Lavender looking a bit rubbish this year...

I bought new lavender the other day and it bears no comparison to my lavender from a couple of years ago! It's went sort of woody at the roots and the purple flowers aren't very purple anymore. Have I killed it? Is there any way that I can revive it?

 

Hallo Weerabbit,
I take it the piccie on the left was last year's and the right is this year's? Lavenders will go woody and straggly unless you cut them back at the end of the flowering season in late Autumn. Then they are motivated into producing new, young fresh growth the following Spring,
Jenny namaste

 

Thank you for your reply Jenny! They are both the same plant. Some of the buds are quite nice but it's certainly not as full and colourful as it was last year and the base is very sparse. How far should I cut it back? If I cut it back this autumn do you think it will recover for next year?

 

I'm never sure about answering the "will it recover for next year?" question but if it were mine, I'd cut back to the base of this year's growth and give it a bit of feed this Autumn- and a mulch,
Jenny .

 

I cut mine back at the end of summer last year, almost to the old wood and trimmed it back again in the spring.
It's still very woody at the base but there's quite a patch of it and it looks great!



Which reminds me I must cut some fresh for the kitchen wall - this is from last year.

 

You could take some cuttings Weerabbit, they are fairly easy to grow.

 

I take a stronger view. Once Lavender gets woody then it will look a mess, and it will not recover from being cut back into older wood, so you cannot tidy it up.

It might recover if you cut back leaving just a couple of shoots on each stem. If the stem re-shoots from lower down then next year you can cut back to where the new growth came from, if not you are stuck with your straggly plant I'm afraid. Whatever you do do not cut back to old wood, it won't recover.

I would take cuttings, grow them on next year, and plant out next summer if big enough (plant in June, its warm enough then for the plant to get under-way quickly, whereas if planted much later it won't be established safely for a hard winter); in the meantime trim after flowering and put up with it looking straggly next year.

Going forwards, with your revived new plant , you need a more aggressive routine to keep it trim and not let it grow straggly.

There is a bit more to it than just pruning after flowering IMHO.

Yours is Lavendula stoechas, rather than the English Lavender L. angustifolia, and if you dead-head it then it will repeat flower during the summer. Note that it is not as hardy as English Lavender, so make sure it is planted with really good drainage (planting on a mound will help). By deadheading to get repeat flowering the correct time for trimming is harder to judge (compared to English Lavender which flowers once and is then clearly "over" and is reasy for pruning by mid August), so L. stoechas are harder to keep in shape and worth planning on replacing them every 5 years, maybe 10 years if you prune them well.

I would prune L. stoechas hard after the first flowering, and then it will reflower, and finally give it a light trim towards the end of the season, but no later than mid September (to give the shoots time to recover before winter). If managed from new the hard prune should be able to cut them back to about 9" (and it should be done that brutally!) but there must be some shoots below where you cut. If you cut to leave 1" or so of new shoots then the plant will often sprout from the old wood, lower down, but if you cut back below the lowest green shoot then the branch may not reshoot, and it it doesn't then it will die next year - that's why you cannot cut back hard, and need to adopt a really stern pruning regime (or just propagate them every couple of years and replace the plants instead).

There are schools of thought, but a light trim at end of Feb, or early March, will make the plants bush-up and flower better.

 

Thanks a lot for your advice I'll do that!

 

Goodness that looks GREAT!!! Lovely!!!

 

I'll try that too. How would I do that? I'm a total amateur if you haven't guessed already hehe

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you SO MUCH for this advice and for taking the time to write all of that. I'll do all the things you've stated and see how I go with it. You've helped me a good few times on here..you're a genius!

 

Have a look at this link for cuttings, it's better being able to see pictures for guidance.

http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-t...ojects/how-to-take-lavender-cuttings/176.html

 

Thank you