Read on to learn how to prune your lavender and the best time to do it.
The Spruce / Phoebe Cheong
Why Prune Lavender
Without pruning, a lavender plant becomes woody.
Deep at the center of the mounded semi-shrub, your lavender plant is trying to turn to wood.
The Spruce / Phoebe Cheong
The most important time to prune lavender is after flowering is complete, but this plant is forgiving.
All lavenders bloom on the stems that grew in the current year.
This means pruning in early or mid-spring does not sacrifice the current years flowers.
Begin by pinching off tips of new growth.
Tip
you’re able to usehand prunersor pruning shears.
Keep your bypass pruners clean and sharp when pruning the woody stems of your lavender.
Using a dull blade may cause bruising or damage: you want as clean a cut as possible.
This lavender has single, leafless stems and compact spikes of blossoms.
It is generally low growing and has a compact, mounded shape.
English lavender blooms in late spring to early summer.
Prune the spent flower spikes at this time.
The most common varieties are ‘Grosso’, ‘Provence’, and ‘Giant Hidcote’.
The flower spikes also are longer than those of English lavender, and they have a graceful taper.
Because of the long stems, you might need to prune as much as half the plants size.
Pruning any plant is considered mildly traumatic, so try not to prune on an excessively hot day.
Especially Spanish lavender with its long bloom period benefits from deadheading throughout the summer to encourage a continuous bloom.
Their use depends on how fresh and fragrant the cuttings are.
Avoid cutting lavender back to the ground.
The hardiness of lavenders varies.
French and Spanish are the least hardy of all lavenders and grow best in USDA zones 8-11.
Lavandula angustifolia.North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
The Spruce / Jayme Burrows
Lavandula x intermedia ‘Provence’.North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
Lavandula stoechas.North Carolina Cooperative Extension.
The Spruce / Jayme Burrows
The Spruce / Jayme Burrows
The Spruce / Jayme Burrows
Illustration: Catherine Song. © The Spruce, 2018
