Pruning lavender and rosemary - Plants

Swedboy

10/03/2013 at 23:45

In Friday's episode of GQT on member of the panel recommended a woman to cut back her splitter lavender really hard to rejuvenate it (she had dug it out so she couldn't). I thought you couldn't do that as these plants don't sprout on old wood. Or did he mean that it would come again from the roots?

Mattbeer87

10/03/2013 at 23:47

From experience I always just cut my Lavender Back after its flowered and then again if it has a 2nd flush. It tends to stay in good shape that way.

I had a bad experience of cutting to the ground, My plants DIED :P

FloBear

11/03/2013 at 08:24

I have done as described in GQT and got a small leggy lavender to resprout from low down.

Verdun

11/03/2013 at 08:29

Not convinced by that. I cut back after floweriing as hard as I can without going Imto old wood.

Joe_the_Gardener

11/03/2013 at 09:04

It's so easy to produce or buy new plants that I can't imagine going to all that trouble.

artjak

11/03/2013 at 09:19

I agree, I remember reading in a Victorian novel about a commercial lavender grower who replaced all his plants every 6/8 years; I expect they have improved the plants since then but I bet they still replace them frequently.

FloBear

11/03/2013 at 09:24

I just did it as an experiment to see if it worked. Like others, I would normally replace in easier ways.

Verdun

11/03/2013 at 10:46

Just a note about rosemary. Keep an eye open for the bright blue flowered varieties not just the everyday pallid coloured ones. I have a couple of different varieties via cuttings of plants that impressed me. (i dont know the names) I have one of them flowering now in a colour to rival the best blue ceanothus. The foliage is just the same, same scent, same culinary uses but carries beautiful flowers too!! Why.not have best of,both?

ladygardener2

11/03/2013 at 17:54

I think it was lilac they were talking about no?

artjak

11/03/2013 at 18:17

I have 2 Rosemary, one bushy and the other is (supposed to be ) columnar. But I have to keep pruning it and wiring it to stakes to encourage this. The other one I hack around as I please as it wants to be a small tree.

nightgarden

11/03/2013 at 21:09

I have quite a large lavender bush that I cut back to the old wood for 3 successive years and it has flowered well each summer - but it is now seemingly active from about half way up the plant with a lot of bare stems beneath and looks quite messy.

What's the best thing to do to bring it back to the bushy creature it used to be?

greentooth

11/03/2013 at 21:39

I find a hard cut back for Lavander causes it to come back renewed

Swedboy

11/03/2013 at 22:37

I'm quite sure it was lavender and rosemary they talked about. Mine is a bit bare at the bottom and only three years old. Did try to strike cuttings last year but failed. Will try again. I thought the same was true for cotton lavender (not cutting into old woor) but saw that they cutt them back within an inch of its life at Kew and they sprouted back vigously.

Verdun

11/03/2013 at 22:48

Swedboy, cotton lavender, santolina, can be cut back hard and it will regrow. I do this as a matter of routine each year to keep it as a compact silvery grey mound

Swedboy

11/03/2013 at 23:18

Ahh. I'm dead sure I was told somewhere you couldn't. Where did I put those secateurs.

Night garden, I found a transcript from the show, under show more, and it seems like burying it does the trick.

nightgarden

12/03/2013 at 09:02

Interesting idea swedboy - I'll take a look.

artjak

12/03/2013 at 09:37

I always had so much trouble with a cotton lavender that I dug it up in the end, if only I had known... I have an Artemisia that I would like to reduce a bit but I don't think that would grow back, or would it?

ladygardener2

12/03/2013 at 11:44

My apologies Swedeboy I was only half paying attention as I was doing something at the time. I always thought you could'nt cut into old wood with Lavender and am delighted to have learned now that you can if you bury it.

Caz W

12/03/2013 at 13:01

I decided to bury two scraggy lavenders a few years ago and now they are lovely bushes again

Verdun

12/03/2013 at 17:48

Artjak, which artemisia? Powys Castle? I cut mine back in autumn but it's mild here. Cut it back when a bit warmer....it will grow bushier. You can take cuttings from the prunings.......into compost with perlite, 50/50