Lavender should not be cut back hard. Unlike rosemary, yew, privet etc. As you have noticed it does not happily regrow from mature wood and it is risky to cut into it.

So once it gets out of hand, is the only solution to replace? IOW: is there no way to re-shape it, given enough time?

I have seen my neigbor once cut his way back( and gave me some). It grew back. But his was not too leggy. This was in the summer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning lavender

This post was edited by seysonn on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 23:13

suntower - can you post a picture of your lavender. In Seysonn's video the lavender is not what I'd call leggy and the woman is only cutting into quite young growth. I am imagining something up on wood trunks with peeling bark. Am I wrong?

Here is a picture that -hopefully- shows the woody/leggy bits. Sorry it's sideways. Hope it's clear enough to see how spread out it's gotten. Any ideas?

TIA!

---JC

They look pretty woody. Cutting back can be risky. Maybe you can try couple and see what happens.