to a good start. Make sure you know when to plant lavender for plant health, too.

Tackle pruning new lavender during the summer, after the plant has flowered.

At this early stage, pruning is about encouraging new growth, and developing a nice mounded shape. If you have grown the lavender from seed or cuttings, then it is beneficial to pinch out new growth tips to help the plant become bushy.

There is no need to follow up with a spring prune when lavender is only in its first year.

  1. Using a clean, sharp pair of secateurs cut each stem back by up to a third, to remove the flowers and some of the green stem growth.
  2. Do not cut the plant back ‘hard’ by going near the woody base of the stem – it is essential to leave plenty of green on the stems when the plants are young.
  3. Try to make an even dome shape by leaving the stems longer in the middle, and gradually going shorter as you move to the outer edges of the plant.
  4. After trimming your lavender, you may get a second flush of flowers. Prune these the same way once finished – but do it well before the cold fall weather sets in.

How to prune mature lavender plants

Lavender plants will establish quickly, so from their second year you will need to follow a simple – but thorough – pruning regime to keep them in shape.

Start by giving your lavender plant a good trim in the summer. Prune plants by about a third into the foliage to maintain their attractive domed habit when in flower. To do this, grab handfuls of the stems and, using clean, sharp secateurs, snip them off.

‘Stems at this level are about drinking straw thickness and regenerate well if there are plenty of small nodules or shoots below the cut,' says master grower Simon Charlesworth, of Downderry Lavender .  

'By the time they go dormant in the fall the lavenders should have re-clothed themselves with fresh young shoots that will harden off before the vagaries of the winter weather.' 

Try to maintain a good rounded shape to the plant, but do not cut too close to the woody base of the stems, or the plant might struggle to overwinter.

Follow up with a harder prune in the spring.

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

Pruning lavender in spring

Spring is the time for pruning your lavender harder to minimize the development of woody stems and encourage fresh new growth. You should do this early in the season, to give the plant plenty of time to reestablish itself.

However, it's vital that you do not cut the stems too far down into the old wood.

‘If you crop the entire plant back to old wood it can mean big trouble,’ says celebrity gardener Monty Don in his book The Complete Gardener .

‘If you cut into the old wood, which does not have any leaves, and new leaves do not grow, then it will not survive. ’

How much wood your lavender plant has depends on the plant’s age, and how well it has been pruned in the past.

  1. Take a stem and examine it – you’ll notice it has a woody base set below the leafy section. 
  2. Using a clean, sharp pair of secateurs, cut the stem around 2-3 inches above the woody base, into the leafy section of the stem. Avoid cutting into wood below.
  3. You can prune handfuls of stems at a time, and for hedges you might find it easier to use shears.
  4. Try to create a nice rounded shape to your lavender plant by pruning the outer stems a little shorter than the inner stems.
  5. Where there are dead, frost-damaged or diseased branches, these should be completely removed.

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

How to prune lavender that is woody

When lavender is a few years old, it can develop long, ‘woody’ stems that look unsightly. However, if you know how to prune lavender like the experts, then you should be able to rejuvenate the plants.

‘‘The normal advice is to replace plants when they become leggy, usually after three to five years. But I avoid having to do this by cutting right back into the wood,’ says Judith Hann, author of Herbs . ‘I have not lost a lavender plant yet in the 20 years they have been growing in my garden.’

Though usually avoided, cutting lavender into the old wood can be a good way to renovate them. The trick is to make sure you can still see some signs of life in the form of growth nodes below the cutting point. If you cut beyond this, the stems are unlikely to recover, so examine them closely.

Bear in mind you are taking a risk, so before you attempt to hard prune woody lavender, take some semi-ripe cuttings, so if your plant dies, you can grow a new one.

(Image credit: Raquel Lonas / Getty Images)

Should lavender be deadheaded?

There is no need to deadhead lavender; if you prune lavender properly in spring and fall, you shouldn't need to anyway. However if you love a pristine border and want to encourage a few new flowerheads, deadheading won't hurt the plant. 

(Image credit: Leigh Clapp)

How to prune Spanish and French lavender

Spanish and French lavender are particularly attractive varieties, with distinctive 'butterfly' shaped upright flowers that may be purple, pink or even white.

The plants require full sun in order to thrive, and are not quite as hardy as English lavender. However, they are no more difficult to prune and maintain.

As when pruning other lavender varieties, simply trim around a third of the plant's growth after flowering in summer. However, do not cut the stems back too far, as this will expose them to too much frost over winter.

Follow up with a harder prune in early spring, taking care not to cut into the dead wood.

How do you cut back lavender for winter?

While you only need to prune lavender in the summer and spring, Monty Don suggests a third trim in the fall, to help it ‘hold a tight pebble shape’.

Cutting back lavender before winter will create a tidy mound that will give structure to the garden over the coldest months. Lavender is an evergreen shrub, so it retains foliage year round.

Leaving faded blooms on the plant can also provide food for seed-eating birds, so it’s not always necessary to remove the flowers straight after blooming.

It’s still best to do your first prune before the end of summer, but hardier varieties can respond well to a light fall pruning before the winter. 

Make sure there is plenty of green left on the plant, to keep it looking good over the colder months.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

How do you cut lavender so it grows back?

To cut lavender so it grows back, it's important to avoid cutting into the ‘dead’, woody growth. If you harvest lavender just as it is flowering, you might get a second flush of flowers.

What happens if you don't prune lavender?

If you don't prune lavender, the plant will quickly become leggy and woody, and won't be able to hold its own weight very well.  

This means the stems will flop over when heavy with flowers, causing the plant to spread out and exposing more of the old wood in the plant.

Learning to prune lavender

Rules for lavender pruning

1. Pruning every year

If you don't prune lavender, it becomes a nodular shrub. The purpose of pruning lavender is to keep the compactness of the bush, which blooms all summer with bluish-purple flowers collected in dense inflorescences, for as long as possible, to give it a neat appearance.

Under natural conditions, lavender bushes very quickly become tall, wide, sprawling and loose. Loose means that the top of the bush has a rather untidy appearance, and the bottom is bare and woody. Of course, we want to avoid such a spectacle, despite the fact that someday lavender will inevitably take on such a look. But the later this happens, the better. This way we can only allow the lavender to grow a minimal amount of height. And regular pruning will help us with this.

If you do not prune lavender for at least one year, then it will immediately grow, its shoots will become woody to the very tips. For the plant, this does not create any problems, on the contrary, it enjoys natural growth. Nothing bad will happen to lavender if its bushes are not cut for several years in a row. But this will create problems for us and our aesthetic perception. The stems bare from below are always striking, and the bush itself has an untidy appearance. Of course, everything can be fixed by making a more radical pruning. But, the older the plant is, the more difficult it is to restore it. Sometimes you have to part with old copies.

Old, woody lavender bushes

2. Pruning time: immediately after flowering

German perennial expert Anja Maubach advises pruning lavender immediately after flowering - this is the second half of July, it all depends on weather conditions. The pruning principles for lavender are the same as for many perennials that are pruned heavily to encourage re-blooming, such as catnip.

Lavender should be trimmed when the flowers begin to fade, that is, when the flowering period is still present, but for the most part it is no longer visible. The gardener must have an inner flair.

But the sooner you prune, the better the lavender builds up new green mass. After all, plants need maximum strength to update. And these forces are given to them by the sun, daylight, warmth, and sometimes fertilizers. Lavender does not need fertilizer. The higher the sun and the longer the day, the better the plant is gaining strength.

The advantage of summer pruning is that lavender will grow a fresh, compact and beautiful green mass in just a few weeks. In addition, lavender branches cut in summer can be considered a harvest, as they do in the famous lavender fields in Provence, in the south of France, because it is during this period that the inflorescences are filled with essential oil.

3. Pruning in spring

Since lavender blooms only in summer, it is good to prune its bushes every year in spring, immediately after frost. This is necessary to rejuvenate the bush and to ensure that the bushes are not exposed from below.

4. Pruning to lignified branches

So, as we have already said, lavender is pruned twice a year. The first pruning stimulates re-blooming in the current year, and the second is carried out in order to give the bushes a beautiful spherical shape. Curly haircut is carried out in the spring when the plant begins to wake up. In this case, radical pruning is carried out, cut to lignified branches. Many lavender lovers are afraid to prune their favorite plants a lot. If the bushes are cut a little, then they will begin to be bare from below, and only a few flowers will stick out from above. No one likes this kind of lavender. Therefore, in order for the bushes of your pet to remain fluffy and compact for many years, the tops of the shoots are shortened by one third, giving the bush a semicircular shape. In this case, the main thing is not to overdo it, because too much pruning - to the base - can destroy the plant.

In the summer, as soon as the lavender begins to bloom, cut off long flower stalks before the seeds begin to set. Plants want to reproduce, and the formation of seeds requires strength. Thanks to pruning, plants do not spend energy on the formation of seeds, but give them to re-flowering. This time, lavender flower stalks are removed along with two or three top pairs of leaves. Thus, the plant will branch well, and the bush will take on a lush appearance.

Lavender varieties like 'Hidcote Blue', 'Siesta' and 'Two Seasons' will re-bloom in as little as 4 weeks.

Lavender 'Hidcote Blue' combined with roses 'Rotilia'

5. Pruning bare bushes!

Old lavender bushes that have not been pruned for several years in a row require special attention. Older plants are more sensitive to radical shearing than younger ones. Complex, strong pruning can cause the death of the entire bush.

When pruning old bare lavender bushes proceed as follows: cut the bush strongly, leaving 5-10 cm above the ground, only on one side. The second half of the bush is left uncut. When new shoots appear and get stronger in the trimmed part of the bush, you can safely cut off the second half. During this period, the plant will have a slightly bizarre appearance, but next year no one will notice such an uneven haircut.

This cutting method is not always successful. If pruning was carried out in the heat, it may happen that the plant will die, but it's still worth a try.

Lavender is a very beautiful and grateful plant. Only a regular haircut will guarantee the compactness of lavender bushes and its abundant flowering.

Translation: Lesya Vasko
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Contents


Many wild plant species require special attention and care in home breeding. For example, lavender in cultivation needs pruning. The procedure is necessary at different stages of plant development, it has a beneficial effect on the appearance and health of the flower.

When is lavender pruned?

Over time, the stems of the flower become hard and thick. An overgrown lavender bush loses its attractiveness and blooms worse. Without a haircut, the decorative effect of the plant deteriorates, it loses its beautiful compact shape.

Tip

In the first year of life, lavender is not pruned. The plant is given time to get stronger, take root well and gain strength for beautiful flowering in the future. It is advisable to remove a few flowers on the first-year lavender for the same purpose. The first time the haircut is carried out after the first wintering of the plant.

The procedure is repeated annually, at the beginning and end of the growing season. With age, if pruned correctly, lavender will bloom more luxuriantly.

In the southern regions, pruning is carried out after spring flowering. The most suitable time is when the lavender has almost completely faded, but there are single blooming inflorescences left and the seeds are not yet tied.

In the northern regions, this type of pruning is not carried out: the plant does not have time to complete the repeated flowering cycle before the onset of cold weather, which leads to freezing of plantings. In the northern regions, a haircut is performed in the fall, at the end of the growth season.

Pruning is done in autumn to help the plant survive the winter. Long stems are more susceptible to lower temperatures and cold winds - the likelihood of freezing of part of the plants increases. Sometimes lavender is pruned partly in spring, partly in autumn to minimize stress. Spring pruning is mainly sanitary in nature: shoots frozen over the winter, dry and damaged branches are removed.

Lavender pruning basics

A few tips to help you get the job done right.

Cutting features

Simple tips to help you carry out the procedure effectively.

Benefits

Cut off plant parts are not discarded. Lavender is widely used for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. Healthy tea and tinctures are brewed from fragrant inflorescences, which are used to treat various diseases. Obtained from a spicy plant, lavender oil is a popular cosmetic product. Dried stems form beautiful bouquets for decorating the interior. Fancy flower arrangements can be created by yourself, they will please with their appearance and recognizable spicy aroma.

Plant Care

Lavender will appreciate planting in a sunny and hot place. In the shade, she will not reveal all her beauty, it will not bloom well. Does not like too moist and heavy soils. The soil is not very nutritious, alkaline, with good drainage abilities. Wood ash or lime is added to the earth with high acidity.

The flower does not require careful care, grows well without fertilizers and frequent watering. High humidity can lead to the development of fungal diseases. Additional moisture is carried out during long droughts so that the quality of flowering does not suffer.

In the spring, at the beginning of the growing season, you can fertilize with organic matter. This procedure is a good substitute for soil mulching, especially on old plantings of lavender. Excess organic fertilizers lead to the fact that the plant "fat" and blooms poorly. At the beginning of summer, potash-phosphorus fertilizers are applied. Mineral top dressing has a positive effect on flowering.

Plantations of lavender withstand temperatures up to 20-23 degrees below zero. In the southern regions, when preparing for winter, shelter is not required. In the middle lane, it is appropriate to hide lavender under spruce branches, but it is not recommended to cover it with straw or leaves - the plant can rot and rot under these materials.

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