How and When to Prune Lavender For Beautiful Blooms

Lavender is without doubt one of the most adored Mediterranean herbs, however getting it to develop in that quintessential bushy mound is just not all the time a easy activity. The elegant purple-topped shrubs you see in English herb gardens are solely achieved by means of common pruning.

Whereas it could look like a purely aesthetic activity, pruning is definitely an important a part of caring for this herbaceous perennial plant. In reality, un-pruned lavender shrubs are extra vulnerable to foliar ailments, woodiness, or unpleasant leggy progress that may trigger the plant to fall over.

Many gardeners are afraid of pruning as a result of they assume they’ll damage or kill their vegetation. The truth is that almost all gardeners don’t prune sufficient.

Lavender truly relishes on this twice-annual haircut as a result of it provides the plant the chance to develop its roots and ship vitality into lush new progress. Most significantly, pruning will make sure you get pleasure from a blinding floral show all through the summer season.

Let’s dig into the 7 easy steps to pruning lavender for stunning and aromatic progress.

First, Ought to You Even Prune Lavender?

There are various advantages to common lavender pruning.

Similar to mowing your garden, pruning encourages a brand new flush of progress. Once you reduce this perennial herb, it triggers the plant to ship up extra of its beautiful, fragrant flowers. On the similar time, this twice-annual course of ensures that your plant stays wholesome for years to return.

The advantages of pruning lavender embrace:

Extra Flowers	The obvious cause to prune lavender is that it encourages higher flower manufacturing. That is particularly essential within the spring as a result of chopping again the stems tells the plant to ship up new rising suggestions that may finally flip to blooms.
Much less Illness	The mangled, overcrowded stems of un-pruned lavender can shortly cut back air circulation and grow to be a breeding floor for fungal ailments. By chopping again the plant, you may be certain that your lavender stays aerated and doesn’t develop its stems too densely.
More healthy Foliage	Bushy, lush foliage progress is each wholesome for the plant and enticing to the attention. Pruning triggers extra bushy, vibrant lavender progress. Then again, un-pruned lavender might develop lengthy, leggy stems which are extra sparse and produce fewer blooms.
Root Progress	Common pruning encourages root improvement in perennial herbs. A powerful root system is important for long-lasting, vigorous lavender vegetation. It’s particularly essential to prune within the fall as a result of it encourages lavender to retailer vitality in its roots, making it extra hardy by means of the winter.
Much less Woody Progress	Lavender is technically a semi-woody plant that ought to solely have a small mound of hardwood at its base. As a result of flowers and leaves don’t develop from previous wooden, you’ll wish to recurrently prune lavender to maintain it from changing into unshapely.
Visually Pleasing Form	These excellent gumdrop-shaped lavender mounds can solely be achieved by means of a daily haircut. Lavender naturally can develop fairly unwieldy and will not look too nice within the backyard if it’s left to its personal gadgets.

Fortunately, pruning is just about the one upkeep lavender wants. As soon as they’re established, these shrubs require little or no care except for an occasional watering or calcium addition.

7 Steps to Completely Pruned Lavender

There’s no denying that pruning can really feel intimidating. The place do you begin? How a lot do you chop off? What if you happen to reduce off an excessive amount of? Don’t fear; each gardener has confronted these questions in some unspecified time in the future. Right here’s all the pieces you have to know to get began on a easy twice-annual pruning schedule for stunning, wholesome lavender vegetation.

Step 1: Use Sharp & Sanitized Instruments

Gardener pruning lavender with sharp shears in the garden. The tools have been properly cleaned before making the cut to limit disease. The flowers are tall and purple. — Correct sanitization will assist restrict illness.

Unsanitized instruments are one of many essential vectors for ailments within the backyard. As a rule of thumb, you need to sanitize your knives, pruners, or scissors earlier than and after chopping any plant.

This may be so simple as dunking them in a diluted bleach answer (1 half bleach to 9 elements water works nicely) or wiping the blades with alcohol. Then, rinse off, dry, and get to pruning.

Relying on the age of your lavender, you most likely don’t want heavy-duty instruments. Should you begin whereas the plant is younger, try to be primarily pruning tender, inexperienced progress for many of its life.

Needle nostril pruners or sharp backyard shears will simply get the job carried out. For strategically chopping again woody progress on stems thicker than 2”, a pair of ratcheting pruners or loppers may be actually helpful.

Step 2: Do the First Pruning in Spring

Gardener doing a spring pruning of a shrub. The gardener is wearing blue gloves and is clipping the lavender at the top of the plant with black pruning shears that have orange handles. — The primary pruning ought to all the time happen within the spring.

Proper after this perennial plant sends out its first blossoms within the spring, it’s time to seize your pruners. This will coincide completely along with your first harvest of flowering stems for bouquets.

This primary chopping is taken into account a “tender pruning” since you don’t reduce it again fairly as intensely as you need to within the fall. The first objective of the spring haircut is to encourage one other flush of leaves and flowers for the summer season.

You must also reduce lavender with this methodology when transplanting into the bottom or a container.

This may assist it channel vitality into root improvement in its new dwelling. Whether or not you’re rising lavender for the primary time or beginning a pruning regime with an current plant, do not forget that spring is an important time for regenerating the plant to organize for a vibrant summer season.

Step 3: Prune Again ½ of the Inexperienced Progress

Gardener pruning shrub taking about half the length off at the middle of the plant. Gardener is wearing a blue shirt and is pruning with black shears that have green handles. — Pruning again inexperienced progress will stimulate bloom manufacturing.

Wait till the primary flush of flowers begins to dry as much as start pruning.

Begin grabbing handfuls of the stem tops and reduce them from the bottom.
Find the woody crown of the plant, then go up 2-4” from the bottom.
That is the place you’ll wish to reduce.
Keep away from chopping into the arduous brown elements of the decrease stem.
It must be simple to chop the inexperienced progress with common hand pruners.

Take your flower stems and bundle them to dry or throw them within the compost. You may also use this chance to take softwood cuttings and propagate your lavender right into a bunch of latest child vegetation.

Step 4. Do a Second Pruning within the Fall

Gardener working in the fall garden to prune shrubs. Gardener is using pruning shears with green handles and is wearing a silver ring. — You may prune more durable within the fall, which is able to assist prep for spring blooms.

After a full summer season of flowering, lavender is prepared for a “more durable” pruning within the fall. In the event that they aren’t harvested, you’ll discover the final flush of flowers begins to dry and go to seed.

It’s essential to get your pruning carried out at the very least 5-6 weeks earlier than the primary frosts arrive so the plant has time to organize. In zones 6 by means of 9, that is usually within the months of September and October.

The primary goal of the autumn pruning is to encourage the plant to drive its vitality downward into the roots. Because it places extra vitamins and sugars within the root zone, lavender can construct up the sturdy storage it must survive the winter.

That is notably essential in zones 6 and colder as a result of the lavender could also be dormant beneath snow for a lot of months.

The arduous fall pruning additionally helps preserve the plant stout to the bottom so it doesn’t lose branches or collapse in winter storms. Straggly facet branches can simply break off below snowpack or excessive winds.

Chopping them again ensures the perfect air circulation doable for the muggy, moist, or snowy winter to return. The result’s much less illness, extra chilly hardiness, and more healthy progress within the spring.

Step 5: Minimize Again as much as ⅔ of the Plant

Gardener is using green plastic shears to prune a shrub in the garden. The flowers are blooming purple atop the silvery green foliage. — Most gardeners to not prune aggressively sufficient.

The primary mistake gardeners make when pruning lavender is not pruning arduous sufficient. Whereas it could look like you’re hurting the plant, chopping again as much as two-thirds of the lavender’s progress provides it the vitality and form it wants for winter.

Start by roughly snipping off any remaining flower stems.
This may reveal the form of the plant beneath.
Find the middle woody crown of the plant.
Relying on the lavender’s age, it could seem like a stout trunk with a number of facet branches or a skinny woody twig that’s nonetheless creating.
Both manner, use this crown as your focus all through the pruning course of.
Begin chopping the tender inexperienced stems about 1-2” above the woody crown.
It must be simple to snip them and lay the stems to the facet.
It’s going to seem like one-half to two-thirds of the plant’s general top has been eliminated.
About 1-3” of silvery-green progress must be left behind on the base of the plant.

When doubtful, I like to recommend pruning more durable than you assume you need to. So long as you don’t injury the crown, you received’t damage the plant.

Step 6: Form to Match Your Desired Wants

Garden lavender growing in rows in the garden with strong purple blooms at the top of each plant. The plant is shaped like a long hedge. — Form your lavender for its supposed objective in your backyard.

Some gardeners desire a gumdrop form, a stout mound, or perhaps a conical form for potted lavender vegetation. As you make your cuts, you could go shorter on the perimeters and longer within the center to create an arc or mounded form. This may finally have an effect on how the plant grows all through the next 12 months.

Think about a circle across the perimeter of the crown and a mound excessive.

This 3D visualization will assist you form the plant as you chop. Usually step again and look at the plant from floor degree and above to make sure you are chopping into the form you need. Think about how every of these stems will ship up a brand new flower stalk within the spring.

If that is the primary time pruning your lavender after a 12 months or extra of progress, it could take a number of seasons to realize the perfect form you need. If in case you have uncared for pruning your lavender, you’ll have to be much more affected person about getting it again to an aesthetically-pleasing form.

Step 7: Keep away from Chopping Into the Wooden Crown

Light purple blooming shrub growing in stone planter in garden.. It is growing near several other plants, including green leafy foliage at the base. Grass grows in the background as do other trees and shrubs. — Keep away from chopping into the wooden crown of the plant.

Crucial factor to recollect in the course of the pruning course of is to keep away from chopping into crown wooden. Although it doesn’t have any golden jewels round it, this base crown is like the center of the lavender plant. It mediates the expansion between the below-ground and above-ground plant elements, basically appearing like a bridge between the roots and stems.

Similar to a strawberry crown or a daffodil tuber, lavender’s crown wants to remain barely above the soil so as to withstand root rot. Damage to the crown can simply introduce pathogens. Chopping off an excessive amount of of the heartwood can injury and even kill your lavender.

Whereas “don’t reduce into lavender wooden” looks as if a hard-and-fast rule, some guidelines are supposed to be barely damaged. Professional lavender growers assert that chopping into the wooden may be justified when the plant has many branches that pose a threat to its well being.

For instance, if you happen to haven’t pruned your lavender shortly, it could have lengthy unruly branches rising out to the facet that will snap off below strain. It’s OK to strategically reduce these again.

Think about the lavender crown as a tree trunk: chopping off a number of facet branches received’t damage it, however slashing a noticed by means of the middle might kill the tree. Use your finest judgment to make sure that the plant has sufficient of its crown wholesome and intact to maintain its progress by means of winter and the next spring.

Last Ideas

Pruning is significant for wholesome and delightful lavender progress. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to be rocket science. Should you really feel intimidated by pruning, relaxation assured that unhealthy pruning continues to be higher than no pruning in any respect. These vegetation are fairly resilient and forgiving.

Crucial tricks to bear in mind about pruning lavender are:

At all times sanitize your instruments.
In the reduction of about half of the lavender’s inexperienced progress within the spring.
The objective of the spring pruning is encouraging new flushes of progress and flowers.
Do your second pruning within the fall when the final flush of flowers has pale.
Use this time to form the plant into an aesthetically-pleasing kind.
The objective of the autumn pruning is root improvement.
The spring pruning is “softer” as a result of it leaves 2-4” of progress above the bottom.
The autumn pruning is “more durable” as a result of solely 1-3” of stems are left behind.

On the finish of the day, pruning is similar to giving lavender a haircut. You may even educate children learn how to do it!