How to prune and trim lavender: when and where to cut

Updated on 22 September 2026Published on 18 September 2019

Flowers cut while still open, placed in a closet in a pouch, pot-pourri or bowl, give the laundry a nice smell — true lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is grown for that harvest as much as for its shape. Trimming lavender, also called pruning lavender, is simply a matter of knowing where to cut: snip only the current year’s leaves, never the old dry wood, and repeated pruning will give magnificent plants.

Although the plant will grow fine if it isn’t pruned, your lavender will never be more beautiful than if you care for it regularly. Lavender blooms magnificently when the plant is well trimmed, so that the best flowers and the best fragrance appear.

Maintenance pruning on lavender also keeps it from seeming bare or sparse.

Read also:

Trimming lavender

To help lavender keeps its figure, the best technique is to prune on a regular basis. Pruning lavender every year will enhance blooming.

When to prune lavender

The right time to prune lavender is after the blooming, at the end of summer.
Keeping up with this repeated pruning will result in magnificent plants.
Start pruning your lavender as soon as you have it, very young.
Pruning yearly from the very start will make sure the shape stays beautiful as it grows old.

Don’t hesitate to occasionally prune during the blooming if you wish to harvest lavender flowers.

For example, you can craft lavender wands that will last up to four years!
You may also use flowers that are still open and place them in a closet in a pouch, pot-pourri or bowl. This will give the laundry a nice smell.

Maintenance pruning of lavender

After blooming, remove wilted flowers and preserve the shape of the lavender shrub with the following steps:

How to prune lavender — Cut on the current year’s leaves never on old wood

Lavender is only pruned on tender wood, ideally on the year’s growth.
Old growth never sends new shoots out (curious why?). If lavender is pruned on old growth, it can’t grow back, and there is a chance it would die.
Best practices are to snip all around the lavender plant, without ever cutting old, dry wood.
A good way to do this is to cut on the current year’s leaves.

Common lavender varieties and what they ask of you

All lavenders follow the same rule — cut on the current year’s growth, never on old wood — but size, colour and hardiness vary a good deal between the types sold in garden centres. Use the table below to pick the one that suits your spot, and to judge how much trimming it will need.

Common lavender varieties and what they ask of you
Variety	Height	Flower colour	Hardiness	Best use
Hidcote	40–60 cm	Deep violet-purple	Fully hardy	Low hedging, edging
Folgate	45–60 cm	Lavender-blue	Fully hardy	Cut and dried flowers
Provence	60–90 cm	Pale mauve-blue	Hardy in mild spots	Wands, pot-pourri, scent
Phenomenal	60–75 cm	Blue-purple	Very hardy	Damp or cold gardens, hedging
Anouk	40–50 cm	Purple with pale ears	Half-hardy	Containers, sheltered sunny spots

A video on trimming lavender

Here is a quick, fun two-minute video on how to correctly prune your own lavender.

What the video shows:

How to trim the plant so the best flowers and the best fragrance appear.
When to do it, with a simple pruning calendar.
The tools to use, and how to avoid building up useless old wood.

Use sharp, clean shears or secateurs on lavender: they slice stems cleanly instead of crushing or tearing them, which is why standard pruning guidance recommends well-maintained tools over blunt or dirty ones.
Leave a few centimetres of green, leafy growth below every cut on lavender, since the buds that will make next year’s shoots sit on that leafy part and not on the bare stem beneath it.
Prune lavender on a dry day rather than in damp weather: this is standard horticultural advice for a plant that dislikes persistent moisture, since dry conditions after cutting reduce the risk of fungal infection.

Which type of lavender pruning do you need?

Lavender isn’t pruned the same way at every stage of its life. Use this table to match the state of your plant, or your intentions, to the right technique and the right moment.

Which type of lavender pruning do you need?
Technique	When	What you cut	Why do it
Maintenance pruning	After blooming, at the end of summer, every year	Wilted flowers and the current year’s leaves, all around the plant	Keeps the shape, stops the shrub looking bare or sparse, enhances next year’s blooming
Harvest pruning	Occasionally, during the blooming	Flowering stems, still open	To harvest flowers for lavender wands, pouches, pot-pourri or bowls that scent the laundry
Hard pruning in portions	Spread over several years	Part of the plant at a time, never all the old wood at once	Rejuvenates an old, woody lavender instead of pulling it out
Layering	As an alternative to pruning an old plant	No cutting back of old wood at all	Renews an old, woody lavender by rooting its own branches

Whichever route you take, the golden rule stays the same: never cut into old, dry wood.

Other types of pruning for lavender

You might have read that lavender can’t take a hard pruning. That’s true, but it doesn’t mean that the only solution for an old lavender is to pull it out!

There are several ways to rejuvenate old, woody lavender.

These include the two following techniques:

hard pruning lavender over several years, in portions
layering lavender

When renovating an old lavender in stages, cut each stem back to a point where green leaves or visible buds remain, because bare grey wood rarely resprouts and often dies back instead.
Because lavender seldom reshoots from bare old wood, staged renovation is unreliable for it; instead prune lightly each year into young leafy growth, and replace plants that have already become woody and leggy.
To layer a woody lavender, peg a low, flexible outer branch down so a section of it sits in contact with the soil, leaving the leafy tip free, and keep that spot lightly moist until roots form.
If an old lavender has split open at the centre and shows nothing but bare grey wood at the base, take cuttings from young non-flowering shoots as insurance before attempting any rejuvenation.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should lavender be pruned?

The right time to prune lavender is after the blooming, at the end of summer. Pruning every year, on a regular basis, is what keeps the plant in shape and enhances blooming. Ideally, start as soon as you get the plant, while it is still very young, so the shape stays beautiful as it grows old.

Can you cut lavender back into the old wood?

No — lavender is only pruned on tender wood, ideally on the year’s growth. Old growth never sends new shoots out, so if lavender is pruned on old growth it can’t grow back and there is a chance it would die. Snip all around the plant, cutting on the current year’s leaves only.

Do you have to prune lavender at all?

The plant will grow fine if it isn’t pruned, so pruning isn’t a matter of survival. However, your lavender will never be more beautiful than if you care for it regularly, and maintenance pruning also keeps it from seeming bare or sparse. Repeated pruning, kept up year after year, is what gives magnificent plants.

What can be done with an old, woody lavender?

It is true that lavender can’t take a hard pruning, but that doesn’t mean the only solution for an old lavender is to pull it out. There are several ways to rejuvenate old, woody lavender: hard pruning carried out over several years, in portions, or layering the plant. Both avoid cutting back all the old wood in one go.

Credits for images shared to Nature & Garden (all edits by Gaspard Lorthiois):
Trimming lavender by Rosalyn & Gaspard Lorthiois, own work

Written by Gaspard Lorthiois | Loves helping out, especially when it comes to growing things. Worked in herbal medicine, runs a farm, and dabbles in tech. Master's degree and engineer.

La page de Gaspard Lorthiois