Find out what is the best time of the year to prune lavender – garden informations

In this article you will be able to find out how to prune lavender and still keep it beautiful and smell good. In fact if you are lavender lover you should know how important it is to know how to prune lavender. Find out with us what is the right time to prune lavender plants.

How to prune lavender plants

To be honest lavender needs only a light trim while its first year. At this early stage of lavender growth pruning is about encouraging new growth and also developing a lovely mounded shape. If you have grown lavender plant from seed or cuttings it is going to be very beificial to pinch out new growth. This will help the plant to become bushy.

Here goes few steps you should follow to prune lavender:

• with help of sharp pair of secateurs cut each stem back by up to a third, to remove the flowers and some of the green stem growth,
• while you will be cutting the plant back don’t do it in a hard way by going near to the woody base of stems. When the plants are young it is very important to leave lots of green on the stems,
• while you are trimming lavender try leaving the stems longer in the middle and keep going shorter as you will move to the the outer edges of the plant,
• after you are done with trimming lavender, you may get a second flush of flowers. If so prune them the same way.

What about pruning lavender which is mature?

In fact lavender plant establish very quick. After their first year they are good to go to be called mature lavender plants. In their second year pruning changes a little – you still should heavily prune old plants, but shouldn’t cut down to leafless wood. The best way to do that is to tackle the plants in two stages. Those stages are triming after flowering and then prune in the spring.

It is important not to prune lavender too hard when the summer ends because it may have hard time surviving durining the winter time. If you do forget to prune lavender durning summer time you should wait until the following spring.

Here goes steps on how to prune lavender in summer:

• grab handfuls of the stems use sharp secateurs and snip them off. You should remove up to the third of the plants growth,
• do not cut near the woody stems because later on durning winter time lavender plant may struggle a bit,
• if you will want to dry out the flowers, bring stems into bunches and tie them together and just hang upside down.

Tools for pruning

You won’t need much to prune lavender plants. In fact all you gotta need is:

• pruning shears,
• bypass pruners,
• and of course lavender plant.

Tips for pruning lavender plant

Pruning lavender is very neccessary to keep your plant healthy. If you won’t prune lavender it will make it woody and large. It also forms nooks and is trapping water. This can lead to:

• durning summer this trapped water can cause rotting of those weaker lavender’s stems and wood,
• durning late autumn trapped water can cause an early frost what ends the growing season earlier,
• durning winter trapped water can simply just freeze. Also dense plant or one with sprawling wood can be easily break under snow loads.

Another tip is to start pruning lavender plants when they are still young plants. This helps them to form in a good shape when they are going to be mature plants.

Also if you have lavender bushes which are becoming woody and also are poor looking it is the best idea to replace it when the lavender doesn’t grow from old wood.

Now you know why regular pruning is such a important thing. So when it is time to prune your lavender go for it and take care of your flowers.

Interesting informations

• you can get new lavender plants by propagating lavender plant with help of layering technique,
• spring pruning can delay flowering of lavender plant,
• lavender plant is evergreen shrub so it is retaining foliage all year round,
• pruning lavender in late summer and early fall can improve good air circulation. So if you are able to do that pruning lavender twice a year can be very helpful,
• in late August or early September you can prepare the plant for winter by vigorous pruning this can also encourage a fuller plant in spring season,
• if you will plant your lavender in full sun it will potentially grow vigorously each year,
• if you want to cut lavender so it grows back later you shouldn’t cut into the dead woody growth,
• if your lavender plants will be lighly pruned just right after its first flowering it is very likley to flower again in late summer,
• the best time as recommend pruning time is in the spring or late summer,
• with help of pruning you will have more compact and pleasing shape if your plant,
• deadhead lavender is another wayof pruning all you gotta do is to simply remove all of dead flower spikes.

Lavender plant varieties

In fact there are three most common types of lavender. Those types are:

• english lavender (lavandula angustifolia),
• spanish lavender/french lavender,
• hybrid of english and spike lavenders (it is late flowering lavender).

Conclusion

Pruning will indeed keep the lavender bush in a good shape. However now you know that lavender pruning is very important and it is not only about its shape but also health of the plant. You should remember that durning the first year your lavender plant should be pruned lightly. Take care of your lavender plant as was written above in the article and remain healthy plant of your own.

As you know the secrets of beautiful blooms of lavender plants you are ready to grow lavender.