How do you grow Lavender?

Good evening fellow Permies,

I have been tasked with a mission. I need to make a 60 foot long strip of lavender outside along my forsythia hedge. I have not had a good history of starting lavender but I haven't really tried to do it. That changes this year! I want to really get some plants started and transplanted. What is the deal with lavender?

Any tips and tricks would be appreciated.

As an annual or as a perennial?

Starting from seed?

Dane Geld wrote:As an annual or as a perennial?

Starting from seed?

Perennial and seed.

I found lavender to be something that thrived with neglect and harsh conditions. It wants to be hot, dry and in questionable soil.
Where it worked for me was along the edge of our driveway. Full sun, no watering, no fertilizer, practically gravel and clay soil with just a bit of wood chip and grass pulling and mine grew and flowered very well.
I rarely even bothered to prune them. What finally killed off a chunk of them was about 3+ weeks of below -20C with very little snow cover. A few made it through but I did have to replace a bunch.

I'll see how they do here since I've transplanted several onto the south edge of this driveway and just tried winter sowing a bunch a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure how viable the seed is so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I guess we'll be learning together Timothy.

If you have access to established plants, lavender is relatively easy to grow from cuttings and will give you a head start over seeds.

I've managed to grow cuttings from both soft and semi hard wood cuttings, the latter with a small heel.

Looking at my Permacopia book to see what might be helpful for you Tim.

According to this resource:

Lavender originates from the Mediterranean highlands.  

It prefers soil that is loose, fast draining, mineral rich, more alkaline, on the drier side, and of average or poor quality.  Compost is not recommended, but decomposed granite or gravel is great.  Acidity, waterlogging, and humusy soil are not good.  

Full sun.  

Watering should only be occasional, but deep.  No fertilization.  

If you plan on starting from seed they won't be true, but they do stay viable for a long time (it doesn't say how long).  Germination can take a few weeks.

Looks like there are a lot of species to play with. Do you know which one(s) you are getting?  

Arthur Wierzchos wrote:Looking at my Permacopia book to see what might be helpful for you Tim.

According to this resource:

Lavender originates from the Mediterranean highlands.  

It prefers soil that is loose, fast draining, mineral rich, more alkaline, on the drier side, and of average or poor quality.  Compost is not recommended, but decomposed granite or gravel is great.  Acidity, waterlogging, and humusy soil are not good.  

Full sun.  

Watering should only be occasional, but deep.  No fertilization.  

If you plan on starting from seed they won't be true, but they do stay viable for a long time (it doesn't say how long).  Germination can take a few weeks.

Looks like there are a lot of species to play with. Do you know which one(s) you are getting?  

Mediterranean mountain boy here

I grow lots of lavender here for oil extraction, using it for perfume production and agri pest management.

my experience with lavender is just getting cuttings, soak them in water and let them grow their root system then transplanting them in compost-filled pots rich in organic material till you have a well-developed root system. keep on gradually expanding the size of the pots till you have a minimum of 5 stems then you can place them in any type of soil. drip irrigation is the best way to go.

To me. if I were planting lavender again I would do a lot of research into what variety I want to plant.

Lavender was a disappointment for me.

It was not the `Lavender fields forever` ...

I bought two transplants, one died maybe after a year and I let the other one die because it was not the pretty plant I thought I was planting.

Your soil type and weather is going to be important.

Lavender struggles in damp wet clay.  It's just that simple.  If you live where winters are long and damp, characterized by what is locally called mud season, you'll struggle to have lavender survive.

You will never hear me say anything bad about clay soil.  Given the option, you'd rather have clay soil than not.

Lavender is one of the few plants I've run across where winter wet is so detrimental.  Almost all the problems I've seen with lavender are related to too much moisture.  That's the hard part.

Nearly all places where lavender is grown, it's grown from cuttings.  So of course, you want to grow it from seed.  From seed, cold stratification.  Once sown, germination can take a month.  Light required for germination, and consistent heat.  So...good luck.

Hi Timothy, I'm in central NY, just south of Sodus Point, I imagine you are further east. I have several grosso lavender plants grown from starts and a Hidcote from seed. If you need cuttings the grossos are fairly hardy plants, perennial to zone 5 but would probably require protection where you are, especially from the drying effects of winter winds. Purple grosso is a taller variety used to make perfume. Hidcote and Munstead are angustifolia (English) lavenders, smaller in stature, the better variety for culinary use and are available to grow true from seed.  I am planting Mustead seed in a few days, germination is usually slow and erratic, I'll check the seed packet but I think it requires a temperature around 65F. The photos are of grosso white and purple, white is more difficult to keep alive through winter. I'm growing in sandy loam with small stone added, slightly raised for better drainage.

Thank you everyone,

I think I am woefully underprepared but that is nothing that I can work on remediating. My original spot where I was planning on planting is a no go. It has a tendency to hold water and just seems counterintuitive to what lavender needs. I do however have a strip of abused land that would be better conditions. If these seeds take, I'm going to try to grow it over that way.

I need to learn about the different lavender types! Again, thank you everyone for your contributions.

learning is the fun part.  sometimes, you learn what doesn't work, but it's still learning.  imagine if the wd-40 guys had stopped at 38.

when you first asked this question, my initial reaction was along the lines of, you are going to have a learning curve.  my guess is you are at the edge of the range of possible, so individual site factors are going to be important.  my experience is, soil type and winter weather are the biggest factors limiting potential success.

what's the motivation?  the reason i ask is...does it have to be lavender? could something like russian sage or blue veronica work?

lavender thrives on heat and dry, almost neglect.  if you have trouble is ground, you may try pots.

Dane Geld wrote: what's the motivation?  the reason i ask is...does it have to be lavender? could something like russian sage or blue veronica work?

My partner loves the idea of a row of Lavender to appreciate. I being a humble hobby gardener who focuses on veggies mostly am trying to branch out.

Thank you for your suggestions by the way, I'm eyeing the Russian Sage because it is similar and I'm confident I actually have one growing in a flower bed I have. I just need to confirm. I might just try all three for "Operation Pretty Purple Flower".