How And When Do I Prune Lavender?

Pruning lavender depends on the type of lavender you’re growing. English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is the most commonly grown. It is very well adapted to prolonged drought and preserves water effectively so will hardly need watering unless it is wilting. If you are growing lavender in a pot or tub, you will need to water it more frequently but not much, only when the soil has dried out for a couple of days. Lavender is a very simple plant to prune; for the first year of its growth you should leave it completely alone and then each year after flowering in the autumn, you should cut the top six inches of growth off. Doing this will keep an English lavender plant compact for many years and a well-pruned plant can last for 20 years or more without becoming woody. Lavender is easy to propagate so you can take some cuttings and replant to grow for the next year. Alternatively, if you want to encourage new growth at the base of an existing long-standing plant, you can do so in three stages:
1)Cut the foliage back about one third in spring, which will cause the lavender to put on new bushy growth.
2)Leave the new growth to develop for a month or so and then cut back that growth by half, which usually causes foliage to appear at the base of the plant.
3)If the previous step worked prune the old growth so it is approximately 5cm above the new growth.
It is important to remember never to prune into old wood that has no new growth from it as it will never be productive again.

I have a large lavender tree,well my mum says its lavender,but its very different to what grows in borders!!!! It already has green buds on but it really needs trimming as there are to many bare branches at the bottom! Is it safe to do this time of year as I would hate to loose it.

Basically, most lavendars should be pruned every year immediately after bloom. Pruning should not be confused with harvesting. The flower wand stems are usually a bright green color while the actual Lavendar leaves are grey. You need to cut back the flower stem, as well as about a third of the grey leaved stems as well. If you haven't pruned it previously, it may need to be cut back a little more, but sure you don't cut too far down so that only woody stems with no leaves are showing. If you do prune too far down into the wood, it may only push out "sleeping" buds or in fact, die.

You can find more information on Lavendars here.

Prune after it has finished flowering.

Lavender is an evergreen plant which has originated from Western Mediterranean. It has beautiful flowers in pink, white or purple color. Pruning gives the plant an attractive look and also helps it to bush up. Pruning is usually done after the plant has flowers, which is usually in the Autumn season. You can find out about Pruning of Lavender in detail at the link below:
www.wikihow.com