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Lavender in the Garden

Gardening Tips | Lavender Species & Varieties | What's in a Name? | Pruning| Propagating | Harvesting | Feeding | Pests, Disease & Moisture

Lavender Gardening 101

Rules to Remember when Growing Lavender

Do’s

• Plant in full sun - in as open an area as possible
• Provide well-drained alkaline soil - (7.0-7.3 pH) for best results, test your soil, adding lime if necessary
• Provide good air circulation between plants
• Plant on raised beds, slopes or rock gardens
• Add sand or pebbles to heavy clay or rich soil to lighten them
• Water in the mornings rather than the evenings so that the sun will dry off leaves
• Use a 2-inch cover of white sand or pebbles to reflect the sun back on the plant and help prevent fungus diseases
• Lavender is quite hardy and has a good ability to resist frost

Don’ts

• Don’t overcrowd
• Don’t over-water or allow to stand in wet soil
• Avoid mulching as it retains too much water

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Lavender Species and Common Varieties

Because lavender is so easy for experts to pollinate, new varieties are offered to the public each year. References point out that there are around forty different species of lavender with more than 300 named varieties and cultivars. Some varieties are very rare and differ only in the DNA make-up of the plant.

Caley Mill in the UK, for example, home of Norfolk Lavender, holds a National Collection of over 150 different lavenders displayed in rows for individual identification. While Tom Waida from Willow Pond Farm Herbs & Everlastings in Fairfield, Pennsylvania who specializes in growing and selling hundreds of varieties of certified organic herbs and perennial plants, experimented with more than 100 varieties of lavender over the past ten years.

There are many different lavenders to choose from, in all shades from dark blues and purples to pink and even white. The foliage, too, is varied, from silvery and grey-green to plants with bright green leaves. The height of plants ranges from the dwarf to the tall, and some form compact bushes while others spread almost into arabesques. Each variety also has its own slightly different perfume. There is a lavender variety to suit every garden concept, aromatic, culinary and artistic need.

Plants can live 20-25 years, but most commercial farmers replace shrubs after 5-10 years of growth for best oil production.

Most lavenders are hardy to zone 5 and grow well in zones 5-8. Some will even grow in zone 9 and 10. Lavenders are quite hardy to frost, they can take dry heat, but they do not do well in high humidity. It is best to consult a horticultural zone map to identify the zone you are in – important to note are the frost and heat zones. This will help in choosing the most suitable plants for your zone.

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What’s in a Name?

There is much confusion in the lavender world regarding the taxonomy, i.e., classification of lavender.

References to ‘English’, ‘French’ and ‘Spanish’ lavenders are common, however they add to the confusion since they are not botanical reference points and often refer only to the country in which the lavenders are planted.

For clarification, it is much easier to refer to lavender by its proper botanical name, consisting of the species in Latin and the variety name in English.

Learn more: Lavender species and common varieties.

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Pruning

Lavender is a woody shrub that goes dormant in the winter. During the winter months the lavender plants look like malnourished hedgehogs - bare and twiggy.

If, during the early spring you are wondering if your lavender is OK ... patience ... don't be tempted to tear anything out. Give the plants sometime to respond to the warm spring weather. Once warmer weather arrives, if you look closely down the stems you will see tiny sets of leaves appear. Give these new leaves a chance to grow a bit ... then it will be time to consider a spring pruning.

Yes, lavender needs pruning! If you don't prune lavender it will develop a woody center and new center growth will stop. The lavender will then sprawl and flower only on the outside edges, not in the center.

It is important to keep in mind that lavender is a shrub, not a perennial – so whatever you do, never cut it all the way to the ground. The woody stems of the lavender plant are very important as that’s where new growth begins. There are two key times of the year for a trim: once in the spring and once in the fall.

The Purpose Of A Spring Trim Is To Stimulate Growth!

Once new growth starts to appear in the spring, prune your plant to 2/3's of its size, leaving a couple of inches of green above the woody stems. It seems drastic but this will stimulate new growth. Never prune so far that only woody stems with no leaves are showing. You want to cut back shoots by an inch or more on the previous year’s growth – this will stimualte the growth of the plant. Don’t leave the lavender pruning too late into the spring as buds may appear.

The Purpose Of A Fall Trim Is To Clean Up & Shape Up!

In late summer to early autumn (after most blooming has occurred and after you have harvested your lavender), you can trim the lavender shrub by cutting off all the dead flower heads and trimming the shrubs back to neaten them up. To encourage an attractive plant shape such as the Provence postcard “cupcake look”, try trimming your lavender shrubs into a mound form.

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Propagating Lavender

Propagation by seed

When ripe, the fine, black seeds of lavender can be collected from the flowers as the bushes are pruned; they are also available from seedsmen. Germination is erratic and plants produced by this method are most unlikely to be true to the parent plant. In one sowing there may be plants of different sizes and colour. Propagation is most successful when done from cuttings or by layering.

Propagation by cuttings

For a cutting, you will need a three- to four-inch semi-hard (not too green, not too brown) branch. Trim the leaves off the bottom half of the cutting and pinch the top before inserting into a rooting medium – lavender does very well in sand.

Keep the cuttings moist, but do not over-water and in filtered light. They root best at temperatures of 70-75 degrees. Cuttings are best taken from May through mid-August.

Propagation by layering

Layering can be done in the spring. Long stems of lavender may be bent down into the soil and held in place with a stone or a wooden or wire peg until they have rooted (this may take several months), when the rooted stem can be cut from the mother plant and replanted. If rooted by fall, cut it off from mother plant and leave in place until spring. If not, recheck in the spring.

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Harvesting Lavender

Harvest lavender when the first bud on the flower stalk is starting to open. Some varieties, such as ‘Hidcote,’ keep tightly closed for some time and will allow you seven to 10 days to do your harvesting. Others, such as ‘Croxton Wild,’ are completely open in a day or two, which often causes them to lose their blossoms in the drying process.

To dry lavender, bind 25-75 stems with a rubber band and hang with a paper clip in a warm, dry, dark spot. When dry, pack away in boxes or plastic bags for craft projects or culinary use.

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Feeding

Most plants enjoy a little manure, and it will certainly help to establish healthy plants quickly. High potassium feed promotes flowering, but too rich a soil may result in limp, over-leafed plants.

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What will harm my Lavender?

Pests

Lavender has no known insect pests. The only pest on lavender is the green capsid bug or cuckoo spit. This is unsightly but harmless.

Disease

Shab is the only killer disease. Spores of Phoma lavandula appear on the stems as minute black spots and cause the flower stalks to corkscrew and turn brown. Then parts of the bush die. There is no cure for shab, so if it does appear it is best to get rid of the plant completely. Most modern hybrids are resistant to shab, but ‘Munstead’ and occasionally ‘Loddon Pink’ are susceptible.

Moisture

Too much humidity can cause mildew or fungus to form on the foliage. Too much rain causes root rot and will kill the plant, as will radical pruning of old woody plants.

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