Come talk lavender with me

[OllieWollieWoo]

I love lavender and all around me (ie in other peoples gardens) see lovely & lucious thick bunches of the stuff whereas mine just grows into a straggly mess - esp one year one after planting! Are there some magical tips I should be following? Help please!

You probably need to prune it. IIRC, you shouldn't prune into the old wood, just the new bits.

Thanks for that Soup Dragon - sorry to sound a bit thick (am new to this gardening lark!) but what time of year do I do this?!!!

I've always done it in Autumn but I'm not a gardener at all.

here it says it is "simplicity itself"

I think if you prune it now it won't really flower this year.

Ollie I crave big lavender bushes too. The ones in the shpps are tiny and usually die on me

Is there somewhere you can actually buy established bushes?

I have a nice big bush. 2 in fact, one at the front and one at the back.

They were established before I moved in though, I've just tended them.

Oh how lovely Soupy.
at your bushes!!

My mother keeps telling me to dig up the one at the back because it's too old but it is glorious. I gave it a good prune last autumn and it seems to have bounced back in a neater shape. I also rescued the one in the front actually - it was too shaded by other plants but this year it's fabulous.

However, I really can't take much (if any) credit for them as they were large when we moved here.

Mmm sounds wonderful...my Grandmother's garden was full of it when we were small.

I've finally found a garden the same sort of size and shape as hers, and if I'm honest I want to recreate it in its entirety.

I have a lot of roses planted, as she did, and trees...but the established element is what we need, (plus the lavender!) and though parts of it are established I need to be here a good few years to get it anywhere near my Grandmother's.

Oh well...you never know. We just rent but I hope we get to stay here for years and years!

Thanks both of you for the help - and inspiration! I buy small lavender plants every year but this is the year I am determined to nuture them! Hopefully next year I will be able to talk about my big bush too!!!!!

I prune mine later - late winter/early spring - by then you can see where the new growth is going to come and that helps you to avoid pruning into the old wood.

I love lavender- I think it's my favourite plant tbh.

If you plant them in containers they stay small and 'bushy' as the roots cannot spread.... but that might just be my luck, rather than because I know what I'm doing

I love the dwarf varieties too- they look gorgeous.

if i pick the flowers off my lavendar will it grow more? the whole idea that plants are there to flower and get pollenated etc.

bit confused though...

our bushes were planted a year ago and have done really well - lots of feeding and pruning back in autumn seems to have helped, jsut not sure about the flowers