Lavender is typically hardy, preferring dry, rocky soil and hot, sunny climates.
However, lavender is frost tolerant, making it an ideal evergreen that returns year after year.
Although lavender is a low-maintenance garden plant, according to Monty Don, it can benefit from one task – pruning.
Your lavender plant will become woody over time and develop strange if you let it grow wild.
Pruning promotes denser growth and abundant flowering in the spring and even a second flowering in the summer.
Monty insists that lavender should be pruned “every year” and “the best time to do this” is as soon as the flowers begin to fade, which depending on the variety can be anytime between Midsummer and the end of August.
Gardeners should never wait for the seed heads to form or the flowers to turn brown as they need to allow as much time as possible to grow before winter.
The trick is to prune back tightly to a good compact shape, but be sure to leave new shoots on each stem because “lavender often doesn’t regrow from bare wood.”
These new shoots “grow quickly and provide an attractive and healthy cover” to protect the plant in winter and “provide a foundation for next year’s display”.
Now all those cuttings left over from your hard pruning don’t have to go to waste. Only further, you can grow your own lavender from your own cuttings.
It’s a great way to replace lavender hedges or plants that may have underperformed or had to be removed, or just an easy way to minimize excess waste.
To grow more lavender plants, take lavender cuttings and pick lavender side shoots that don’t have flowers – ideally you want one with a stem of bark, a thin strip of bark at the bottom of the stem, still attached, as this will become the plant’s new roots.
Take your knife and cut off the base of the stem, leaving a short section of the bare stem exposed.
Now insert the exposed part of the stem into the pot, you can add several cuttings in one pot, if you want several, make sure they are evenly spaced.
Water the cuttings well and place them in a shady moist place with a greenhouse or polythene bag coming in, check them regularly to make sure they are not in bad shape.
By next spring they should have a good root system and top growth as well, indicating that they are ready to move to a bigger pot and live in your garden.
