Lavender has become quite the popular perennial to grow in home gardens. Not only is it one of those highly drought-tolerant plants, but lavender is also incredibly low-maintenance. The most important thing they require is a prune once their blooms come to an end for the year.
Similar to mowing a lawn, the pruning process encourages big flushes of new growth while keeping the bushes in a nice, rounded shape. Unpruned lavender plants can get quite mangled, woody, and unsightly if they are left to their own devices. This can even cause them to be susceptible to high winds and disease issues. Taking to her TikTok gardening page @anyathegardenfairy, Anya Lautenbach shared how she prunes her lavender to “extend their life span” and “encourage more flowers” to grow.
In the video, Anya demonstrated how to prune your lavender back hard. She grabbed a ribbon and tied it around the middle of her lavender plant before grabbing a pair of scissors and cutting just below it.
She captioned the video: “I do this every summer because lavender should be pruned after flowering between late summer and autumn or in the springtime.
Anya then went on to explain her reason for this. She said: “Pruning your plants correctly will prevent your plant from becoming woody, extend their lifespan, and it will encourage more flowers next year.
“Pruning your plants hard will result in bushy plants and more flowers the following year.”
The secret to pruning lavender is cutting it in moderation. Don’t cut too low into the woody stems, but don’t just give it a light top prune either.
While some gardeners may think that it’s too early to prune lavender, waiting too long can be a big mistake.
Putting off the task will mean that the plant will expend energy on setting seed rather than on new growth.
Pruning early (sometimes as early as mid-August) gives the lavender a chance to start putting out new growth when the weather is still nice and mild.