Rescuing Lavenders help

Harry Palmr

I got some Hidcote late last summer and put them in what I thought would be a good spot unfortunately they never thrived (one died) as they simply didn't get enough direct sunlight and the soil turned out to be just too heavy over the winter. I've decided to give them a chance by transferring them - shaking off most of the soil - to pots with fresh compost and keeping them indoors in the sun for a while.

They've never really flowered and having snipped the dead wood two of the three are just 4 or 5 inches high/wide with just a smattering of green shoots. The third is taller at about a foot and has a more healthy countenance about it.

Am I wasting my time trying to coax them back?

New Home

Personally, I'd always try and rescue a plant, no matter what state it's in. But I'm sure lots of people here would disagree.

Stheno

I have a couple of lavenders from last year like that in pots, and am trying to rescusitate them too

They are very woody with some green shoots down the bottom so I'm going to cut them back and see if they thrive even a little

New Home

I could easily be mistaken, but I seem to remember that you should only trim the green part of a lavender plant, whereas with sage you can prune more drastically and remove part of the old wooden branches, too.

magicbastarder

do i recall reading that you can bury lavender deep, so each branch buried will start to root?
i hope i did, because i did precisely this yesterday with three sorry looking lavender plants.

standardg60

magicbastarder wrote: »

do i recall reading that you can bury lavender deep, so each branch buried will start to root?
i hope i did, because i did precisely this yesterday with three sorry looking lavender plants.

Sounds like an interesting experiment anyway, let us know you get on.

standardg60

Harry Palmr wrote: »

I got some Hidcote late last summer and put them in what I thought would be a good spot unfortunately they never thrived (one died) as they simply didn't get enough direct sunlight and the soil turned out to be just too heavy over the winter. I've decided to give them a chance by transferring them - shaking off most of the soil - to pots with fresh compost and keeping them indoors in the sun for a while.

They've never really flowered and having snipped the dead wood two of the three are just 4 or 5 inches high/wide with just a smattering of green shoots. The third is taller at about a foot and has a more healthy countenance about it.

Am I wasting my time trying to coax them back?

Pics would be a great help.
Unfortunately most Lavanders are imported from the continent now and just don't seem to adjust to our wet winters.

GreeBo

New Home wrote: »

I could easily be mistaken, but I seem to remember that you should only trim the green part of a lavender plant, whereas with sage you can prune more drastically and remove part of the old wooden branches, too.

This is certainly the advice, but I have cut them back hard a number of times and they have returned.
Some might die, but I consider them dead to begin with, so no loss and potential gain.

GreeBo

magicbastarder wrote: »

do i recall reading that you can bury lavender deep, so each branch buried will start to root?
i hope i did, because i did precisely this yesterday with three sorry looking lavender plants.

You can certainly propagate lavender from cuttings (https://www.bhg.com.au/how-to-propagate-lavender) so burying it in the ground could easily lead to new plants, or death through rot or drying out.

Again if they are already half dead I wouldnt consider it a loss.

Personally I would cut it back how I want it to look and then "plant" the most promising of the off cuts and double my chances

Harry Palmr

standardg60 wrote: »

Pics would be a great help.
Unfortunately most Lavanders are imported from the continent now and just don't seem to adjust to our wet winters.

I'll stick a pic or two up tomorrow

looksee

I have 'inherited' a lavender that is about 8ft across. All the centre is massive (for lavender) branches collapsed on the ground radiating from a centre spot. It is just one plant. It has an enthusiastic sprawling fringe of growing green all round the edges. Odd branches die as they get too old to hang onto the middle part of the plant, but otherwise the edges are very much alive.

I am totally conflicted as to what to do about it. I think it will be allowed to stay, but work needs to be done on the paving and I don't fancy its chances if people start hauling out paving from under it!

Live at Three

looksee wrote: »

I have 'inherited' a lavender that is about 8ft across. All the centre is massive (for lavender) branches collapsed on the ground radiating from a centre spot. It is just one plant. It has an enthusiastic sprawling fringe of growing green all round the edges. Odd branches die as they get too old to hang onto the middle part of the plant, but otherwise the edges are very much alive.

I am totally conflicted as to what to do about it. I think it will be allowed to stay, but work needs to be done on the paving and I don't fancy its chances if people start hauling out paving from under it!

I think most lavenders are only good for a few years. They get woody and floppy and nothing like you want. This is the perfect time of year for softwood cuttings, so I would take 10 or 12 cuttings and hope for the best. Even if half of them took you'd have lots.

I do this myself every year with various bits.

GreeBo

looksee wrote: »

I have 'inherited' a lavender that is about 8ft across. All the centre is massive (for lavender) branches collapsed on the ground radiating from a centre spot. It is just one plant. It has an enthusiastic sprawling fringe of growing green all round the edges. Odd branches die as they get too old to hang onto the middle part of the plant, but otherwise the edges are very much alive.

I am totally conflicted as to what to do about it. I think it will be allowed to stay, but work needs to be done on the paving and I don't fancy its chances if people start hauling out paving from under it!

Can it be tied up to restore the shape?

Some pruning over a number of months might prompt it to grow from the centre again. If you cut it all back in one go it might just die off but if you do nothing it will just keep growing from the tips.

If it looks ugly now anyway then no harm in trying to save it and planting any bits you prune as backups.

GreeBo

Live at Three wrote: »

I think most lavenders are only good for a few years. They get woody and floppy and nothing like you want. This is the perfect time of year for softwood cuttings, so I would take 10 or 12 cuttings and hope for the best. Even if half of them took you'd have lots.

I do this myself every year with various bits.

If you keep cutting them back ever year they will last but once you let them go you are in trouble.

looksee

The easiest thing to do would be to take cuttings and start again, and probably the most aesthetic. However the thing is so big its kind of one of those appealing monstrosities that you leave as a curiosity. There is so much more of the garden needs more immediate attention that it has a reprieve while I think about it

Harry Palmr

Pix, a small one (the other is the same)



and the long tall one to quote Robert Plant



I bought the 4/5 from gardens4you, who I realised later were a pan Europe outfit with Dutch HQ, they were pretty raggy when they arrived and I made a mental note not to use them again.

GreeBo

Ah they will be fine by next year I reckon.


I have used that site before and didnt have any issues, perhaps covid-19 delays in transport that impacted the plants? (Unless you are saying they were just "structurally" poor?)

I bought a small japanese maple about 2 months ago and it was fine.

Harry Palmr

This was last year! About August I think, they arrived in a battered state and just had a look about them which was unkempt. Very impressed by the way Quickcrop package plants. Which they do describe as courier proof

standardg60

Certainly salvageable, let them dry out and put in the sunniest spot available