Lavender is a perennial herb that can grow to three feet tall, depending on the cultivar. Its appearance is “shrubby” with gray-green leaves.
It produces spikes of blue-purple, lavender, pink or white flowers in mid-summer. The fragrance is sometimes described as “highly aromatic” with a sweet, clean smell with almost bitter undertones.
Lavandula is a native of the Mediterranean region and is characterized by long narrow gray-green leaves and slim flower spikes in shades of blue, purple or pink colors.
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The name “lavender” comes from the Latin word meaning “to wash”. A couple of centuries ago, a “lavender” in England was someone who washed clothes for a living.
Types of English lavender are more reliably grown in areas with naturally clay soils, more humid weather or where there is less snow cover during winter.
Other popular cultivars are L. dentata and L. latifolia (Italian or Spanish lavender), also called spike lavender, which produces lesser quality oil than English lavender
Hybrid lavenders are good choices for colder regions.
Lavender is a good plant to grow indoors. It does well in pots and doesn’t need all that much attention. If you don’t want the lavender indoors year-round, one good compromise is to keep lavender inside during the winter, late fall, and early spring, and to move it outside in the summer. This is a great way to grow lavender in colder climate.
French lavender is the best choice for indoor or container gardening. It does not grow quite as tall as some of the other varieties and tends to thrive a bit more. The easiest way to recognize French lavender is that it has serrated leaves.
Preferring to dry out a little between waterings, provide it with a good potting mix to which sand and lime have been added, and don’t crowd it or place it in a spot where it won’t get good airflow. If possible, refresh it seasonally by putting it out in a sunny, sheltered location for a couple of weeks in late spring.
Lavender needs a fairly large pot. When planting outside you would typically plant lavender 12-18 inches apart. You don’t need a pot that large, but a 3-inch pot won’t do. You should pick a pot that is 2-4 inches wider in diameter than the lavender root ball.
The biggest problems with lavender usually tend to occur from too much water. To improve the drainage of your pot, pick a pot that has drainage holes in the bottom. You can also place an inch or two of gravel or Styrofoam at the bottom of the pot to help the lavender.
Dig a hole that is large enough that the lavender root ball is completely covered. Don’t bury the lavender too deeply up the stem though.
The biggest problem growing lavender indoors will be a lack of sunlight. Lavender needs to get full sun, at least 6 hours a day. So you need to place the lavender in a very sunny location or supplement with some broad-spectrum bulbs.
Lavender should be kept fairly warm, around 65-75 degrees. This is similar to its natural Mediterranean climate.
As with all house plants, placing a carpet protector under the plant will help protect your floor. If you have the lavender plant on a wooden window sill, be sure to move it ever several days to protect your window sill from the mold. You should rotate the plant every few days so that it doesn’t become lopsided.
Lavender is a naturally disease-resistant plant. Homes generally have dry air, which will work well for the lavender. However, you shouldn’t place the lavender in a location in your home that has really high humidity like a bathroom or laundry room. A place that has some airflow or where you can open a window is a good idea.
Like any potted plant, Lavender will use up the nutrition in is soil faster than it would in a garden. However since Lavender generally has a very low nutritional need, you only need to fertilize it once per year.
The best time to fertilize is in the spring, with a slow-release fertilizer. This 14-14-14 fertilizer is a good one to use. You need about ½ tablespoon of the fertilizer per gallon of soil in your pot. Put the fertilizer in the top few inches of the potting mix.
For indoor lavender, adding lime to the potting mix, and including ground eggshells is a good way to improve the soil. They make the soil more alkaline, which lavender prefers.
You should lightly prune the lavender plant annually. Generally, the best time to prune lavender is in the spring. Look for any broken stems, crossing stems, or anything that looks like it is dying and cut them away at the base of the stem. Pruning back lavender 2-3 inches will help it come in full during the year.
You should plan on watering lavender whenever the top inch or soil of the soil is dry. This will usually be about once per week. Water deeply.
To get an indoor lavender plant to bloom, you almost always need to give it some time outside during the summer. When you transition it outside, be sure to acclimate it to longer and longer periods outside. Don’t just place it outside to bake.
Lavender can be started from seed, but may not always produce plants identical to the original. For that reason, it is suggested that new plants be grown from cuttings of an original plant in spring or fall.
The spacing of plants should be 12 to 30 inches apart. During the first year, pinch off flowers to make a fuller bushier plant. Lavender plants will probably have to be replaced every five years.
Provide good drainage in the garden or in pots, as lavender does not tolerate standing water. Do not mulch in the garden if your area is rainy. The potting mix should be two parts potting soil, two parts peat moss, two parts sand, and one part compost or cow manure.
Lavender plants are useful in many types of gardens, the most obvious being for fragrance. But lavender is drought tolerant, as well, making it easy to grow in sustainable or xeriscape gardens. Deer foraging does not favor lavender but does attract pollinating bees, birds, and butterflies.
Lavender grows best in well-draining soil without clay; amending soil with organic matter will increase the chances of success growing these plants. Lavandula plants and the flowers are worth adding to many gardens, not the least of which is for the fragrance.
They grow best in full sun where summers get hot without high humidity. Lavender plants prefer fast-draining soils that are alkaline. Once established, lavender can thrive without water for long periods of time.
These plants do need regular pruning to stay healthy and looking good. Gardeners should cut back these plants after flowering in June and July.
Gardeners with clay soil should dig in organic material to well amend the soil before considering planting them. In climates where snow cover is unreliable, lavender will have a hardiness issue, making it difficult to survive northern winters. This is further complicated when the lavender is grown in clay soil.
Lavender is normally pest-free, but can occasionally get caterpillar pests. Most gardeners with a few plants can hand pick them off their lavender. To prevent root rot and fungal diseases, use sandy soil (as above) and plant in raised beds.
When and how to prune Lavender is still a debated subject amongst gardeners, in general, the consensus would seem to be that the main pruning should take place after flowering towards the end of summer.
An additional light pruning may be given to a plant in the spring after early frosts have passed, this will give the plant a larger volume and increase the number of flowers produced.
Summer pruning should take place after flowering towards the end of the summer, this will ensure that the plant has to time to recover before the frosts of winter arrive. Leaving pruning too late may leave the plant vulnerable to the effects of a cold winter.
In pruning a gardener should take the plant back to the end of the current years’ growth, leaving a little “new wood” from which the plant will regenerate. Lavender will not regenerate from the old wood so gardeners should avoid being too hard.
On the other hand, growth left from the current season will form the old wood in the following year, if under pruned a plant will become straggly and untidy over time. Pruning may also be used to create a feature such as a Lavender hedge or a specific shape.
Harvesting a Lavender shrub is a difficult decision for any gardener. If flowers are to be enjoyed indoors then the plant should be harvested before the flowers actually open so as the essential oils will remain in the flowers.
After the first year of growth, cut flowers a few inches below the bloom. For leaf harvesting, cut the stems within one node of the woody growth. The stem can be hung to dry in a warm, dry, dark area; or if drying for arrangements, stems can be laid out flat on screens so the branches dry in desired shapes. After dried, store in tightly capped containers.
However, if harvested a gardener will lose much of the pleasure of the plant for the season, in addition, creatures such as bees, butterflies and other pollinators will lose the opportunity for vital summer feeding.
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