Lavender is a bushy, strong-scented perennial plant from the Mediterranean. In warmer regions, its gray to green foliage stays evergreen throughout the year, and the herb thrives in some of the toughest of garden conditions. Here’s how to plant, grow, and harvest lavender in the garden!
About Lavender
Prized for its fragrance, medicinal properties, and beautiful bluish-purple color, Lavandula angustifolia is a valued plant across the world. It also attracts pollinators to the garden.
The plant is not picky and will survive in a wide range of soils, even poor soil. (It grows in the Mediterranean in craggy crevices!) Its main requirements are lots of sun and good drainage.
Plant lavender along the entrance to your home, or near a seating area, or at the base of roses bushes to hide their twiggy “legs” in the wintertime.
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Lavender recipes
I’ve had 26 English lavender plants at one point.
For edibles I use lavender flowers when creaming butter for shortbread cookies, I e used the blooms in lemon muffins, or any muffins, really.
Lavender blossoms are great to add to rice pudding, or when making sweet rice with raisins and apricots and slivered toasted almonds.
Starting in May I keep a large jug of water in the fridge with lavender blooms, cucumber and lemon slices, and peppermint leaves. Kids love it!
I also use lavender for teas and infusions.
Black tea is great with lavender blossoms.
I also make red clover infusion with lavender and sometimes I add rose petals too.
lavender
I live in the Andes, about 5000 feet. Two seasons: ho damp and humid. Typically little to no watering for almost six months. Then hot and dry for a comparable time period. Nearly every day something needs watering. My lavender, with grey leaves, is going into it's 3rd dry season. It is huge, at least 3 x 3.5 ft. It is in a long concrete planter, at one end with a large shrimp plant at the other end. In between are rosemary, a geranium and a sage. The planter was originally filled with mostly raw compost and cedar bark on top. It gets watered when dry and fertilized with compost tea rarely. All of these plans are so healthy and gorgeous, but only the shrimp plant and geranium bloom. Oh and variety of trandescancia - green and cream- that must be hacked brutally twice a year. What are your thoughts of lack of bloom to date for the lavender.
Any lavender I can grow in New Orleans?
We're subtropical zone 9S. Not infrequently these days, we can get 10 inches of rain in a weekend in spring/summer. I tried in a pot once, but it died.
Latte
Lavender honey lattes have become popular around here. They’re delicious!!
I’m going to have to try the lavender lemonade suggestion another commenter made too.
Recipes
Lavender is a wonderful addition to lemonade, or to lavender/lemonade ice pops or granita. It is also beautiful in French macarons, and of course one can add lavender to homemade soap or hand lotion.
Lavendar in winter
We planted 8-10 lavendar plants last spring. A few of them bloomed but not all. My question is that my lavendar has turned Brown, looks like it dried up. Is this normal? Will it come back from this condition?
my plants look healthy but the blooms turned brown.
should I cut the stems back? will another stem grow?
Lavender pots
I thought someone from the Farmers Almanac would be able to let me know if there is something
I can do with the brown pot that has two small green leaves at the top of the plant?
brown pot, small green leaves . . .
Water it?
Lavender plants
Have two lavender pots , both had beautiful blooms, one suddenly turned all brown just 2 spots of a little green, the other doing ok. Is there anything I can do with/for the brown one. It was beautiful.
turned all brown
It sounds like root rot due to excess water.
Replace the plant; it’s not coming back.
Question about baking with lavender
I never use pesticides. Can I use my lavender I have to bake your scones? What is culinary grade lavender? Thanks so much! Always enjoy your articles!
Baking with Lavender
As long you know that your lavender hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals, it’s perfectly fine to use! “Culinary-grade” really just means “high-quality” lavender that has a strong scent and flavor.
Lavender
Does lavender spread?
Lavender Spreading
Hi Kay,
Lavender does not spread like mint, thyme, or oregano. It grows from seed, growing several inches per year, and flowering in it’s third year.
shade plants
we have an area were we don't get much sun and would love to plant something that has a flower and smells nice.. was hoping a lavender would work .. what do you think?
Lavender In the Shade
Hi Maichen,
Lavender does best in full sun, but can be tolerant to some shade. Other plants with nice flowers that do well in shade include bleeding hearts, foxglove, and and lily of the valley.
I ordered a lavender Phenomenal online from a popular source
Then transferred the plant to my little garden , it leaves and color did not improve but we’re turning and darkening. I send it back after 7 days, and asked for a new one. The new one just been taken out the shipping box, it is also more woody leaves and branches on it, do I try to plant it to save it? Thanks, Lavender still in purchased pot.
Trimming Lavendar
I purchased three lavender plants last year and they grew beautifully... this spring my husband decided to "trim" them and cut two of them back to the ground before I stopped him... Do you think they will grow back or should I just get rid of them...
Lavender Pruning
Generally, it’s not recommended to cut lavender’s woody stems back too much, as it can cause damage. However, there’s always a chance your plants may recover. We would suggest waiting to see if there are any signs of life in the next month or so, being sure to not let the plant dry out too much nor get overwatered. If nothing appears after that length of time, then they are likely dead, unfortunately.
Growing lavender
Hello, i was wondering about growing lavender. i have tried growing it the last 3 years, but have only succeeded in getting the plants a couple inches high before they stop growing, and have never produced buds. Have any advice? thanks!
(i live in alaska)
lavender growing zones
We’re not sure where you live in Alaska, however, lavender is a plant that naturally loves hot, sunny, dry climates and usually grows in zones 5 to 9 so first check the zone.
If you do grow lavender, make sure that you keep it dry. For example, piles of wet leaves from winter will hold in moisture which causes die back.
winter - zone 4-5 (Ontario) Canada
I have superblue Lavender in pots .. they have grown wonderful all summer and do not want to kill over the winter
How do i prep for winter ... The pots are too big to bury for the winter
thank you
Kim
Overwintering Lavender
English lavenders (such as the ‘SuperBlue’ variety) are generally winter hardy up to Zone 5—but that’s not to say that they can’t survive in colder areas if provided adequate protection. Since you cannot bury the pots, could you move them to a sheltered location such as a garden shed or garage? You’ll need to keep them insulated from the cold, since the roots won’t get the natural protection of the ground soil. Mulch over top of the plants with 3 to 4 inches of straw. Give them some water before you mulch and store them. You’ll want to make sure that they don’t dry out completely, but also that they don’t get too wet throughout the winter.
Even with all this, they may not survive the cold… Perhaps you could repot them in smaller pots and bring them inside instead?
Lavender Topiary Tree
Do I have to plant this tree outside or can I just keep it in its planter . This way I can move it around . How tall do they get ,Thank you Sharon
lavender
I live in zone 6b near Boston. I planted two small (maybe 4") lavenders in pots six weeks ago--one in plastic and one in a fabric grow bag. They came from a greenhouse at a good local nursery, but I put them in full sun gradually after I repotted them. The plants have room to grow in their pots. I amended the potting mix with coarse sand and compost, but no fertilizer because I was told not to for lavender. I top dressed with pea gravel. I've been deathly afraid of over watering and have been giving them small amounts of water when they were dry several inches down and the moisture meter said they were dry. I planted hidcote and munstead. Some of the larger leaves on the hidcote turned yellow with crispy browntips. The roots are fine. There's no fungus or rot and there's new growth near the crown. It's been boiling hot and very sunny here (90+). The soil pH is 7 and I don't think there's excessive nitrogen in the soil, which I read can also cause yellow leaves. I've been trying to figure this out for weeks, but everyone's advice is either incomplete or contradictory.
I thought they looked unhappy after heavy rain so I bring them inside and put them under a grow light if heavy rains are forecasted. I'm sorry to go into so much detail, but I've been going a bit mad trying to figure this out.
Do you think the yellow leaves and crunchy brown tips could be from the shallow watering and letting the soil get very dry? Yesterday I switched to deep watering until the water runs out the bottom and then wait under the top two inches are dry. They don't look thrilled today, slightly more yellow. Is there anything else I should/shouldn't do? Will they just be a little confused until I get them on a better regime of deep waterings and drying out, but not completely dry?
Thank you for reading this novella and any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.
no blooms!
I planted one lavender plant weeks ago on my balcony where I grow many potted plants. I think it is a variety of english lavender. I see no sign of blooms or buds. What gives? Thanks.
Lavender and deer
Do deer avoid lavender plants?
deer and lavender
While there’s no plant that is off limits to deer, they do not like lavender as much as other plants. See more here: https://www.almanac.com/content/deer-resistant-plants