french lavender 120319
By Franl155
21 Mar, 2012
1 like
nine months on. I wasn't sure about when to cut them back, or whether they needed to be sheltered overwinter - eventually I cut half of them back to varying degrees, and put some cut and uncut ones under cover, and left some of each out, so I covered all the bases. This is a cut and uncut left-outside: maybe the right-hand one could do with a bit of a trim, to leave room for hte new grwoth: don't know wether hte cut ones will come back or ont. I may have cut too much, or at the wrong time, or maybe they just didn't like being snowed on - apparently French Lavender is more tender than others.
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I've seen some mini lavender plants on eBay, think I'll have a go at them next: the size will help, and if they're not as tender as French, all the better!
The care instructions I found said not to overwater, got to be covered in winter, and a lot more - hard ont to overwater with the rain we had, and don't have room for more than a couple in my mini greenhouse. Think I'll just chalk this up to experience: bury the obviously dead and try to nurture the others for as long as possible.
21 Mar, 2012
English lavenders may be the right plant for you Fran. They are very good in drought and quite hardy. If you get them early in the year they should make a nice size plant by the winter which should help. You just have to remember not to cut into old wood. If they start looking a bit woody at the base, I saw an article telling you to replant them burying the woody stems and planting lower in the soil/pot. Im going to give that a try :))))
22 Mar, 2012
I was tempted to get the lavender already, but thought I'd wait till I had somewhere to put 'em. But I'm leaning more and more towards getting them now: the old very large pots of dead lavender can make way for new very small ones.
22 Mar, 2012
Yeah get rid of the dead stuff Fran - its depressing. You can forget about the failures and just concentrate on the promise of things to come. You have to be optimistic to be a gardener dont you think? lol
22 Mar, 2012
this is my first ever garden, I knew I'd kill a lot of plants while learning really from the ground up, looks like I'm off to a good start there! lol
22 Mar, 2012
Join the club Fran! I have this problem with French lavender all the time. The books say cut it back a little at the end of the year, then again in spring. You are advised not to cut into old wood. I had three nice large domes of it last year, now I have only one. Ill probably buy some more because I like it so much. I might try cuttings again but have had little success so far :((( any advice on this would be appreciated anyone???
21 Mar, 2012