Monty Don has shared key gardening advice to stop lavender plants from becoming leggy and unkempt this summer, and it only takes minutes. Many UK gardeners favour growing lavender for its resilient nature and ability to thrive across multiple seasons, along with its striking beauty.
This hardy evergreen Mediterranean shrub is celebrated for its bee-friendly blooms and fragrant foliage, adding vibrant colour to any garden. However, without proper care, these purple plants can quickly become straggly and untidy.
What Does 'Leggy' Lavender Mean?
A leggy lavender plant has sparse, elongated, woody stems with fewer leaves and blooms than a healthy specimen. It produces fewer flowers and takes on a distinctly woody appearance, often due to poor pruning or a lack thereof.
Monty Don's Pruning Advice
To revive a leggy lavender, Monty Don recommends pruning in mid-August to "just above the green shoots". The ideal time is when "the flowers have gone over and the plant is not yet setting seed". He advises: "You don't want to wait until the flowers have turned brown. Just as soon as they're past their best, cut it back."
He adds: "You can cut as hard as you like, as long as you leave some new growth beneath the cutting point." However, caution is needed: "If you cut just down to bare wood, sometimes they don't regrow at all, and that's it - you lose them." The goal is a compact shape without legginess.
Benefits of Summer Pruning
After pruning, the lavender plant will "put on a fresh flush of growth, providing a protective layer over winter". Next spring, it will form flower buds from a well-shaped shrub. If new shoots don't appear within a month, Monty suggests starting again.
Trimming lavender after blooming keeps the plant neat and prevents it from becoming too woody and straggly.
