Friday, 18 January 2019

Goldfinch eating Lavender seed heads this freezing morning in a Sussex garden, UK.



Conventional advice is to prune lavender after flowering.
If you do NOT prune the seed heads, then they are a feast for seed eating birds like this goldfinch on this freezing, frosty January morning.
This is illustrated in a talk "The evolution of a formal garden to a nature reserve" at http://www.peterlovetttalks.co.uk/page19.html 
Click on the pictures to enlarge or play the video.

7 comments:

  1. Neena9 June 2020 at 19:36

    I was about to deadhead my lavender this week, but I will hold off now. I had about 6-8 goldfinches stop by to feed on the seeds this morning. All these years growing it, I've never seen this happen! This is in Oregon, USA. I notice your Goldfinches have a red stripe on the head, where ours do not.
    Cheers!

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  2. Sussexrambler15 July 2020 at 12:05

    Thanks for that Neena. I'm much encouraged.

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  3. Anonymous11 September 2022 at 03:50

    I'm in Oregon too. I just saw a goldfinch for the first time eating my lavender!

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  4. Anonymous11 December 2022 at 08:43

    I'm in England and am watching a finch strip my lavender bush on this freezing cold morning - have never seen this before.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11 December 2022 at 11:42

      It is time that nature loving gardeners stopped cutting back lavender until early spring

      Delete
  5. Anonymous13 December 2022 at 23:13

    I definitely will leave pruning lavender until later. Two beautiful goldfinches today on the one plant I hadn’t cut back. All grasses etc I have always left alone for a good while. Never thought about lavender. I will now!

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  6. Anonymous8 July 2025 at 15:01

    Moved to New England two years ago, that first year nothing touched the lavender, but last year a Goldfinch came and stripped the lavender clean of flowers. He's just returned this year. It's one of the few times I see a Goldfinch here.

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