Can I prune lavendar now?

[Minin]

Hi MN gardening gurus. :)

I am very much a beginner gardener. We have just moved to a house that actually - gasp - has a garden!!!!! I am SO excited.

However, we have a row of about 7 large lavendar bushes that have not been pruned or shaped for years. They originally were in balls i think. They have hugely long dead stems towering into the air, and about 30 cm below that fresh leaves. I want to prune the dead stems right down, and prune (hack) the fresh stems right back as well, but a friend told me that if I prune at the wrong time, then i will just kill the plants.

I feel pretty sure the dead stems can go, but if i take the current bushes down by about 50%, would that be too drastic? When should I do that if not now?

Any help and advice gratefully received!

[prettywhiteguitar]

I would say that maybe its a bit frosty to cut back ? I don't know they might hack it depends where you are in the country and how protected your garden is. I would be afraid of damaging the cut ends with frost.

If you want to get on though you can just cut the dead flower stems off and then trim the leaves and shape the bushes when it gets a bit warmer. That should make them look nice and tidy. I found this link too;

www.lavenderenchantment.com/Growing/pruning.htm

[Minin]

Oh, thanks so much for the link pretty. That looks great. i am in the south a bit so not too frosty, but there is definitely frost scheduled.

[prettywhiteguitar]

ah yes a bit warmer than yorkshire then hey

I've just moved into a new house and have been getting on with weeding out of lack of anything else I can do...twiddling thumbs

Cutting the flowers tems off takes ages anyway and then you can get some hand shears and shape the shrubs back...oooh I do love lavender