5 days Ago By Nicola Roy
Lavender is a gorgeous and sweet-smelling plant that looks amazing in any garden. Its stunning purple colour is great for adding some vibrancy to your outdoor space, and bees are a huge fan as well. If you want to ensure yours blooms larger and longer throughout the year, then there's one essential task you need to be doing now.
Michael the Mediterranean Gardener on TikTok says now is the perfect time to give your lavender plant a prune if it's looking leggy. And thankfully, this is a very simple task to do. In a recent video, he explained exactly how to do this, reminding people that's not too late to carry out this gardening job.
He said: "Nobody wants lavender that's become leggy or twiggy because you didn't prune in the right way at the right time. "You can prune lavender as hard as you like as long as you're not cutting into old wood, and you leave some new growth beneath the cutting point." Should you prune lavender in spring? If you missed pruning your lavender in late summer or if the growth is untidy or frost damaged mid to late spring when you see this new growth appear is the ideal time to prune.
No one wants a lavender that's gone leggy and twiggy because you didn't get a prune in at the right time. You can prune by around a third, leaving some new growth beneath the cutting point. Come in closer you can see our old wood down here, you can tell by the colour of the wood, new growth here and here so l'll take my pruning up to around here - so there's still some new growth just underneath.
If you do cut down into old wood that area may not regrow and you could lose the plant. Idea of the prune is is to keep it in a nice compact shape, ready to put out now Pruning in spring will delay flowering slightly but in the end you're going to get a better shaped bush that will last longer. Giving viewers a closer look at the lavender, he said: "It's really easy to see at this time of year the difference between the old wood, which is this brown stuff down here with this almost white foliage, and this new growth, which is this bright green.
" Gesturing to the old wood, he recommended avoiding pruning here - instead cutting just above it. He warned that cutting too far into the old wood might make the plant lose its growth, so if in doubt, stay well above it. He continued: "Pruning in spring will delay flowering slightly.
But in the end, you're going to get a better-shaped bush that will last longer." You can give it a harder prune in August time once the flowers are no longer blooming. And the harder they are pruned, the longer your lavender will continue to thrive in seasons to come.
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