Lavender Tree Worry!

Bellskees

Hi,

Have 2 gorgeous lavender plants in my garden.....I amworried about them since the bad frost we've had. They look so brown & wilted. (have been watering them) I know it is not time to see any buds or anything but is there anything i can do to protect them? Am afraid to trim them yet as it's too early in the year. Just looking for any advice really...

Thanks

looksee

Your title is a bit confusing, are these trees or are you talking about lavender plants (shrubby plants)? If they are lavender plants and are badly damaged all you can do is trim them back and wait and see. Don't prune hard to old wood. My experience has been that once a lavendar plant starts to look sick its difficult to rescue it.
If they are trees though I think we need a pic

Xiney

lavender:


lilac tree (only other thing I could think the OP could be referring to):

looksee

Yes, I was thinking it might be a lilac, but out of curiosity I googled and apparently there is such a thing as a lavender tree, but its a tender south African tree so it could well have died.

Bellskees

Hi,

Sorry for confusion! It is a french lavender plant...
Normally when in bloom it looks like this:lav.gif

At the moment it is very brown & sick looking

Is it ok to cut them back at this time of year? Will I not be cutting potential new growth?

Thanks

The Sweeper

Hey Bellskees - french lavender benefits well from a good prune, but it's usually a summer prune, just after flowering, when the flower tips are dying off. If you don't prune your lavender, it runs the risk of becoming 'woody' in the centre.

The rule of thumb with sick plants is that dead leaves won't come back to life, but the stems and stalks they're on will often produce new leaves. Given that it looks extremely sickly, you might want to prune it now so it can take advantage of spring to put forward new shoots. I'd try removing last year's wood - the growth just from last year. If the bush looks terribly sick indeed, you can give it a very hard prune by reducing it in size by one third to one half, but it is going to take a little while to come back from that.

Still, climate wise, an Irish spring is going to be like a mediterranean autumn - lots of rain, warmer than winter, more light - prune it and keep your fingers crossed. Lavender are very hardy and they do benefit from a prune every year.

Look, the worst thing that'll happen if you prune it, is it will keel over and die. By the sounds of it, it's looking pretty damn sick anyway, so look at this as a final attempt to get it to rally. Otherwise, dig it out and replace with a new french lavender - they shouldn't be hard to find.