Lavender

Yes, and we also went to Sun Studios, Nashville (Grand Ole Opry), Beale Street in Memphis and drove past Dolly Parton's place, which I would have liked to visit, too. Would love to go again!

Me too ,are u sure we wern"t following each other . You didn"t stay at the Comfort Inn and suites in Memphis did u ? we could have been sitting next to each other at breakfast LAL

I have stayed at a Comfort Inn but can't remember which city that was. I did a Titan Tour, which was about 14 days around the Southern States, finishing in Houston, Texas, where we visited NASA, Magic! I do like visiting the USA

You and me both !! [sunshine and wine ]

When should lavender be cut back? - I still have some flowering in my garden (english variety) but the french type lavender has gone all funny - woody and flowers are like dried flowers - even though have kept watering. Should i cut them all back yet?

I'm loth to cut mine when there are still a few sprigs in flower. the bees need all the help they can get.
I usually give mine a brutal haircut sometime in the winter, really vicious. They certainly seem to thrive on this harsh treatment. I realised this when snow and deep frost nearly killed them 2 years back but they resprouted in the spring happily.

Pruned mine about two weeks ago, after collecting flowers for use., Lavender does not break easily from dead wood so best done sooner than later. Good advice on the rhs site about this.

Thank you for replies - yes will keep for a while then give a good haircut. There is a lavender bush by the front door and it has become a favourite of my little grandaughter (20 months) - nice to take a sprig home in the pram to sniff!

The lavender in my garden has grown quite big now and spread itself out. Can I divide it into two and how do I do this? I do cut it back after flowering but it's gone rampant this year. Advice welcomed.

I don't think you can divide lavender mrsmop.

mrsmopp you can take lots of cuttings, I got 2 rooted from last year, just strip most of leaves off and put into moist compost, sometimes they take do lots and you in with fair chance, better to do them little earlier than now but no harm in trying . good luck.

No they usually get too old and woody to divide up.

I'd forgotten that lavender is good fe cuttings ann& , thanks for reminding me. Many years ago I had an old lavender plant which I treasured for personal reasons. It was way past its best and I took cuttings and several survived. I brought them to our new house. I wonder has anyone grown it from their own seeds perhaps? I think I'll give it a go.

I grew enough lavender plants from seed to make a hedge along the path to my back door about 10 years ago and it was quite a success. But we had a number of hot dry summers back then so, even in heavy clay, the odds were in my favour. The summer just gone could not have been worse for Mediterranean plants, I'm afraid. For lavender, good drainage is everything, both for propagation and for existing plants. I don't have a garden to speak of since moving earlier in the year and, much as I miss the garden I created and loved and left behind, at least there isn't the worry, disappointment and hard work now. My old house has been empty since I moved out and I suspect there won't be much left of my lavender hedge!

Interestingly, I miss even more my airing cupboard (my linen cupboard, as I rather grandly used to call it). I hadn't realised that modern houses don't have them! I used to tuck lavender bags into the piles of bedlinen and towels and the warmth from the hot water tank did the rest. Now I have to keep spare linen in drawers under the beds the effect isn't the same. Hey ho, life is simpler now - I must remember that!

I know what you mean about the worry feld. I stressed out when all my lovely tomatoes, grown and nurtured from seeds, died from blight this year. Just one example. I know it's not the same but couldn't you still put lavender bags between the sheets under the bed?

Thanks, NanaDB. Yes I do still use them but without the warmth of an airing cupboard the effect is a bit disappointing, I'm afraid.

Sorry to hear about your tomato blight - it's heartbreaking because there just isn't anything you can do except retrieve what fruits you can and hope they will ripen off the plant. Did you have them in a greenhouse (in which case a bit of fumigation before next year might help)? If they were outdoors, next year might be a bit of a lottery, or so I'm told, but the further away from this year's planting site the better. Tomatoes belong to the same family as potatoes (unbelievably!) so are affected by the same blight. Did your spuds (or a near neighbour's) succumb too? (Sorry, I'm probably teaching my grandmother, etc ... almost literally!)

Yes, they were in the greenhouse. I'll welcome any advice on how best to fumigate as I'm very aware how easy it is for fungal spores to linger in crevices and cracks.
I've dumped all the compost instead of refreshing it through my compost heap. My potatoes are fine, but then they were grown on my allotment a mile away. No blight there .... yet.
My next door neighbour on one side who is an expert tomato grower lost all his too, but annoyingly, my lovely but dippy neighbour on the other side, who never remembers to water her tomatoes ( I give her my spare seedlings) or nip out side shoots, etc has a healthy crop!!!! Sod's law?

Yep - sod's law nearly always applies - and not just in the garden! Maybe your dippy neighbour has the right idea - treat them mean and keep them keen? Seriously, lush, beautifully attended growth is a prime target for all sorts of bugs... Will try and remember in the morning what fumigants (if that's the word) might help for next year.