Pruning/cutting back lavender

Oh well. "skill level: experienced" that explains a lot and it obviously did need protection. There was I thinking French lavender was as tough as English. Thanks j08

Aka thanks too. Obviously not looking good. I'm always loath to turf something out and tend to live in hope. I didn't realise there was a difference in French/English lavender care wise. I'll replant English

I have been killing myself working really hard in my daughters garden, trying to create something out of an overgrown, weed infested jungle. There were about 8 huge lavender's all of which seemed to have got out of control and very woody. Sadly we ended up digging them all out and hope to replace with two or three. I have a beauty in a pot in my own seaside garden which seems to quite like the salty air.

Ah, Sel I think too there is a difference in the frost hardiness of a an established plant that has put its roots well down and a first year plant. Unless you live up a mountain somewhere and nothing is sprouting much, your lavender is probably dead. Suggest you replace with something tried and tested like Hidcote if you want a dwarf or something that does well in a nearby garden if you want big and bushy.

Thanks JessM. I remembered you mentioning Hidcote and saw it yesterday in the nursery I went to. It's what I would call 'your bog standard lavender' I should have bought that in the first place instead of being seduced by the fancy-pants French varieties

You could try the odd bit or two of French. Get it established now. It is very pretty.

I agree j08, it's beautiful but that link you posted (I did see it this time ) does say it isn't hardy. I can't be doing with plants that need pandering to. Maybe best grown in a container that can be lifted inside over winter.

French, I noticed, does better than English in Wellington NZ, which is milder, very few, light frosts. I concluded that French really requires more of a French climate...

Do I dead-head my rhododendrons or not? One year I did and had nothing much next year. Last year I did some and left others but can't remember which and can't see much difference anyway

National Trust don't. They get huge!You can't possibly!

Mine are a tad less majestic J0 more like waist high.

Don't think you need to. Unless you do it for tidiness.

My hardy geraniums from last year are very straggly. Should I have cut them back lightly at the end of last summer? I am a very amateur gardener!

I don't cut mine back. I think they die back during the winter (can't remember now!) And then come back in Spring. I think yours might be just craning to find some light henetha.

I have lots of hardy geraniums and generally cut back things like Johnson's blue as it wants to take over the world. Then I get a fresh crop of leaves which turn red. Some of the others flower on and on and do get straggly but with flowers on the end of the straggles so I leave them until autumn and cut down. They all then disappear underground.

Thanks for comments. Plants are a mystery to me, - but I like them!

If you don't cut back the hardy geraniums (Johnson's Blue and the like) before the winter, the stems and leaves flop down and rot and form a fibrous mat that the new stems have to fight through in the spring. By the time they are all threaded through you can't tidy them up without damaging the new growth.

Re Pruning Lavender.
Since I last posted, I dug up both the very leggy Lavender plants I had in pots intending to throw them out. I shook off the soil and manged to tease out quite a number of new layered root cuttings from the old plant as well as some seedlings which I have replanted out. They are looking good, if the squirrels don't dig them up to bury the peanuts the neighbour provides. Its worth a try.

Always worth a try, I think. Nothing ventured...

nelliemoser I'm going to try that end of this season because my attempts at cuttings have not worked. Or taken.