Lavender

I would wait if they are flowering. I’ve got some with a few stray flower stalks and I’ll wait until they go over before trimming.

My neighbour has cut all the flowers off their lavender bushes. I remember my gran doing the same. She tied them in bundles and dried them to fill lavender bags

I would cut them back , not going into the hard stem , then dry the cuttings , they are lovely to tuck into sheets in the airing cupboard and in your underwear drawer ?

I waited till last week when my neighbours bees settled down for winter. They have made a frightful mess of the car and the windows.

Normally ours would all have been cut back by now but they’re still flowering so will wait until the flowers finish. They not only provide colour, they help the bees at a time when there aren’t so many flowers about.

Cut them back.

I used to leave mine because I couldn't bear to cut off the flowers when they were still blooming, but the plants just got straggly. Lavender isn't an easy plant to keep looking tidy at the best of times (well, I'm no good at it )

I've just cut mine back right down to wear the little green shoots.
What did you use in the pots? I used compost this year and the plants weren't as good as in good old garden soil. They went very grey?

I cut mine back last week, but they had finished flowering.

I read years ago, lavender should be cut back in February but as mine, in pots, have stopped flowering and look grey and unkempt I will cut them back now hoping it’s ok to do so?

Mine are full of dead flowers but the weather has been to bad this week so far to get out and cut them down. I did have 12 plants in my back garden but 6 died so transferred the remaining into the front garden they have thrived I have 6 large plants which the bees have loved. Had to moved the heather's out of the boarder as the lavenders where growing over them. Can't wait to see how big they get next year.

Kircubbin2000 we have beekeepers nearby, in the city, and all the neighbourhood cars and windows get in a terrible state. The little orange blobs are so hard to get off too!

Watched Gardeners World this week and Monty said cut them back brutally. He also suggested taking cuttings, which was easy to do potting up in gritty soil.

Josianne - your lavender would not have liked the new compost as it would have been far too rich for it. Lavender thrives in poor soil, so don't feed it or give it new compost. Mine is planted in a low wall at the front of my house and the soil must be dreadful for any other plant, but the lavender love it. I never water it either. Less is more with lavender.

Thank you Sashabel. As I thought.

Sashabel

Josianne - your lavender would not have liked the new compost as it would have been far too rich for it. Lavender thrives in poor soil, so don't feed it or give it new compost. Mine is planted in a low wall at the front of my house and the soil must be dreadful for any other plant, but the lavender love it. I never water it either. Less is more with lavender.

I agree, they need poor soil. When I moved it here I inherited a raised bed/planter containing a rose and lavender round the edges. It's been hard to feed the rose without feeding the lavender. I sprinkled some granular feed just around the rose and didn't use my usual feed which I water in.
My lavender floweredearly and I cut it back a few weeks ago, but it still looks dried up and tatty. I'm probably going to replace the plants with a smaller variety.

I've cut the mainly dead flowers off mine, but they'll get another chop in early spring to cut out the dead wood and keep them in shape.

We've just chopped the flowers off ours.

I'm sure I read somewhere years ago that lavender shouldn't be chopped right back but that could be wrong.
We're going to heave most of ours out, it was sold to us as Hidcote which stays upright and bushy but is in fact a different variety which is very straggly.

My lavender still has flowers and the bees are still visiting them, so for the time being I'm leaving them alone.