When it comes to gardening, you don’t need to know everything about the plants you’re growing, but it helps to understand the watering and pruning requirements of things like lavender. This beautifully coloured perennial shrub can flourish magnificently in the right conditions, and should return year after year with abundant flowers, reports the Express.
However, much of this success depends on pruning, for which gardening experts suggest following a straightforward rule. A gardening expert at Monrovia Nurseries advised shaping English lavender and hybrid varieties into a “tidy, rounded mound of foliage” that looks appealing year-round, including winter and summer. To ensure a bushier display of flowers, the 8-8-8 rule is essential, according to gardening enthusiasts.
Several members of the Gardening Hints and Tips UK Facebook Group recommended the pruning tip when one member asked how to tackle a “huge lavender plant” in her garden. Green-fingered gardeners responded with identical advice: “Eight inches on the eighth day of the eighth month.”
The 8-8-8 rule for lavender is a pruning method that involves cutting English lavender plants back to approximately eight inches (20cm) on the eighth day of the month (August).
One gardening group member observed that doing so is said to “maintain a compact, bushy shape and encourage healthy new growth for the following year.”
Nevertheless, the rule doesn’t explain precisely how to prune lavender plants correctly. Fortunately, it’s simple to understand.
Hardy lavenders should ideally be pruned post-flowering in late August or September.
The horticultural specialists at Thompson Morgan suggest trimming eight inches from the top of the plant, but always making sure to cut just above a cluster of new shoots.
They warned: “Go any lower and the lavender will die.”
Frost-resistant lavenders have a prolonged blooming period, so prune them once the initial flowering has subsided, using the same techniques as for hardy lavender.
Subsequently, just deadhead regularly and tidy up at the end of the season if needed. Refrain from pruning later than mid-September.