How to Propagate Lavender with Stem Cuttings

Lavender is one of the most scented plants for the garden. All parts of this plant, including the stems, leaves and flowers have a pungent aroma. For scent alone it’s a plant well worth growing in large groups. Gardeners can bring a little of the lavender fields of France to their own gardens by increasing their stock by stem cuttings. It’s the best way to propagate lavender.

Propagating Lavender with Stem Cuttings

Lavender cannot be divided like some plants in the garden. Its roots don’t spread out to allow it, so stem cuttings are the ideal method of increasing stock.

When plants are propagated by cuttings, the new plant will be true to the parent plant. In other words, it will be the same plant as the mother plant it was taken from. Stem cutting is the fastest and most assured way to increase the number of a particular plant in the garden. Lavender propagates well with this method. But if starting lavender with seeds from the mother plant, there will be variations in colors and attributes.

The Tools for Propagating Lavender

• A healthy established lavender plant
• Clean pair of scissors
• Rooting hormone powder especially formulated for softwood cutting
• Several clean pots 4″ and 6″ in height
• Several clear plastic lunch bags
• Sand
• Peat Moss
• Dollar store wooden skewers (6″-8″ in length)

Directions for Propagating Lavender

1. In spring, fill the 4″ pots with a half and half mixture of moist soil and peat moss. This is the rooting medium.
2. Take several 3″ cuttings from new growing tips of the mother lavender plant without crushing the stems, and carefully remove the leaves from the bottom third of the cuttings.
3. Dip the stems in the rooting hormone
4. Poke 3 holes in the pots.
5. Insert the stems into the holes up to 1″.
6. Firm and mist spray
7. Place 3-4 skewers around the inside edge of the pots.
8. Punch holes into the lunch bags and slide them loosely over the pots. The skewers will keep the plastic from touching the cuttings.
9. Place the pots anywhere out of direct sunlight, and where they are assured of consistent 70 F to 75 F temperatures.

The cuttings can take two to three weeks to root. Test it after three weeks by gently tugging the cutting at mid-stem level. If it gives, it’s not rooted yet and the rest should be left alone. New growth isn’t always an indicator that the cuttings have taken root.

When the cuttings have rooted, gently remove the plants and place in individual 6″ pots. Water with a light mist spray. Not all the cuttings will take. There is always a failure rate with stem propagation, so it’s important to take a lot of cuttings.

By the time the lavender cutting have rooted and been transplanted into larger pots, it is mid-summer. Avoid wilt from the hot sun by placing the pots in dappled shade or cooler parts of your garden. This will harden them as they grow on.

Transplant the new lavender into the garden or a nursery bed in late summer as the air gets cooler. In colder climates, adding mulch to young plants for the winter will keep them protected that first year.

Resources

• An Encyclopaedia of Gardening, T. W. Saunders, Collingridge, 1899
• The Harrowsmith Illustrated Book of Herbs, Patrick Lima, Camden House, 1986
• The Encyclopaedia of Organic Gardening, New Revised Edition, Organic Gardening Magazine, Rodale Press, 1978