I searched through some back post to find out what I should do with my lavender. It has already begun to bloom. For the life of me, I can't remember what I did last year.
I couldn't find a satisfying answer in the posts, so I did an online search and found this article in Fine Gardening. Good information if you haven't already done your pruning.
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/pruning-subshrubs.aspx
Great link, thanks!! I can't grow Lavender very well, but there are a lot of plants on thoses lists that I do have! (Lea, They have the Rue we were talking about listed as one to cut back just the way you told me to do it!)
Suzy
Very Good article.. I had heard lavender wasn't a good thing to grow in our area... and then a fellow DG'er one city over told me she grows them just fine. I purchased two small Provence Lavenders yesterday and am looking forward to seeing them grow!
:)
Susan
Wow, what a great article. I learned something, so thanks for posting. Sounds like in my zone I should treat my lavender, rosemary and sage like my roses--an easy way to remember it...
BTW, soulgardenlove, if your Provence lavender doesn't do well, try the cultivar 'Grosso'--I purchased it as it is supposed to be able to better handle our southern humidity and rain, and it has done well. Granted, we've been having a drought since I planted it a year ago, but worth a try if the others fail.
What a timely post! I had a lot of die back this year for my "Munstead". It did much better last year with less snow coverage. So I'd have to do more pruning this year.
"Hidcote" faired much better. I guess, that's why I see it more often in the neighbourhood :)
That was a great article. I have some russian sage that I need to go out and trim this weekend!
Thanks for posting. Very timely as I was getting ready to research. My Blue Mist shrubs are new to me and I didn't know what to do. Also, my lavenders don't look so good right now and I almost cut them back. Thank goodness I didn't.
Oops. There goes my Russian sage! Good thing the caryopteris has been spared from my excessive pruning. I have slightly shaped my lavendar and it should be OK. This is a good article. I didn't know that some of these plants were at all related in terms of how to prune them.
Wonderful article--very helpful! Thanks for sharing it.
I think I may have actually done the right thing with my Russian sage. Go figure! I'd sworn that I read somewhere that it should be cut back hard in early spring before new growth begins, so that's what I did. For a while there I was sure I killed it. I cut it back a little farther than this article recommends, but it may make it yet! I'll have to wait and see.
My lavender still looks pretty darn dead to me. :(
Between the weather and going away for a few days, it took me forever to finally getting around to trimming my own lavender. Some of it has grown tremendously, and needs to be moved. I am hopefull that with consistantly warm spring weather,( instead of week of spring, week of winter), everything will look great.
Excellent post, thanks, pennefeather. I have lavender in a container this time, and for some reason, it made it! Yay! Carrie
Oops! from me, too! Now I'm worried about my lavender, caryopterist and a few salvias...
Oh, dear, penne, but thanks so much for giving us the link. I'm going to bookmark it or print it out.
It's that time of year again.
Thanks for bringing this thread up again. I can use the refresher course. I was just outside today, trimming the lavender. I cut off the flower spikes from last year, and dead branches. I also tried to get the leaves out. I hate the way they look at this time of year. They're full of dead leaves and all different lengths and not quite alive looking yet. They smell really good though.
Didn't touch the caryopteris because I'm not sure about where it's coming back from yet. There are plenty of other chores to keep me busy anyway. I can wait.
Someone posted this link last year and it was a great help to me--thanks for reviving the discussion!
What I learned from it is burned into my memory: prune Russian sage in early spring before new growth begins, and trim dead stalks off lavender only after new growth begins. I also learned to be patient with lavender. I yanked one of my plants out thinking it had died because it wasn't showing any signs of life by mid-April. The one I left in, just as an experiment, came to life a week or two later. It's likely I pulled a perfectly healthy plant. :(
Well, I reread the article and discovered I should have left the lavender and trimmed the caryopteris. OH well. The lavender only got a hair cut and should be fine. If I ever get enough time outside, I'll trim the other shrubs. Didn't notice last year that this applies to thyme and oregano. My first oregano plant is coming back and the thyme looks horrendous. I suppose that the Santolina also applies. Speaking of which, can Santoline be transplanted. I would rather it live somewhere besides where it started out. If I can transplant, has the window of opportunity passed? My questions seem endless this year.
Consolation my Thym looks Horrid too. I just keep cutting back the dead whlie the new growth grows. I am cutting Lavender flower like mad now. But I cut it back pretty hard every mid winter. If not i think it woud be a monster! I wonder is there a record>? lol I dont do Oregano, it is, well the heat here is to dry...and too hot . Chamomile id OK though, Go Figure. Santoline I now need to go look up!
Ciao~
:D
Very pretty. I think it must like Nevada!
Ferman23, your lavender looks so healthy. I have just a few green sprouts on mine. Today, I gave it a very light haircut.
Beautiful. My 5a zone is borderline for the Munstead version. I've also got Provence growing but the Goodwind Creek that's supposed to hardy here didn't make it this winter. I love lavender plants but I'll have to live with my zone restrictions especially with the wildly erratic winters we've been having. My lavenders are just beginning to show new growth so I'll see how they fared this winter. The suns out and I need to get outside with the camera. Unfortunately it's my daughter's 21st birthday today and that will take precedence. I'll be cleaning and cooking. Also need to be ready to head back to work tomorrow. Oh well.
family before Lavender~After the Party you cant take her a bit in a sachet for her Pillow!
thnask yo for the compliment pennefeather, is that a literary screenname? sounds familiar~lol.maybe penneweather, dunno! the plant gets loads of sun all day except at THE hottest time, its shaded, I got luck and planted it there with out knowing that at the time, it was the only open spot! This is just the Spanish or English~I always get them mixed up in my head
:D
Actually I think yours is French lavender (L. dentata). http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/70233/ Very pretty!
AS always you rock! I cant remember i just LOVE it as much as possible and keep cutting the flowers as much as possible ~~ constantly...Fench does seem more right for the front, it got more light originally. The English must be in the back, with the long taller stems. like I said Those two always get me mixed up, lol. Thanks again! F=French and F= Front. HA!~
:D
That's a good way to remember it! LOL I haven't grown the French one before, just English and Spanish but yours is very pretty, I may have to give it a try.
I believe that I have lost two lavender plants this winter. One of them is Grosso, the other might be also. That doesn't include the Goodwin Creek seedlings that I planted last fall, probably too late, that also died. There are two branches on each plant which had been huge as I've had them for several years, that have green leaves on them. The rest of the branches are brittle and the leaves are falling. We had the first real winter in several years so I guess that's what did them in, besides my neglect last summer. I'm really sad.
Don't give up on them yet. Mine have only just started to put out any new growth... and I know in past years the "dead" branches have started sprouting just when I was ready to give up and do some major cleanup pruning.
Well, since we just had rain mixed with sleet, I won't be yanking. No, really, thanks for the advice. I don't have any problem waiting. I'm just really sad. Those were really big plants that had been there for several years. Whatever's alive on them can live here forever as far as I'm concerned. I'll just get more plants and try different varieties I think to see what does best in my neck of the woods.
Hi, Penne, How is your lavender doing this week?
Mine are in a slump.
I don't think I followed the directions in the Fine Gardening article very well. Oh, darn.
I gave mine a severe haircut by mistake.
FYI For those who are just checking in, here is a re-post of Penne's link to the FG article.
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/pruning-subshrubs.aspx
I'm still seeing only one branch per plant that came back in the side yard. That's the eastern exposure as apposed to the southern in the front, but neither plant is sheltered. I wonder if the drainage was bad. Many of the branches are brittle and the leaves are just falling off. I hope there is enough alive to create a new plant. I'm still holding off on pulling them out. The ones in the front yard are coming nicely already. Even the new ones I planted last fall.
I'd suspect poor drainage, or too much water in general. Drought tolerant plants like lavender will sometimes tend to be a bit less hardy than they're supposed to be if they're getting too much water or the drainage is bad.
I made a big booboo this weekend. I've been cleaning up my beds, and weeding in preparation for planting. I have alot of small twigs and old stalks that are still strewn throughout my beds - its almost as if they are multiplying at night. At any rate, I notice that there was one bunch of twigs that hadn't been removed or trimmed, so I began hacking away. After I had cut the left side down by half, it occured to me that this was the lavender that I moved in the fall!
I'm pretty sure that at least half of this plant is a gonner now. No wonder I couldn't figure out what happened to all my plants when I was trimming the other munstead lavender a couple of weeks ago. I had totally forgotten that I moved several plants because they had grown so large.
Depends on just how hacked we're talking... amazing how things can come back! I'm crossing my fingers for a russian sage I murdered last week... was breaking off leftover dried flower stalks from some black-eyed susans, going at it vigorously, suddenly smelled something herbal and realized I'd just broken off 2-3 feet of the russian sage, nearly down to its base. We'll see...
:-)
Also if all you cut back was dead twigs and stalks I don't think those parts would have come back and done anything anyway.
Yes you probably opened it up to get a dose of new growth! Think positive~ thats like the large chunk I take out of the center of my French Lavender each year. It lets sun in the middle of the plant, i get a brighter green leaf, and I think it helps control the outward spread which is knocking over a 20 year old rosebush on the south as it is, lol. Watch for growth~!
Darren
