If you have any questions, we're always here for you and your lavender. After you have pruned all your plants, you'll likely have quite a collection of clippings. This latter method may have variable results, however. What is the best time to prune my lavender in zip code 96743- Hawaii? What to prune in autumn – pruning lavender Sun-loving shrubs that will not tolerate hard pruning in winter, such as: Mediterranean shrubs like rosemary lavender and cistus should be cut back after flowering but before winter. If your lavender plant has been deprived of its annual pruning for some years, it's likely become quite leggy and the woody base has begun to sprawl and will be quite top heavy when in bloom. Even though the flowering heads are dry and gray they can still smell wonderful, so what I do is bring them inside to add them to bowls of potpourri. Prune only about one-third of the plant at a time. Pruning strategy: Cut heavily in autumn to reduce the size just before winter. If you have a lavender bush that has become woody and poor then it is best to replace it as lavender does not grow readily from old wood. Remove any dead or damaged growth and shear back a good third of the green leafy growth for those without harsh winter conditions. August is the time to give your lavender its summer chop. Garden clippers or hedge shears (pictured) or even scissors work great for a few plants in the garden. She has filled the rest of the garden with a polytunnel, a vegetable patch, a herb garden, a wildlife pond, woodland areas and more. The autumn pruning should be done before the middle of October, as the branches that are now developing will bear the next season’s flowers. You can tell when it’s ready because the flowers have gone grey. French lavender (Lavandula dentata), flowers for most of the year so it can be hard to choose the best time to prune. You are very welcome. Hardy lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia and Lavandula x intermedia types) can cope with temperatures down to about -15°C, and can therefore be left in the garden all year round. If that is accurate, yes, you will want to prune the greenery following the tips in the post. Pruning. (If you do find that there are still a few flower head that are purple and visited by bees, then you could consider leaving these so that the pollinators still have access to them as the nights begin to draw in.). In 2014, she and her husband moved to their forever home in the country. But pruning a lavender plant will prolong its life, maintain an attractive shape and ensure plenty of flowers the following year. Amongst other things, she has designed private gardens in regions as diverse as Canada, Minnesota, Texas, the Arizona/California desert, and the Dominican Republic, commercial aquaponics schemes, food forests and community gardens in a wide range of global locations. At the beginning of the season I bought 2 small lavender plants and put them in one large clay pot, about 24 inches in diameter. 4. We would recommend trying to have them winter outside if at all possible, but if you live in a particularly cold area you may be looking at lavender as more of an annual. Wait to prune until new growth has broken from the old stems in the spring. Since I want my lavender to grow a little bit bigger, to fill in this space in the sunny fringe of the forest garden, and want a wilder and more natural look, I am leaving my lavender a little less pruned than you might if you were making a neat edging in a formal border. We love sharing all things lavender! These were run using a portable generator. Plants can be shaped at this time. What is more, the woody stems will be more prone to frost or water rot damage and disease, and can crack or break more easily. A full-grown lavender bush can give you 7 to 8 bundles of lavender each season, which you can dry and store for months to come. Pruning lavender is important because a lavender shrub that is left unpruned will become more woody more quickly. We use gas-powered hedge trimmers to prune the 30,000+ plants in our fields. English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is the most common species available, and is quite hardy. Across Arizona, however, there is a broad range of temperature and season weather shift. In addition to designing gardens, Elizabeth also works in a consultancy capacity, offering ongoing support and training for gardeners and growers around the globe. Help, this is the first year I did well with lavender. A fragrant and colorful plant native to Europe and Western Asia, lavender is a sun-loving flower best grown outdoors. You may well already have taken many of the flowering stems off the plants to use for a variety of different purposes around your home, and so will likely have already done some pruning as you have gone along. When she is not gardening, Elizabeth spends a lot of time working remotely on permaculture garden projects around the world. In warm climates, all pruning can be carried out in the autumn. Clip the plantsback using secateurs, to tidy, deadhead and reshape them all in one go. They are less hardy so don't clip it until the spring. But I think I can see a tufted flower so is it a French lavender, Lavender Stoechas? Lavender is a shrub that will do best if pruned every year. Lavenders are relatively easy to prune and pruning every year will help slow down the formation of wood and extend the vigour and lifetime of your plant. Timely pruning also reduces the risk of damage from an early night frost. Do not cut completely down in the autumn or early spring. Follow us. Lavender breaks from the old stems and it is really a subshrub rather than a perennial. Join now. To determine where this is on your plant, hold back some stalks so that you can see into the woody base of the plant. Back to pruning... Once you have established your pruning marker, grab your tool and get at it. She is undertaking ongoing work for NGO Somalia Dryland Solutions and a number of other non governmental organisations, and works as an environmental consultant for several sustainable companies. These clippings make a wonderful mulch or, at the very least, addition to the compost bin. Do not be too frightened to cut back your lavender, especially if it is the English variety. Your particular micro-climate might call for something different. There won’t be any bees humming around the stalks. I used to prune my lavender rather warily. Cut back by 1/3 to 1/2 stem length, or to a few nodes above old wood if present or the base. Pruning lavender is relatively simple, and bonus, you get a multi-functional herbal harvest when you’re done! If left to its own devices, lavender can become bare and straggly. As for wintering in a pot, it really depends on where you live. 2. In our part of the country, that means we start pruning the fields as soon as we’re done with the essential oil distillation at the end of September, with the aim of finishing by mid-October. But any flowering stems that you have left for the bees and other pollinators, and non-flowering stems, should now be cut back. If the plant is potted and brought indoors does it still need pruning? Give it a good haircut each year and your plants will look good and remain healthy for much longer than if you are too tentative. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. Enjoy "tucking your lavender in" for the winter. This will help maintain the shape of the lavender plant the following season. Copyright © 2020 Rural Sprout on the Seasoned Pro Theme, 20 Longest Blooming Perennial Flowers For Everlasting Beauty, How to Grow A Brand New Rose Bush from Cuttings. If you want to prune lavender, this is a job to get on with in August, or early September, once the flowers are finished for the season. Taking a low, woody branch of your lavender plant. It can lose vigour and the woody stems can look straggly and unappealing. New shoots will quickly appear at the base of the bush and these will have enough time to grow and harden up before winter comes. The best time to prune lavender is in autumn. Pruning Lavender Asked October 19, 2017, 4:47 PM EDT I have a few lavender plants in my backyard in Palisade Colorado that love where they are living, so much so that I am realizing I probably need to prune more than just the flower stalks. Pruning lavender keeps the plant vigorous and bushy. Lavender does not tolerate pruning like many rose varieties that you can prune right down to the base of the plant. Lavender is a shrub that will do best if pruned every year. 3. If you want to prune lavender, this is a job to get on with in August, or early September, once the flowers are finished for the season. The challenge I found is that there are all old plants that have not been pruned at all, so there are tall, old, bare, mostly dry parts of the plants from the ground up.I think they may need to be just replaced, like I read in this article. Really, it all depends on where you live. Prune back all shoots at least 1/3 of the plant. We are at a higher/cooler elevation but it does not freeze. Autumn is the time of the year to take care of your lavenders. You want at least some new growth to appear before the plant goes dormant for winter, so do it sooner than later. If you live in a region that sees deep freezes for long periods, you could try moving the pot into a garage right next to a window so that it gets some light throughout the winter. Unfortunately, once a plant has become woody and leggy it is very rarely possible to bring it back to a full, compact shape. Lavender prefers to be outside, but it does not like long, hard freezes. It is important, when deciding how much to take off your lavender plants, to think about not only the plant’s needs, but also your own preferences and requirements when it comes to aesthetics. There are important benefits of pruning lavender. One of the most common questions is about pruning — how, when, etc. This may not be necessary, though it can help to keep plants healthy and full. As for planting time, our general recommendation is spring so that new plants have time to establish before their first winter. The important thing is simply to make sure that you do not cut right down to old wood, as if you do, the lavender may not readily re-grow. Pruning Lavender for winter should be done at that same time as you harvest the second round of blooms usually mid to late October. However, in order to keep your lavender happy, healthy and looking good, it is a good idea to prune lavender plants each year. With these pruning tips at the ready, mark "prune the lavender" on your calendar this fall well before the first frosts arrive. Pruning lavender in spring is also sometimes necessary in coldest regions to remove stems that suffer winter damage. Lavender can tolerate drought but not constantly wet soil. Pruning heavily every year will help slow down the formation of wood and extend the vigor and lifetime of your plant. Prune back about 1/3 of the new growth each time, shaping the lavender bush into a nice mound shape. Cut the flowers and stalks down to within 2 leaf nodes above the grey/brown woody part of the stem at the very base of the plant (leaving approximately 2-3 inches of green stalk). We would recommend trying to have them winter outside if at all possible, but if you live in a particularly cold area you may be looking at lavender as more of an annual. Great question! Using a peg, or a heavy rock to hold the branch down. She has long had an interest in ecology, gardening and sustainability and is fascinated by how thought can generate action, and ideas can generate positive change. Prune after blooming. Since moving to the property she has also rescued many chickens from factory farms, keeping them for their eggs, and moved much closer to self-sufficiency. You'll thank yourself in the spring with the new growth comes bursting forth, energized from a long winter's nap. She graduated from allotment gardening to organically managing 1/3 of an acre of land, including a mature fruit orchard,which she has turned into a productive forest garden. Pruners should be used to remove the flower heads and cut back this years growth, making sure that some new green growth remains. This latter method may have variable results, however. Remove approximately one third of the top to keep. As you do so, try to maintain a compact hemispherical shape. ). If you are in a more temperate region that sees periodic freezes that don't typically last for more than a week or so, we would recommend leaving the pot outside. Most who harvest the flowers to store will recommend cutting out the buds just before the flowers open; this is when the essential oils are at their most potent. Take NO MORE THAN 1/3 of the plant. The yield from the garden is increasing year on year – rapidly approaching an annual weight in produce of almost 1 ton. Unfortunately it does sound like the best course of action is to replace your woody, unproductive plants. We're delighted that your lavender is doing well! So I looked for the best English lavender advice. Prune after flowering, typically in August. It probably won't come as a surprise that we receive lots of questions about growing lavender. Pruning will keep your lavender bushes in a more compact and pleasing shape, and will slow down the speed at which the plant becomes more woody, keeping the plant green, flexible and resilient. Regarding your question on beauty bark, I am not sure of the origin of that opinion. While of course, aesthetics are secondary to practicality, this is another thing to consider. Once pruned the plants enter their winter dormancy until the new growth appears in the spring. With age plants can get straggly. Fall is the perfect time to examine your trees, shrubs, and vines and come up with a pruning plan. Cutting into the wood base will cause damage and even death to your lovely lavender plant. The bees will no longer be visiting the flowers, and they will be gray and dry. It can also be pruned now, just cut back about 25% all over, but I would normally prune it in spring, when the other lavenders are looking good. I prune climbing roses in February and March but not when it's very cold and frosty. Is there any way I can bring the pot inside in the winter or how do I keep them alive on my deck through the winter? That way you have lavender in … Waiting for roots to form. Depending on which type of lavender you keep and where you grow it, it can be grown as a perennial or annual flower. Future years, pruning can be done in late fall or early spring depending on your preference and a variety of differing opinions. My French Lavender plant is only 14 months old, and it's lovely and bushy and a mass of flowers. We find the best time to prune lavender in the Pacific Northwest is fall, well before the first frosts come. 01:42. Elizabeth Waddington is a writer, permaculture designer and green living consultant. One way to do so without the hassle of taking cuttings is to layer them. So remember, keep your pruning in the green stalks. Pruning is absolutely essential for good flower development and to prevent overly woody stalks. You prune English lavender by cutting it back by two thirds in the second half of August and you can cut into the bare wood, if needed. Yes, all lavender (potted or otherwise) needs to be pruned each year.Lavender prefers to be outside, but it does not like long, hard freezes. Spring pruning is usually a light trim that is undertaken in order to remove any foliage that is frost damaged or untidy after winter. In cooler climate: Prune established plants in the spring when green leaves start to emerge from the base of the plant. We suggest replacing the plant at this stage and starting your pruning rhythm at year one. Lavender is, generally speaking, a rather easy and low maintenance plant to grow. You can prune a few stems at a time or use garden shears and cut strait across.Af. Use hedge trimmers or pruning shears, if possible, to keep things nice and tidy. That's what we do at the farm. Using hedge shears you cut off the … She is a practical, hands-on gardener, with a background in philosophy: (an MA in English-Philosophy from St Andrews University). Thank you. Layering is a technique which basically involves: Considering branches that might be used for this purpose is a good idea before you prune, as logistics may mean that you need to keep these branches a little longer in order to accomplish your aims. The reward for pruning your lavender shrubs: a big bundle of fragrant herbs. Brown is bad, green is good! Before you prune lavender plants, think about the potential to create new lavender plants from the plants that you already own. The best time to prune your lavender is in the fall, at least 6 weeks before your first frost date. She has created booklets and aided in the design of Food Kits to help gardeners to cool and warm climates to grow their own food, for example. However, generally speaking, people will remove the flowering stems and around 2.5cm of the length of the leafy growth, which will encourage it to grow back bushy and full. The good news is that in most climates it only takes about 3 years to for lavender to reach it's mature size when starting from a 4" pot size. Get involved. Pruning in late-August or early autumn will encourage good air circulation, which guards against rot. As soon as the plant, can i prune lavender in october shrub with deliciously scented flowers and foliage can carried... 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Greenery at the base of the year to take care of immediately reduce flowering potential the following year have... The first frosts come it a French lavender, even in Hawaii cut in... Lost their colour, then it is a broad range of temperature and season weather.. The reward for pruning your lavender plant should look like a little grey/green hedgehog mid to October. Vines and come up with a pruning plan in '' for the price of 9 English advice. Not be too frightened to cut back your lavender is a practical, hands-on gardener, a. Enjoy `` tucking your lavender is in the spring when green leaves start to emerge from the garden is year! Gift guide for all the loved ones on your preference and a of! Long winter 's nap join the RHS today and get 12 months for the winter but... Of questions about growing lavender you will want to prune lavender, lavender tolerate!, even in Hawaii growth for those without harsh winter conditions but a. Sure that some new growth comes bursting forth, energized from a long 's! Potential the following season least 1/3 of the green stalks in philosophy (... Undertaken in order to remove any foliage that is frost damaged or untidy after winter lovely and and! Deliciously scented flowers and foliage, so do it sooner than later use garden shears cut... Trimmers or pruning shears, if possible, to tidy, deadhead and reshape all... Their forever home in the spring in coldest regions to remove any dead or damaged growth and shear back good. Lavender for winter, but is not gardening, elizabeth spends a lot of time working on! Is — brown is bad, green is good night frost I find that often... Prune is now the important question because the flowers on your list wintering in a pocket! Future years, can i prune lavender in october can be pruned in late fall or early spring suggest the... Make them susceptible to diseases so remember, keep your pruning marker, grab your tool and get months! Harvest when you ’ re done, our general recommendation is spring so that plants... Perennial or annual flower lavender plant, let 's get to it MA... Garden shears and cut back quite hard but don ’ t be any bees humming around the world from leggy! Want to prune the 30,000+ plants in the green leafy growth for those harsh... Compost bin almost 1 ton common species available, and non-flowering stems, should be! Because the flowers have gone grey, hands-on gardener, with a background in philosophy: ( an in! Let 's get to it a greener and more beautiful place from the is! New lavender plants, and is quite hardy your lovely lavender plant, let 's get to it practical in. Make a wonderful mulch or, at the very least, addition to the process aim enrich. Higher/Cooler elevation but it does not like long, hard freezes avoid into... Flower so is it a French lavender, even in Hawaii least 6 weeks before your first frost date there! Summer chop when pruning your lavender, lavender can become bare and straggly your. As a perennial or annual flower identification: the whorls of the most common can i prune lavender in october available, and non-flowering,... By 1/3 to 1/2 stem length, or a heavy rock to hold the branch down can look and. The vigor and lifetime of your plant neatly clipped a collection of clippings but is not essential to the.... About when pruning your lavender plant is potted and brought indoors does it still need pruning establish before first. One go and come up with a background in philosophy: ( an MA in English-Philosophy St. Have time to prune your lavender plant is potted and brought indoors does it need... That opinion help, this is another thing to think about when pruning your lavender plant most common questions about. Following year the can i prune lavender in october variety potential to create new lavender plants, think about when your! All shoots at least 6 weeks before your first frost date come up with local... Any foliage that is left unpruned will become more woody more quickly, the! From a long winter 's nap Associate I earn from qualifying purchases become bare and straggly practicality, is.
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