Growing Lavender
Preparing to add lavender to your garden should be a fun and rewarding adventure! There are many informative books about lavender available and we strongly recommend your spending some time learning all about this beautiful, versatile plant.
Lavender loves the sun and dislikes having its feet wet so be sure to choose a place in your garden with good drainage and plenty of sun. Your soil should be well worked, well drained, and loose enough that you can dig it with your hands. Adding a good potting soil to typical NW soils is highly recommended. Once established, lavender is a hardy and drought tolerant perennial. When purchasing your lavender, be sure to select a variety that fits well with your landscape. Lavender comes in a variety of sizes from compact (15-16 inches) to large (over 6 feet) when mature, and in many shades of purple, blue, pink and white. Be sure to give plenty of room for plant growth and those long beautiful stems when they arrive in the summer and to allow free movement of air between the plants.
To begin planting your lavender plant, carefully remove the plant from its container and place the plant in a hole that easily accommodates the spread roots. Your soil should be slightly alkaline and mixing about 1 cup of bone meal into the planting hole with the dirt will slowly release nutrients and promote both root and leaf growth. After planting, if the stems are long enough, give the plant a little shape by pruning, this will encourage good root growth and start the stems branching.
Watering your lavender for the first time, we recommend using a product containing Vitamin B-1 to help reduce plant shock when transplanting. Your new plants will need watering once a week or so for the first month and then less as they become established. DON’T over-water your lavender, it does not like wet feet! A two-inch mulch of sand will moderate the soil temperature and reflect heat and light up to the plant. More heat creates more fragrant blossoms.
Prune your plant, preferably in the fall, to 2/3’s of its size, leaving a couple of inches of green above the woody stems. This will stimulate new growth. Lavender responds very well to being shaped and plants that are not pruned may have a tendency to fall open in the middle and sprawl as they mature.
When your lavender has blossomed, the flowers have many uses. Left alone in your garden, you will enjoy the beautiful color and wonderful fragrance they add there. If you desire, you may pick a fresh bouquet of blossoms, just when the flower blossoms begin to open, and place them in a vase with only about ½ inch of water immediately. Remember to change the water daily and to trim the stems as lavender stems left sitting in water turn into a brown slimey mess very quickly. The recommended method of bringing lavender indoors is to dry your bouquet first. Again, cut your bouquet just when the flowers begin to open. Secure your bouquet with a rubber band around the stems and hang it upside down in a cool, dark place with air ventilation to dry. The drying process takes about 7 days. When dry, your lavender bundle can be displayed tied up with a ribbon, placed in a container as a dried arrangement or de-budded for crafting purposes.
To purchase lavender plants on-line contact www.victorslavender.com.
Port Williams Lavender 1.360.582.9196 info@portwilliamslavender.com