How do you take a cutting of a lavender bush?

[CampingClaire]

I have huge old lavender bushes in the garden that are now very woody...I'd like to get some cuttings from them but not sure exactly where I cut and what I then put it in? Water? Compost? Draft it on to the original plant - don't think this is an option but I'm that confused? Help!

I'd like to know this too.

I think for Lavender you scrape the bark off a bit of stem and peg it, scraped side down, into some soil still attached to the plant. After a while the cut in the bark grows roots and you can chop it off the main plant.
It takes a good year though...

OOh..that sounds believable...I'll give it go!!

or you can do it in pots;

gardeners' world

mum did some in pots with dd. she got some young shoots (about 4 cm long I think) off the old lavender and put them round the edge of a pot of compost. not all of them took but enough did. must go and check on them soon.

I've done them every which way, and my favourite for an old overgrown one is to just dump a whole load of soil on it until only the tips show. Leave it for a year and roots will have grown on all the branches, which you can then cut and make into new plants.

Definitely don't put in water, they will just rot. This tends to be the problem with lavender cuttings in general, ime.

Thanks Liara...that sounds a great idea. I've a few really old ones so I'll experiment after they've flowered.

Do be prepared to wait a year before they will have rooted, though. It's not the fastest way, but I personally don't mind the look when they are mounded over, so I don't care.

At this time of year the growth is a bit soft but on the woodier parts take a heel cutting. Just pull a bit away from the main stem and it will have a little heel/spur attached - trim that pit so it's not too straggly and pot up in free-draining sandy compost.

*bit

Have root around underneath them. Mine self seed madly. I have picked out dozens of baby lavenders, enough to plant a long row.