Do you have hardy english lavenders or other varieties? English lavenders do survive the winter weather of Western NY State (below zero F) and wouldn't necessarily have to be brought in. The same can't be said of other less hardy varieties.

I don't normally prune my lavender so others would have to comment more on that specifically. But I would suggest not cutting off more than 1/3 of the living plant material. Only the most vigorous (and usually weedy) plants survive more than a 1/3 haircut well.

Since lavender is a woody plant, general pruning advice for woody plants (trees, shrubs, etc.) would apply.

FataMorgana

I'd temper what fata says slightly. I wouldn't follow general advice for woody plant pruning for lavender. It is not recommended that lavender be cut into the old wood. It might be ok but often not. (Unlike rosemary which couldn't care less about being cut right back.) To keep lavender rejuvenated it's best to trim it all over with the shears after flowering. Take off the dead flower stems and some of the new growth but don't go back into the brown wood.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning lavender

Thank you, FataMorgana and Flora for your thoughts on this.

Greg
Southern Nevada

Not really on topic but how did your season do? I remember you asking for suggestions on what to grow earlier this year.

If you had thyme plants you may want to look at them in several days. Mine will look like they are dead then the center of the plant revives. Even in pots you may still have growing thymes that you can insulate the pots and have them as mother plants for cuttings this spring.

Hi, maifleur thank you for asking. I didn't grow any thyme when I planted Herbs this fall. I hadn't grown anything in my gardens for the past (3) years due to work and having no time, now that I'm retired I have all the time in the world. Part of this past summer up until now has been mostly spent getting my growing areas back in shape so I only planted a few Herbs and some Vegetable plants. Unfortunately we just had a "very unusual" freeze where the temperatures got in to the twenties and we lost everything except Sage and Pak Choy and a few flowering plants. We do have freezing temperatures here for a week or so but it's always been in either January or February, never in November so I was caught off guard. In the spring I'll get everything started again and hope that I can get some production before the heat starts killing things.

Oh well - such is gardening in the desert...

Greg
Southern Nevada

Lavender grows well under HID lights, which are stronger and cover a larger area than fluorescents. I grew some lavender plants and brought them to flower indoors using a 1000 watt Metal Halide light with an Agrosun bulb.

Have you considered row covers, low tunnels, or other passive frost protection?