What's wrong with my lavender?

[SkydivingFerret]

My lavender wasn't getting on well in its previous spot in the garden (although it was at least the right colour!). so I dug it up and put it in a little pot, then put it in a bigger pot with some compost with food in it. I give it a good watering every evening but it's dying off. Am I not watering it enough? Wrong spot? It's in a nice sunny spot on the patio. How am I managing to kill it? Oh and I've given it a real soaking tonight which is why the dirt is so dark

Over watering? I don't think it likes wet feet. It's a Mediterranean plant so used to dry conditions. I'm no expert though!

Mine looks like that now, did it not flower in spring?

Not as well as all the other lavenders I saw when I was out and about even when it was in the ground. Very dull purple flowers and it hardly smells at all if you rub the leaves

It may have just reached it's end. They're not great year on year.

I've only had it a couple of years I thought they were long termers! Will it come back to life if I cut it all back or shall I just get a new one?

Don't like a hard cut. Mine just got leggy and sparse. If you want something smelly lemon verbena is wonderful.

I think cutting it back will help.

I think you're overwatering it? They like dry soil?

I lost one this year it was in a pot right next to another lavender plant one survived the other didn't :(

You're killing it with kindness.

Mix the soil with pebbles, check there are enough drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. Never feed it and only water of its a really dry patch.

This is mine: ignored totally, annual prune, never watered or fed, in gravelly soil.

It's hit and miss with my lavender too. One or two does well in the pots but there's one which has dried off and died.

As a previous poster said don't over water as lavender is a Mediterranean plant so likes dry conditions - I water mine sparsely about once a week.

It should be flowering now so don't cut it back yet, wait until Autumn and it can be trimmed back either then OR, leave it as it is over winter, and then trim it in Spring, well before new greenery begins to appear.

If/when you do trim it make sure you leave some greenery showing on the old wood, for if you don't and it then looks just like twigs, it won't regrow.

After all that, Lavender can often just die off for no good reason - once it's made it's mind up, it'll just go. I've had some bushes with me for years in pots, others have lasted only a year or so.

If it's in a pot, try sticking it in the ground. It might come back next year.