| I have had very good luck with lavendar plants for about the first two years. After that it seems to get extremely woody and does not produce as many flowers. Last year after cuting it back in the early spring it completely died. What am I doing wrong? |
| Lavender is in fact semi-woody and can almost be considered a shrub. When you cut it back, do not cut into the hard wood or you may shock it. When pruning in the spring, trim out any winter damage and then give it a neat shearing to tidy the overall outline to a softer billowing effect, roughly following the natural shape of the plant. Usually you would not remove more than at most a quarter of the plant when doing this. The trimming will encourage the new growth to be dense and well branched with many flower stems. After blooming, trim off the spent flowers and an inch or two of the new growth to stimulate rebloom. The repeated shearing should keep the plants in nice shape. |
