Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Zippy on July 17, 2010, 20:19

Title: Overgrown Lavender - can I salvage?
Post by: Zippy on July 17, 2010, 20:19
i have salvaged overgrown Lavendar in the past by mounding up earth until the branches are covered, but this one has become a monster (see pic). It is encroaching on all around it inclusding a scrambling rose and my Plum Tree and i can't have that.

Will it have to go?

How easy is it to strike cuttings off Lavendar?  

Have I got the right species anyway? Perhaps there are smaller ones?
Title: Re: Overgrown Lavendar - can I salvage?
Post by: GrannieAnnie on July 17, 2010, 23:12
Personally I think once lavender gets to that stage it spoils the look of it.  I find cuttings take really easily.  I just take heel cuttings off, damp the ends and dip into hormone rooting powder, but I have also just stuck the cuttings in a pot or even straight into the ground and hardly ever lose any.

From 1 plant, I've now got quite a few in my front obrder, which now themselves are looking a bit big and untidy!
Title: Re: Overgrown Lavendar - can I salvage?
Post by: mumofstig on July 17, 2010, 23:20
some of the newer varieties do not grow as tall, so perhaps it is time for a change - rather than just propogating the one you have ;)
Title: Re: Overgrown Lavendar - can I salvage?
Post by: Trillium on July 18, 2010, 16:36
This is actually the perfect time to harvest the flowers for drying, and that will sort out the untidy growth problem. But don't prune down to old (hard) woody areas as the plant will not rebloom from those.
Title: Re: Overgrown Lavendar - can I salvage?
Post by: Zippy on July 18, 2010, 17:26
Thanks trillium but this shrub has already sprawled and has an open bowl of hardwood which has become unsightly. I think it needs to be replanted deeper to lose this and to possibly root several plants from it as the new growth takes root in the new soil.  I have done this before with mounding but this has become too big to mound again.

Title: Re: Overgrown Lavendar - can I salvage?
Post by: TheSpartacat on July 24, 2010, 14:47
I did just that with an old lavendar Zippy and it worked... planted it down deeper, (i actually made some teeny incisions in some of the woody stems to encourage new root production)... it launched new roots and I broke it up into smaller plants from there.
Tried it again with a different one and nada....
Its worth a try- alongside taking some cuttings? Worst case scenario, you'll be digging it up next year to replace- at least burying it deeper will cover the unsightly woody bits in the meantime.?  :unsure:
Title: Re: Overgrown Lavender - can I salvage?
Post by: granjan on July 25, 2010, 19:09
I tend to take cuttings every year when I prune my lavenders.  That way I've always got new ones coming on.  Some of the newer varieties are lovely but seem shorter-lived.  Perhaps that is just my experience   :unsure: