Lavender

[Haventgotaclu]

Can I prune lavender at this time of year? Not long moved into a new home and it’s growing like crazy!

Noooo not now! Wait until it's finished flowering. Late august give it a good trim. The bees love it 🐝

Please tell me how you're getting it to grow! I've just planted a few from Sarah Raven. They're a lot smaller than I expected (my fault), so I'm keen for them to grow!

@posalie mine were tiny when I planted them a few months ago. I did what everyone told me to do. Planted it as I should of and then basically ignored tbem
they have just started to shoot up!

Thank you @Paranoidandroidmarvin I'll try to be patient. Is yours in a very sunny spot? Mine's in a south-facing spot, though I can't guarantee the 8-12 hours of sun RHS recommends. In fact, no, definitely not.

Lots of the ends of my lavender are head less and a bit withered and grey, as if something with poisonous spit has nibbled them. Any idea what I can do?

#Lavenderforall

I thought exactly the same about mine, something has spat on them!

The spit on them is 'cuckoo spit' which is a liquid surrounding a small young insect called a froghopper . They like being in the lavender and it doesn't cause the plants any issue.

No idea why Solasum 's lavender is greying. Sounds frosted maybe? Can you post a picture?

It’s growing out of control. It’s going to be totally crazy by august. Not doing anything to make it grow. Lots of sunny days and rain.

Amazing!! Thanks for this.

@Solasum mine are grey round the edges too. I have five of them. They have all grown fine. I’m choosing to ignore it for now

I took a photo. As u can see through the new green foliage there are grey parts. All of my English lavender have it. Doesn’t seem to bother them. I read somewhere that it is down the over watering. But I planted mine and just ignored them.

The grey bits are just previous growth - new growth is greener and softer. Perfectly normal.

@darlingdodo thanks.

This is mine… pretty sure they aren’t supposed to look like this?

Whole plant.

it is in a pot and has grown hugely this year

The plant looks very healthy but the top picture looks as if something might have been chewing the tops of the shoots. You could trim it, but you'll lose the flowers, which would be sad.

I planted lavender last year, and was a lot smaller than expected, and didnt grow much. Forgot about it until this spring and in the space of a few months its tripled in size! Love sitting out when its sunny and watching the bees on it! I gather that they can be temperamental to 'take' when planted, but once its established its really low maintenance.

@darlingdodo any idea of how I can save the rest of the flowers? Is there something I should spray it with?

Depending where you live, rosemary beetle might be the culprit, I think they're only in far south of UK yet, though. You can give the plant a blast with a power hose to try and dislodge any pests, but I don't think lavender has any serious pest issues - I wouldn't spray because the bees love lavender so much. I'm sure it will be fine after a haircut - best time to prune is late summer after the flowers are past their best.

Solasum I don't think yours looks that bad! It looks nibbled, like DD says. Have you a dog? Or a strimmer? Or was it cut already innthe last few months and the ends frosted?

I'd do nothing! Soon the flowers will grow and hide the straggly bits. Whereas if you cut it, you'll get no flowers.

Reminds me of this...

There are cats regularly in the garden, though not quite sure how they would access the nibbled stems, as the plant is quite big and not sure where they would have stood. Will just leave them and see what happens. Thanks all.