How The 8-8-8 Rule Can Give Lavender A New Lease Of Life

There are some gardening traditions that maintain true despite the fact that they may appear a bit odd – akin to planting aphid-loving vegetation like nasturtiums subsequent to crops you need to shield, despite the fact that you already know they’ll appeal to the very bugs you don’t need. Or utilizing a pinch of cinnamon as an anti-fungal agent within the backyard (and sure, this one has labored for me!). Then there are a couple of hacks I preserve doing out of behavior (like singing to vegetation, as an illustration – however possibly that’s a narrative for one more time).

Nonetheless, there are particular guidelines that stick in your head and purchase a sure standing, despite the fact that you’re not completely positive the place you first heard them. The 8-8-8 lavender rule is one such piece of recommendation I used to be informed a few years in the past. And round this time yearly, a bit of inside alarm goes off and I duly examine my lavender bushes to evaluate my subsequent steps. However what’s the 8-8-8 rule, you might be asking – and the way can it make it easier to keep more healthy, happier lavender shrubs and specimen vegetation? Right here’s what I’ve discovered about this lavender pruning tip, the way it works for me, how you should use it, and the way it may be tailored to fit your wants…

What’s the 8-8-8 Lavender Rule?

At its coronary heart, the 8-8-8 rule – or the rule of three-eighths – is a pruning maxim. Fairly merely, it’s a second within the pruning calendar to tug out our snippers or shears, with a view to serving to put together our lavender plant for the slower months forward. Over early summer time, many people will hopefully have been deadheading lavender vegetation to increase the flowering season. However the strategy to the eighth day of the eighth month (eighth August) is an opportunity to consider lowering our lavender vegetation by at the very least 8 inches (relying on the dimensions and total situation of the plant).

I’ve heard a few variations on this pruning rule, because it goes. One variation, which appears pretty hardcore, is to cut back your lavender plant so it’s 8 inches (20cm) tall and eight inches large (once more, permitting for measurement of plant). Nonetheless, the variation I observe for lavender I’m rising within the backyard includes lowering the dimensions of the plant by roughly eight inches all the best way round.

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This includes making a extra rounded, compact form and eradicating tatty, leggy stems, lifeless branches and remaining flower stalks. The intention is to present lavender, whether or not potted or in backyard beds or borders, the perfect probability to decelerate healthily on the strategy to dormancy.

Why Does the 8-8-8 Rule Matter?

The lavender 8-8-8 rule supplies a helpful help in figuring out a tidy-up operation – primarily based on the concept sure lavender flowers are beginning to die again as August begins. It pinpoints a second (after flowering, however earlier than the autumn) when it’s good to prune lavender to permit it probability to rejuvenate and develop new progress earlier than slowing down for the dormant interval. Ideally, it’s a good suggestion to present lavender vegetation at the very least a month to get well from that ‘finish of season’ pruning earlier than the colder months kick in.

So the 8-8-8 rule for lavender issues as a barometer for formally marking the tip of the flowering cycle, and welcoming in a quieter part for progress typically, earlier than the vegetation come to relaxation completely. Making these essential cuts now promotes a burst of latest inexperienced progress which might set up earlier than the plant begins to relaxation. It then wakes up subsequent spring with the required foliage required to fireplace up the engines for the brand new flowering season. So this well timed August prune is important to serving to the lavender ‘replenish’ on contemporary provides forward of winter, mainly.

That stated, I take the 8-8-8 rule as a tenet and a immediate, somewhat than a set of inflexible ideas. For instance, I used to be informed that it may possibly solely be used with English lavender. That is primarily based round flowering behavior and flowering time (English tending to flower later than sure different sorts), however there will likely be variations relying on cultivar, climate, soil, and regional fluctuations.

I’d take some cues from the plant in query – akin to, is it nonetheless flowering, or has it stopped? Does the plant typically look a bit straggly? Are there any purely woody lavender bits that haven’t carried out that properly over summer time? This may all assist decide about how you can apply the 8-8-8 rule on a case-by-case foundation.

How Inflexible is the 8-8-8 Rule?

The way in which you apply the 8-8-8 rule for lavender vegetation will hinge on a couple of specifics, however the precise nature of each timing and quantity nonetheless requires a measure of intuition and adjustment. For me, the large figuring out issue is whether or not or not your lavender is certainly reaching the tip of its specific flowering season. Some shrubs will appear to bloom all summer time lengthy. In case your lavender plant remains to be trying flush and vibrant, I wouldn’t simply begin snipping out of some mechanical need to observe the gang. As with many ideas, it’s one you may adapt in your personal state of affairs. It’s, I consider, a sound checkpoint, although – an opportunity to examine and assess, and formulate subsequent steps.

The ‘onerous pruning’ model does favor English lavender varieties, which might bounce again impressively from in depth late summer time snips. Inside that broad class, there’s loads of selection when it comes to plant form and measurement. Plant age and rising circumstances (and placement) must also be factored in. So when it comes to rigidity, I’d preserve one other saying in thoughts as you resolve on the date and extent of your onerous prune: test twice, lower as soon as.

Take a look at the colour of the flowers – if they appear grey, that’s the large clue. Pollinators will even inform you when the lavender’s flowers are on the best way out – by refusing to flit round in the identical method. Appraise the general form and unfold of the plant – is it turning into unwieldy or ungainly? Look out for legginess, and likewise gaps within the plant. The place there are alternatives to cut back weariness but in addition give the form a raise, don’t be afraid to make use of this rule to immediate a part of focused rejuvenation.

Find out how to Prune with the 8-8-8 Rule

When you’re glad that your lavender has stopped flowering, is usually lined in pale blooms, appears leggy and appears to have collapsed into itself, your summer time slicing is certain to be helpful. Be certain that your shears, secateurs and pruners are sharp. I’d additionally say it’s properly price utilizing a measuring stick or measuring tape to test each the peak and width of the plant. Once more, some gardeners go in actually onerous with this haircut, and apply the 8-8-8 rule as leaving 8 inches somewhat than eradicating 8 inches. I’d be trying to take away 8 inches (or thereabouts) however provided that I used to be nonetheless assured that at the very least half the plant remained.

The place making cuts, don’t slice indiscriminately into the wooden zone. Look carefully and test alongside the branches. You don’t need to lower into the woody half – except it appears pretty lifeless, hasn’t produced any inexperienced or bloom through the summer time, and isn’t including something to the general form. The perfect is to chop simply above the realm the place the foliage begins. Alongside the size of woody stems, the place you see blue-green nobs of colour, lower simply north of these. The outcome will hopefully be a smattering of foliage colour, with important discount in plant scale and form. You need to use this chance to take lavender cuttings and begin off your subsequent technology in pots.

I discover it helps to make use of shears for bulk cuts and pruners for focused, exact cuts. Minimize simply above a node (the place the foliage meets the stem) to present the very best probability at wholesome regeneration. Take your time, and deal with this rule as an amazing probability to set the tone for subsequent yr’s progress. You gained’t must feed your lavender after pruning – simply the standard watering, and also you’re achieved. Whenever you aren’t in a position to get to this rule in time, and also you miss out on a late summer time lower, it’s finest to attend till spring for a lighter prune – and resolve to go in onerous on the finish of subsequent summer time’s flowering part.

Lavender Pruning Necessities