Do You Cut Lavender Back in Spring?

[Maralyn45]

Nice blog jojo..thanks for sharing it...

 

[FarmerDenise]

I use the spent lavender sticks and flowers in the chicken house to make it smell nicer and I also bundle them to use as firestarters.

 

[vfem]

I boil it down into a 'tea' to use for jelly.

 

[hoodat]

Well, thanks to everyone's advice, the lavender did great and now I'm trying to find other uses for it besides bouquets and sachets. I found instructions for a "lavender wand" for moth protection and tried it - really like the results so instructions for making lavender wands are here: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/09/08/lavender-wand-moth-repellant/ They do take a bit of time to make, but I still love the result!

I can't vouch for this since I haven't tried it but I ran across this recipe for lavender lemonde you may be interested in.


Summery Lavender Lemonade




recipe from the book, "The Edible Garden" by Sunset

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup lavender blossoms or 1 Tb. dried
1 cup fresh lemon juice
5 cups water


Combine 1 cup sugar with 2 1/2 cups water in a medium pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add 3/4 cup fresh lavender blossoms or 1 Tb. dried lavender blooms stripped from stems. Cover, remove from the heat, and let stand at least 20 minutes (or up to several hours)

Strain and discard the lavender. Pour into a glass pitcher. Add 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice and 2 1/2 cups water. Stir well. Pour into tall glasses half filed with ice or refrigerate until ready to use. Garnish with fresh lavender sprigs.

 

[Georgeanne]

Great adivce Craftmaster. However I am in the seed sales business and for some reason lavender and rosemary seeds are very popular. I will though tell customers that I see buying those seeds that they will be happier and much better success if they just spend a few bucks and buy a plant.

I don't want to discourage people but i do want them to have a rerwarding gardening experience. There are many seeds available to buy but some of them are best left to them most experienced gardeners.

I grew a very large clump of lavender from seed without any difficulty...it is one of the common types...good thing I didn't know it was difficult to grow from seed or I'm sure I would have failed...my question re: lavender is this: if I push aside the vigorous growth and look into the center it is all barren and old looking...it's really ugly when you look in there...I'm assuming after reading the above entries that I should leave it until new growth happens and then cut out the deadish looking branches??

 

[hoodat]

Thanks everyone, this probably saved the poor thing. I was wanting to prune it back to the ground like I do with many of the perennials, and I probably would have killed it!

Glad to hear this. I'll go cut my Spanish lavender to the ground and hope it dies off. I planted it for the bees but it is hogging too much garden space. I didn't want to dig it out and leave a big hole I had to backfill. If it dies I can just let the roots rot in place.

 

[Adambelmont321]

Even I think I should cut my lavender too. Thanks for all of your advices.