Lavenders

Hi everyone

Have a number of lavender plants in different parts of my garden. For 4 years I have pruned them after flowering and again in April - no problems, grew well and attracted masses of bees. This year several have died and the two biggest have died at the sides - I have done nothing different - help please?

I wonder why you are pruning them again in April, after flowering is sufficient-it does sounds like you may have cut back too hard as they do not resprout from old wood and some varieties can get damaged by bad weather plus some are short-lived

However -all is not lost- they root dead easy from cuttings-take some now from healthy material and they will root within weeks

I assume they are English lavenders. French lavenders are not fully hardy. Even English lavenders will succumb to cold wet winters if their roots sit in wet soil. Ideally they need well drained soil. Could this be what has happened to yours?

I have found that my lavender tended to get very woody after 3 - 4 years and I took lots of cuttings last year but I also tried "sinking" a couple of them into tall pots last year and am waiting to see how that worked.  It is supposed to stimulate new growth in the plants at the base... but I'm not fully convinced that it will work.

If you dig up a lavender with green growth at the tips and bury it in the soil to the base of those tips they will form roots and you will be able to separate off new plants after a number of months (up to a year).

Gold1locks wrote (see)

I assume they are English lavenders. French lavenders are not fully hardy.

That's what I'd heard. I planted one a couple of years ago and it has come through two winters buried under two feet of snow. It's now blooming its head off yet again. Not sure how or why, but I'm not complaining.

Hi everyone - many thanks for your speedy responses - will try taking cuttings as suggested.

Italophile - I don't know if they are English or French - garden was landscaped / replanted etc 5 years ago (before then not interested in gardening) by a 'gardening design company' (the company could not be contacted after they had finished and then we heard had gone bust) A they finished, I  asked and they gave me a rough list of some of the plants they put in and I have had to learn as I've gone along since then but now spend hours gardening even though I'm not sure what I'm doing!

Once again thanks to all for your replies

Lavenders which I have grown for years tend to have a life of 7-8 years gradually lose the bottom growth and become woody. I trim lightly after flowering and never into the older wood, it never comes back. My way is to take cuttings and bring them on in pots until those planted out are at the end of their days and then replace them but move them away from where the old plant stood. I have given spares away all around me and this year they will nearly all be new some in pots as I now find it easier to pot things rather than planting. Plants do not last forever, it is always best to have cuttings ready potted up to move in as Carol Klein does in her garden.

Frank.