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'm going to plant a rosa rugosa in the autumn when I start a new hedge We inherited a Rosa rugosa and honeysuckle hedge, along the terrace just outside the back door. With a low wall full of lavender along the edge of the terrace - I still can't be absolutely sure that our decision to purchase wasn't largely determined by viewing with the lavender in full flower.

It sounds lovely Mere As I said I'm going to plant a new informal bay hedge, with elder and honeysuckle, also roses, is it best to have rambler or a rugosa type? I have overdone it a bit near the house with a laurel and privet, which are growing too strongly I also planted lilac but it hasn't flowered maybe because I've been trimming it to shape too much they all may have to be moved.

ppeat That sounds lovely! I'd avoid rambler roses - once they settle, they can put on huge amounts of growth in a year (Google kiftsgate rose to scare yourself). So stick with shrub roses. So R rugosa, others that I have include R glauca (purple new stems, grey-green leaves, single pink flowers and copious hips), R moyesii for big flask shaped hips, though that can get tall, ordinary dog rose, sweet briar for scented leaves. Though out of that lot, R rugosa and R glauca are the most manageable. Or perhaps least unmanageable. Definitely an "informal" hedge!

Look at the variety of honeysuckle. They're not all scented (there's a gorgeous orange one which is scentless, so a mixed blessing) and there are some which flower earlier than others - I have one which comes out in June/July and another which is out now, thus giving a longer season.

Thanks, yes all my honeysuckles have gone over now. I have a winter flowering one that looks unkempt but has a lovely scent. it was here when we moved and I had no idea what it was till the 4th winter!

I'm going for an informal look! For the wildlife really not the straight laced neighbours! But noticed today that the damn box is growing back happily! it's very difficult to remove the roots. So I'll have to get the roses in quickly, they do like quite a bit of water though which is a bit problematic here at the moment.

I have a winter flowering one that looks unkempt but has a lovely scent. Is that one of the shrubby ones? I have one too.

Also L henryii, an evergreen climbing one, with very handsome dusky pink flowers followed by black (if I remember rightly) fruit - but it's gone mad and I'm having to remove it because I can't keep up with its vigour. I unearthed the main "trunk" earlier in the year, and it's about 8 inches thick! So now anything that reaches the top of the 8ft fence is getting chopped back. I can't get it out of the trees, so have just chopped through some of the main trunks and hope that the dead remains will gradually disappear over the years.

You definitely don't want Kiftsgate unless you've got a massive garden!

Hi all!
I have a couple of different lavenders in my garden and this year they really went for it, but I think one of them has got too big for the space it's in and might be dying....I don't know if pruning back will help now given how much dead material there looks to be in the heart of it....can anyone advise me please? The really sickly looking lavender is one of those ones with the fluffy flowers that look like bunny ears....as you can tell, my gardening knowledge is very poor! 😂

IPokeBadgers it sounds like a French variety. For me I change my lavender every 5 years of so because of the unsightly dead wood at the base, but mine are in lots so it is easily done. It does sound as if yours has seen better days.

Yes it sounds like the Lavandula Stoechas, which is a quite delicate lavender, it has to be sheltered and needs full sun. It doesn't stay in flower for long, either. According to my RHS book it's best to trim back the flowers esp. if it's sheltered.

Thanks for your comments, will take the secateurs to it and see what happens. It's was only planted last year and it grew quite spectacularly big quite quickly, but it has been very very wet here in northern Ireland and I don't think the soil is great in my garden so poor drainage might have done it in...

Yes if you think that it's natural habitat are the Mediteranean countries !!

😂 True, our N Ireland summers are about as far from Mediterranean as it gets!!! 😂

Oh well, spent a couple of hours this morning giving all four lavenders in the garden (2 English variety and 2 French) a very thorough haircut..... guess I'll find out in time if it was the right thing to do! #KillOrCure

[Good luck]