Pruning English Lavender

[RachelHRD]

I have a border of English Lavender on my patio which is a bit overgrown and woody at the base. Is it too risky to hard prune it right back at this time of year. I'd still.like it to flower over the summer so am I too late pruning it?
Thanks!

[LadyMaryLikesCake]

Someone cut mine back in June and the bloody thing hasn't grown since. It's all woody and dead (I think) Handle with care, that's all I know.

[FuckyNell]

I pruned mine back hard in the autumn and it's growing fine now, so I'd leave it :)

[LadyMaryLikesCake]

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[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Every time I've pruned into the woody parts I've killed them , I only ever cut off the previous year's soft growth now.

[LadyMaryLikesCake]

Bugger! I'm sorry, WhoKnows.

I appear to have some sort of tree growing out of my (dead) lavender patch

[funnyperson]

Dont prune down into the wood as it may not grow back. You can take cuttings from this years growing points to renew your plants and plant them out in early autumn.

[LIZS]

oops , have just hard pruned ours (very woody and out of shape), wonder if it will grow back ?

[LadyMaryLikesCake]

Mine didn't It's cheap as chips here though so I bought a replacement for... £2.50.

[LIZS]

tbh it was so overgrown and misshapen I guess we could replace anyway if needs be.

[ShoeWhore]

They don't usually re grow if you prune into old wood. They will look a lot better for a trim all over the soft growth though. And great idea to take cuttings.

[LadyMaryLikesCake]

How do you take cuttings?

I'm assuming mine's had it, it's all wood and hasn't grown since I moved in 2 years ago. Shame

[RachelHRD]

Thanks all. I think I'll do a tidy up now and a hard cut back in Autumn.

[Coconutfeet]

I think once it's got really woody it's best to replace it. Cuttings are easy to do in the summer though - I'm on phone so can't link but if you google "lavender cuttings" there's a Gardeners World link with photos. They take a while to become a decent sized plant. The ones I took last year are still tiny but I'm hoping they'll do well once they're planted out.