lavender hard-pruned

I seem to recall reading in numerous books that one should never hard-prune a lavender. However, I had a large old lavender that came with a name - maybe Hidcote, but I was never sure whether it was correctly named. Its branches covered up my small collection of dianthus in one direction and almost blocked the path in another. Last winter I chopped it back and strewed the paths with the branches - it was aromatic wherever I walked.

I had left two small branches, but the larger ones, thicker than my thumb, were all cut off leaving stubs of perhaps 15 cm. The new leaves on both the remaining small branches are bigger than normal, and there are even larger new leaves on the trunk, so many that the trunk is completely hidden.

Maybe if a lavender is ailing, it is not a good idea to prune it, but a big healthy plant can recover vigorously.

--
Diane Whitehead  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil

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