Is now a good time to prune lavender?

[Whirlaway]

Hello I'm in Cambridge and have a Hidcote lavender hedge. Should I prune it now or wait until later in August?

Most flowers are pretty much spent but there are a few new small blooms out. Thanks for any advice.

I did some light pruning on mine this weekend (just the spent stems) but I think after reading a bit I need to be more thorough before the month is out.

The advice in this link sounds good.

www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/absolutely-best-way-prune-english-lavender-beautifully/

I always do it the week schools go back in September.

I usually leave it till the end of winter because the goldfinches like the seeds. I don't think timing is critical, what is critical is not to cut back too far into "brown" wood. One advantage to a spring cut is you can see how far down the stem new green buds are appearing, and take care not to cut beyond this, but it does look scruffy over winter if you do this.

I always do it in autumn. Mine is alive with bees at the moment, so I feel I can't do it yet. It's one of my favourite jobs after summer.

I wait for the bees to go, although I think it would grow better (less sprawl) if I did it now.

There's a house not far from here where the front garden is covered in a patchwork of light and dark lavender - looks fabulous in flower. They cut it back a couple of weeks ago, and the leaves are light grey and green-grey, so there's still a muted version of the colour contrast, but they cut it back too soon for my liking.

Following as am never sure

Bob Flowerdew says to wait till the frosts of winter are gone because the old growth protects the new from the bad weather. So because I have a lot of it and it's covered in beneficial insects I'm going to leave it!

Like you say Mere the birds love the seeds too. (i have a feeling it may be a bad winter this year, they'll need them).

I’ve been wondering this too - forgot to do mine last year and as a result it’s enormous this year.

I've always done mine in spring but a friend who has beautiful lavenders always does trim on 8th of the 8th, apparel this is best.....I might try this!

I did mine st the weekend. It was a week or so early but it bloomed early this year abd I'm away the rest of the month.

English lavender different to French and can take a much stronger prune

've always done mine in spring but a friend who has beautiful lavenders always does trim on 8th of the 8th, apparel this is best. That's tomorrow! - my lavender is still in flower.

Pruning something on a precise date regardless of what the weather has been like doesn't sound like a great idea to me, tbh - and would also vary according to where you are.

I don't cut mine until the bees have finished with it.

Thanks for the link @ErrolTheDragon I am sharpening the secateurs as we speak

Thank you all! Will aim for the August bank holiday weekend to do the pruning.

That's a great article, Errol, I'll need to be brave with cutting closer down.

I've not tried it myself yet!

I did mine this weekend mostly because I want to give it a bit of a longer growing season now before the winter comes it and it stops. Then i should better or more flowers next summer. Well thats the theory anyway.

Hmm ... I always get tons of flowers on mine, even though I don't prune until spring. On the other hand, mine's still flowering, and our growing season will stop very shortly, so whenever I prune I'd expect most of the growth to happen in spring.

I've got a new lavender bush , it's in an exposed position, grown incredibly fast, I just checked it, it's still flowering a bit with the insects. I think I'll leave it till spring in case a bad winter 'does' for it We'll have to start a new thread next spring to compare notes on our lavenders!

I remember the advice here being 8/8 but the bees are still around mine so I'll wait a bit longer. Mine are in pots and are probably 4/5 years old and getting very straggly looking around the base, I might replace them for next year.

ppeatfruit I remember my mother's advice on rose pruning "you can do it autumn or spring. If you do it in autumn, it'll sprout long new shoots in spring which may get frosted and set it back. If you leave it till spring, wind rock and the extra vegetation may cause it to hollow out the soil around the roots, so that water will collect and cause the roots to rot off"

One thing I've learnt about gardening is there's no universal answer, everything is a balance between "best practice", your specific garden conditions (and the needs of any wildlife you are trying to support), and what is actually feasible in your lifestyle.

True Mere I do prune roses sometimes when I dead head at the moment. But I'm going to leave the hips this year for the birds. My garden is quite windy (everywhere is isn't it?) maybe I'll do a trial on my lavender hedge , trim some now and leave some till next spring.

I love a big vase of lavender and some in the car.

But I'm going to leave the hips this year for the birds. Rosa rugosa is great for greenfinches.

I'm going to plant a rosa rugosa in the autumn when I start a new hedge where we've removed a dead box one. (it wasn't blighted just very old).