Maybe better pruning a little late than too soon. I pruned mine back too early when we were having weather in the 70's back in March and almost killed them. The warm weather went on for so long that I thought it was going to stay that way (it didn't). Anyway, I agree with horster and I'd say to prune yours and have blooms a little bit later than usual, but they will bloom. Cathy

I planted Early Multiflora mix (this variety, if planted by labor day, will begin to bloom in winter!). The purple ones looked and smelled the best, so we collected seeds from these (purple only) at end of season. Planted only purple last fall (2004)---all came up and bloomed up until August of this year! It gets hot here---they were in morning sun/filtered afternoon sun (as on fence behind/under a peach tree). We collected seeds from the purple ones this year again, and I just planted them out this past week. One thing---to get good blooms, do not overfertilize. If you do, you will get a lot of green growth but sparse blooms! Fertilize very sparingly! I fertilized only once (lightly, with Osmocote slow release fertilizer) at the beginning of the season, and got lots of good smelly blooms. Oh, and lots of water with good drainage (once sprouted). Hope this helps. Becky

Re: alfalfa. I've read wildly differing reports of it's NPK content; some saying it's especially high in nitrogen(eg 512), some saying it's a very good balance (usually still slightly lower in P, eg 212 or 323). It seems it varies according to the source/form. All agree it also contains a fabulous assortment of minor and micro-nutrients, thus, as Jeri points out, making it an especially effective rose fertiliser/amendment. As I understand it, the micronutrients make other nutrients more bio-available, amongst other benefits. I've been wondering lately about growing it amongst roses - it has a very pretty violet-blue flower which I thought might be a reasonable alternative to eg catmint in aesthetically complementing the roses. However, I haven't actually seen it growing to be sure of of whether the whole plant would actually look good enough. Since alfalfa hay is often on sale around here, I'm assuming it suits our hot, dry Mediterranean (mild, wettish winter) climate. The point I'm getting at is that after flowering, it could 1) be used as a green manure, ie cut down at ground level leaving the roots in the soil to do their nitrogen-fixing thing; 2) the stems could simply be chopped and left on the soil as mulch, providing soil moisture evaporation protection (or composted first, if preferred) 3) meanwhile all its other important minerals and micronutrients would be released into the soil as it gradually rots down 4) eventually the whole plant would become incorporated into the soil, where it could do its spongy long-term moisture retention/soil structure improvement thing... 5) sow more alfalfa. Or maybe it would self-seed if plants were left long enough before cutting down? I kind of think this sounds like it could make for a pleasingly simple and cheap all-purpose system, in theory at least! Nate, maybe some system like this could be just enough to keep your HTs fed and healthy??? While placating management's rather unusual horticultural 'idees fixes' - 'cos after all, you're only putting back what was actually growing there. Of course they wouldn't have grown alfalfa with their HTs in the 50s!! :¬D - but maybe management could be persuaded, perhaps, say, to allow it to be grown as a border around the bed if not actually between the rose bushes - like the clover suggestion, though ahem!.. rather more conspicuous? Just a thought, anyway... I'd be very interested to know if anyone has actually tried this, or has any comments/ thoughts on the idea. Comtesse :¬)

if you have more than on plant .... just shear one of them .. and see what happens ... experimenting is fun ... and most often.. you will remember the lesson learned next year.. whatever it might be ... of course.. being lavender ... i would probably dry and harvest the fragrant parts cut off .. else.. what is the point of growing it ... put a little sachet in your step ... see what i did there.. lol .. ken