Perfect amount to prune lavender off so it 'bounces back' without 'killing it'

24 September 2023 , 10:27

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Lavender is a versatile plant with a lot of uses (Stock photo) (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Loved for its aroma, taste and relaxing properties, lavender is a popular flowering plant that is used in everything from cosmetics to perfume, food, drink and cleaning products. Lavender typically flowers in late spring and the summer and experts rave about how easy it is to grow thanks to its low maintenance.

Lavender plants need to be watered regularly in their early stages but after that, they rarely need much from their gardener other than pruning - which is when parts of a plant are trimmed or removed to keep the plant healthy and help it to grow at its best.

Lavender is low maintenance but it does need to be pruned in a specific way. If the plant is left to grow too big and is not pruned enough or at all, it grows a woody base that is not aesthetically pleasing and its lifespan is shortened. If a lavender plant is pruned too much, it can kill the plant.

To keep your lavender plant healthy, striking the perfect balance when pruning is essential and over on the Gardening UK Facebook page, some green-thumbed community members shared their pruning tips for novice lavender lovers after one woman asked for tips on how far back she could prune her plant, as it was taking up a lot of room in her garden.

One helpful comment said: "Cutting back as far as you can, leaving green leaves is the right amount for the plant to bounce back beautifully. Read up on how to take cuttings from it and use some of your trimmings to try and propagate a few new plants, then you can dig out the old one and start again as that plant is always going to be big and woody now."

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Another suggestion told the novice: "I suggest giving it a light prune, taking 12 to 15 cm off. After two to three weeks you'll see new growth at the base and that would be your guide for where to prune." Someone else said: "As others have said, don't cut into the old wood, or you'll probably kill it! Just about any plant grown against a wall will arch out simply looking for light."

Sharing their success stories after careful pruning, one person wrote: "I cut my lavender right back to get it to be a smaller shape because it was getting really leggy and they've grown back with so much green growth right at the bottom." Another shared their luck and chimed in with: "I had three lavenders in pots, all were struggling. I cut them right down, almost to the ground, and moved them to my border. The following year they grew back beautifully with stunning blooms."

Naimah Archibald-Powell