Are these plants dead?

by alice s.
(smiths station, alabama)

hi, I live in southeast, alabama, zone 5 and planted two purple lavender plants last May. They did great. This past winter we got snow-3inches, and it was very cold, down to 16 degrees. The flower tag says the plants are hardy to -10 degrees, but one looks completely brown and dead. The other has new growth springing from parts of its dead looking branches. What should I do? Prune them back and hope new stems come back next year or buy new plants?

Doug says that any lavender can be checked for "aliveness" by scratching any branch with a thumbnail. If under the scratch is brown - that branch is dead. If a bright green - it's alive and will regrow. If a sickly pale green, it's dying.

The hardiness of a plant depends on a lot of things other than temperature (soils, drainage etc) but if half the plant looks alive and half looks dead - then that's probably what has happened. Not unusual with lavender in a tough winter. Your call is whether you can cut back the dead stuff and still be left with a good looking live half.

If you can - great! Do so and you're away and running this year. If not, you might want to let it live and take cuttings to start propagating your own.

Shaping the existing lavender is a good idea - prune it to shape so the new shoots will fill in. (check to make sure the branches you leave are alive by scratching the bark)

So - the bottom line is there's no hard and fast answer that says - do this or that. If you can save the plant - prune it up a bit - then you've saved some money and learned a bit about pruning and lavender. If not - then you simply pick up 2 new plants. Or a combination of the two - but do try propagating your own so you'll have lots of them next year.