Lavender

[littlelemon]

I planted some lavender in front of my house last year. It was vigorous and grew into a pretty large patch. I did not cut it back in the fall because I did that to some lavender before and it killed it, so I just left it alone.
This spring it is blooming on the old wood, but not fully. It looks awful, it is straggly and half dead and if I prune off the dead wood the new growth will look very odd.
So my question is this-how do I properly cut back lavender? Obviously it has to be done to avoid what I have this year, but how do I know how much is too much? What do you do?

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

In my humble opinion.

Never cut the lavender more than 1/3 of its size at a time. This will usually kill it. We usually cut ours about 2-3 times a year and never more than 1/3 at a time.

Most lavender declines in flower production toward its 5th year. At that time we usually take cuttings (or by the 3rd year have them started) and plant new.

It is not good to cut woody growth unless it's dead.

For now, I'd remove all the dead growth, and prune back the plant no more than 1/3 but enough to reach a desired look. If you prune all the flower heads then it will allow the plant to focus on roots and foliage and it will appear to be fuller.

 

[littlelemon]

In my humble opinion.

Never cut the lavender more than 1/3 of its size at a time. This will usually kill it. We usually cut ours about 2-3 times a year and never more than 1/3 at a time.

Most lavender declines in flower production toward its 5th year. At that time we usually take cuttings (or by the 3rd year have them started) and plant new.

It is not good to cut woody growth unless it's dead.

For now, I'd remove all the dead growth, and prune back the plant no more than 1/3 but enough to reach a desired look. If you prune all the flower heads then it will allow the plant to focus on roots and foliage and it will appear to be fuller.

Thank you! I will do that!

 

[simple life]

I have the same thing going on with my russian sage, does the same protocol apply here?

 

[kinder_gardener]

This is just a suggestion, but have you tried this? I pin down woody sections to ground where new growth starts. cover with earth over woody spot where pinned, and get it to root there. Sometomes I score the side of the stem and brush on a little root hormone.
I do it in the spring and ussually in a few weeks it has started to root and I can cut it from the mother plant and move it closer to the center of the clump in the fall, keeping the clump going with less leggy stuff for the next season. This works with most woody perenials.

 

[littlelemon]

That's a great idea! Do you think I can still do that this year?

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

I have the same thing going on with my russian sage, does the same protocol apply here?

I think this should work for Russian sage as well.

 

[SJ1]

Thanks for the pruning and propagating tips!