Re: lavendula

At 05:27 PM 7/18/99 -0700, Barbara Sargent wrote:
>What's the best way to prune/trim lavender? I have some in my parking strip
>and one in my back-yard garden. Neither gets full sun but both flower and
>then get ratty looking, losing their freshness. They are both dwarf
>lavenders; a hidcote and a Dutch, pink flowered variety whose name I don't
>know. I usually cut the flower heads off but would like to cut more,
>including the dry, dead looking stuff on the bottom. I'm afraid of cutting
>too much, though, and losing the plants.

Barbara -

There are various types of lavender, with a few types of growth patterns
which require different pruning techniques.

The 'English' lavenders, those within or closely allised to Lavandula
angustifolia, grow as somewhat dense, rounded bushes close to the ground.
They are the most fragrant, producing spikes of relatively unbranched
stems, topped with a fluffy, rounded head of flowers.  These are great to
harvest and dry.  I maintain a number of these at my son's garden and when
in peak flower (after school was over), I harvested all the flowers by
cutting the stems off at the foliage mound.  Any foliage shoots that
exceed the main mound were also cut off.  Areas which were thin or not as
dense as the rest where are also 'pinched' to encourage more branching.
As I understand it, yearly shearing of this type of lavender will help
produce the tight 'bun' so often associated with this type.

The 'Dutch' lavender you mention I believe to a Lavandin, a natural hybrid
between L. angustifolia and L. latifolia.  These make a larger mound that
cab branch and spread a bit more the L. angustifolia forms.  It can still
have the same general pruned shape.  I find these often seem to bloom for
a more or less continual period, making it hard to figure out when to
prune.  Some forms of Lavandin have very silvery foliage, showing the L.
latifolia parent's influence.

The shrubby lavenders, L. stoechas, L. dentata, and some of the Canary
Island species, are quite different.  They really do form shrubs of
varying size and width, and often flower continually making gardeners
hesitant to prune.  Consequently, you often see very rangy and untidy
looking plants of this types.  A good, overall, pruning for shape once 
a year will help keep these looking better and flowering nicely.  Gauge 
your timing based upon when you'd like the plants to look their best - 
doing the pruning a month or two ahead of this time.

All lavenders seem to grow best, and densest, in rather poor, rocky,
sunny sites.  If you are 'harvesting' rocks from your garden, dump these
in one sunny place to grow your lavenders.  Add gritty mixes to heavy
soils.  Don't over-amend with composts or fertilize.  On this type of
site, your lavender bushes will be more compact, grow more slowly and
be longer-lived, have more fragrance and color.  They will take some
shade during the day, especially in very hot summer areas, but will
grow/flower best when in sun most of the day.

Sean O.

Sean A. O'Hara                       sean.ohara@poboxes.com
h o r t u l u s   a p t u s          710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose'     Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index