Okay, so does anyone know what could be 'wrong' with my L. angustifolia 'alba'? It's absolutely 'massive' in terms of the flower stems; they're so long! I thought lavenders were supposed to grow more compact if you prune them twice a year (which I did). Then again, this is their first real growing season in my garden, but it looks so weird.

Hm, I think they look good, and that's fairly normal for flowers on new plants. The flower stems are usually quite long, and after flowering is finished (or when you harvest your flowers for sachets) you should cut them off right above the foliage.

Here's a picture of the purple variety of angustifolia, and it also has very long stems, but there are so many of them it looks great. English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

You shouldn't prune those baby plants this year, either. Give them a chance to grow into the nice little bushes they want to be. They're going to look really good by the end of the summer, I'll predict.

Next year it won't look nearly so odd when the long flower stems appear on bigger plants. I think you might want to start pruning for shape next year in the fall 2016. After that, they will bloom generously like the ones in the picture above.

I read that lavenders should be pruned even in their first year to get a nice bushy plant. They just look so odd to me now.

By the way, should I move some out of those beds to give them all more space? They're only two years old I guess, but already crowding each other out....

I think it will make a nice, full mass planting in that space. Those kind of Mediterranean herbs will grow with very little space and poor soil in their native areas, so I would think they'll do fine. If you want to plant other things with them, then yes, you need to move a couple of them elsewhere. But I really think it will look great just as a little bed full of white lavender. No room for weeds either!

I imagine next year the flowers won't flop and they won't look odd to you by then. They're just babies with weaker stems right now.