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lavender
marksman065
Posts: 51
in Talkback
hi,people
could you please help me with my lavender plants i have grown lavender from seed last year and already i have woody stems from a small plant .
when you see gardens on t.v. and they have lushus new growth and a well establishes plant. what stops it going woody
do i trim it in the autumn right back to the ground or like on line they suggest only an inch of the new growth i am sure there is someone out there that could help also lavender growers can't pull up their plants each year and plant more surely so how do they do it thanks fellow gardeners
0
Posts
Lavender is a shrub, it will be woody
In the sticks near Peterborough
You generally trim lavender after the flowers have faded, not cutting into old wood (the woody bits), you can trim in spring as well, I used scissors on young lavender plants, secateurs on older plants. All lavender will eventually go woody if it's not maintained, there are ways of bringing them back from a woody state, but it's best not to let it get to that stage.
In France they cut them back with shears in the autumn, leaving just the last couple of inches of growth - you end up with a grey-green rounded shrub which then takes off in the spring. Whatever you do don't cut down into the old wood because it won't regrow from there. It might be worth potting up cuttings when you clip them back - pot into gritty soil and put in a shady place - they root really easily.