How To Prune Lavender In Spring & Fall – Big Blooms & Fewer Woody Stems

As I ’m writing this article , closely on the heel of the leap equinox , I ’m reckon out the windowpane at my garden just start to wake up from its sleep . One job on my gardening to - do list that I demand to get to by the end of the calendar month is pruning my lavender . Even though I yield this perennial a prune last fall , I will still need to do a bit of straighten up in preparation for a new time of year of outgrowth .

I used to find pruning lavender endlessly intimidate when I was growing it in my first “ grown up garden . ” Perhaps it was because pruning happen when the plant is still grow . Or perhaps because , between floating bud and silvery mat foliage , I did n’t know how far to abridge back my lavender .

Three gardens by and by , it somehow does n’t seem as scary anymore . I ’ve made my ploughshare of mistakes , from skipping pruning to cut back too hard into the old wood . I ’ve also killed some lavender by establish them in very moist grease and I ’ve stunted others by planting them in too much nuance .

Lavender needs an annual pruning in order to keep blooming well.

If you also happen lavender pruning confusing , I ’m here to pep up you on and offer some crown along the way .

How to prune lavender in spring

As I hinted at before , lavender spring pruning is merely a tidy up . That is , if you ’ve done your pruning the right way last summer , there wo n’t be too much leave to absent now . But render not to decamp it either way . A good bounce straighten out up stimulates maturation and prepares the plant for luscious unfolding in the summer .

Remove damaged growth.

I ’ve learned that growing Gallic lavender in my decidedly non - Mediteranean climate is a futile practice in ( im)patience . That ’s why I ’ve tardily switched to only growing English lavender ( Lavandula angustifolia ) . In hypothesis , this type of lavender is winter dauntless . It should withstand temperatures as low-pitched as 5F ( -15C ) .

In practice , some of my lavender did n’t wish the cold freezing winds this winter . We had at least three frost spell this winter , each lasting from a week up to ten days , so some of my lavender that was in a more exposed fix took a bit of a beating .

So when I ’m pruning my lavender in bound , I check that to take away these damaged stanch first and see what ’s left . Luckily , not a lot of my lavender was affected and the industrial plant itself still seems to be uprise strong .

Remove last year’s buds, if any are left.

I pruned most of my lavender in late August . But there are still some errant dry bud that bunk my shears last summer , so now ’s the prison term to take them .

If this is your first class growing lavender , and you skipped fall pruning , there ’s still time to overtake up . If that ’s the shell , opportunity are your lavender looks like a bit of a fragrant porcupine at this point . you’re able to fix that .

Start by cutting off the wry bud and their stems ( the marijuana cigarette that ’s holding the works upright ) all the manner down to the first set of leaves . That ’s all we ’re doing now , so not intimidating at all , right ?

Lavender needs an annual pruning in order to keep blooming well.

Your goal at this leg is to have zero juiceless bud left on your lavender .

Remove enough off the top to keep the lavender compact

Ok , once that first killing is done , we can thin a bit more into the leaf . Our goal is to remove just enough in orderliness to mold the lavender into a mound - similar construction . So a footling bit higher and rounded in the center and slightly taper down towards the margins .

Of course , you could always prune your lavender in other shapes too , such as a box - like hedging shape . The choice is yours , reckon on how this herbaceous repeated equip into your gardening aesthetic .

Take a look at the previous growing ( dark in people of color ) and dress back a couplet of inches down to a branching spot . While doing this , hear to absent as little new ontogenesis as potential . It ’s the new growth that will blossom this twelvemonth .

Some new spring growth on my baby lavender. This one was pruned in the fall.

Whatever you do , do n’t cut all the mode down to the scanty woody stem . Unfortunately , lavender will not reclaim from honest-to-goodness wood that is n’t showing any star sign of new germination .

If you ’re a horticulture pro , of course you could unite all these three steps into one . But if you ’re just learning how to keep your lavender happy , take it one step at a time .

How to prune lavender in the fall.

The best fourth dimension to prune lavender , in most horticulture zones , is in the descent . Or rather , late summertime and early downfall , depending on your mood and how ahead of time your lavender prime are spent .

Remove the blooms once they’re past their prime.

lilac blossom are an absolute pollinator buffet , so I wait until the heyday dry out and the bees lose pastime before I do any pruning . By this point , I ’m also probable to have removed some of the flowers to use in lavender satchels or to infuse in ice afternoon tea and lemonade .

However , I do n’t wait too long , just until the blooms miss their lavender colour . Waiting too retentive means that the industrial plant will use Department of Energy on gear up seed rather than on new growth . Pruning early on ( sometimes as early as mid - August ) gives the lavender a chance to begin putting out unexampled ontogeny when the atmospheric condition is still nice and mild .

On the other paw , if you shillyshally too long into the fall , your lavender might set off putting out newfangled post - prune growth when the weather is already turning dusty . This wo n’t shoot down the entire plant , of course of instruction , but it might kill the young shoot . I suspect this is what happened to my own lavender this winter . The fresh shoots were only too tender to hold a long freeze .

This lavender was pruned at the end of summer. I took the photo in March.

Remove some of the old growth.

Now that the ironic flowers are out of the fashion , you’re able to valuate what you have growing underneath . It ’s clock time to take off some of that old deadweight . you could prune your lavender pretty hard ( certainly toilsome than you would have done in fountain ) , as long as you leave alone some of the new growth on .

As I mentioned above , the caper is to not just leave bare old wood and carry it to sprout . There has to be new growth leave on it in ordering for the flora to resume growing next springtime .

cumulate up the lavender , one handful at a time , and flatten out it to find the babies growing off the main shoot . Then rationalize aright above the topmost newfangled growth . you may cut back even lower than that ( about a couple of inch above the woody stems ) , as long as you leave some fresh emergence on . I prefer to hack high because my get season is fairly short and I require to make trusted my lavender has enough height to catch up .

Some of the new growth on my lavender was zapped by prolonged frost.

Finish by neaten up your lavender into the pattern you want .

My lavender has become very woody. What can I do?

I ’m distressing to say this , but lavender has a disposition to do that after a few years . In fact , I ’d go as far as saying that if your lavender has impinge on the six - year mark without turn woody , you may have the greenest thumb ever . Pruning will rejuvenate it , but there ’s a limit to what pruning can do . You may be able to sustain your plant ’s life by a few more years , but finally you ’ll call for to bulge afresh with young plants .

However , the more you skip prune your lavender , the faster it will reverse leggy and thin . Often , this is also pair off with very poor efflorescence . Do n’t just deadhead the spend blooms , but really curve into the old growth in the fall .

The secret to pruning lavender is cutting it in relief . Do n’t cut too low into the woody stems , but do n’t just give it a light top prune either .