How do you care for lavender? Check out this planting tutorial

Lavender has beautiful flowers and a wonderful fragrance. It is easy to grow and appeals to both refined and popular tastes, and it is widely popular in all kinds of gardens. Here are some methods for how to grow and care for lavender yourself.

How to care for lavender is part of the series of tutorials on growing lavender. The tutorial also covers preparation, planting, and care. If you want to know how to care for lavender, follow Juqiao.com to see the tutorial on growing lavender.

How to care for lavender

Fertilize the soil

Lavender is a plant that does not need much maintenance and only needs fertilizing once a year. In early spring, use a foliar feeding method to apply a small amount of a mixture of compost and bone meal. You can also apply one to two additional feedings in summer using a liquid fish emulsion or seaweed extract.

Water less

As mentioned earlier, moisture is the natural enemy of lavender. If the plant's roots become overly wet, this will kill the plant faster than drought or a drop in temperature. In fact, overwatering newly planted lavender in early spring is the main cause of planting failure.

Water moderately, and make sure the soil is completely dry before each watering, but the plant itself must not lack water.

If you grow lavender in a container, make sure the container has good drainage to prevent water from accumulating at the bottom.

Remove weeds

You can cover the soil around the base of the lavender with a thin layer of mulch. Use a light-colored mulch, such as coarse sand, gravel, or oyster shells. Mulch also helps protect the plant during winter frosts.

Prune lavender

Prune your plant once a year, preferably before new growth begins in spring. You should prune off one third of the entire plant, using pruning shears or hedge trimmers to create a neat and perfect shape.

Pruning lavender stimulates it to grow new growth points and can prevent it from growing in a messy, unorganized way.

Make sure not to over-prune the plant, as this may completely suppress new growth.

Harvest the flowers

The best time to harvest is when the flowers at the bottom of each stem are just about to fully open. At this time, lavender is at its most vigorous and fragrant. Cut the flowers from the bottom of the flower stem, near the leaves.

Dry the lavender. Bundle about one hundred flowers together, tie them with a rubber band, and hang them upside down with a nail indoors in a warm, dark, dry place for about 10 to 14 days.

If you want to use lavender to decorate the house, put the flowers in a vase, but do not soak the stems in water, as this will only rot the stems and make the flowers fall off faster.

DIY tips

Leaf color generally ranges from gray-green to silver-gray, and a few varieties have bright yellow-green leaves. Not all varieties are readily available, but they can be ordered through websites or seed banks.

Lavender blooms in midsummer, ranging from lavender-toned gray to vibrant blue-purple. Some varieties also bloom in white, pink, and yellow-green. The flowers themselves are very small, sometimes bud-like, but they bloom very densely, covering separate upright stems.

One type of perennial lavender can grow to 0.3 to 0.9 m, varying by variety. It needs at least six hours of light per day, and the more the better. Lavender grows in hardy zones, and when planting, space them about 0.4 m apart.

Some varieties of lavender can be grown from seed (especially the 'Munstead' variety), or you can also buy plants in nursery pots in spring. The most popular varieties include Grosso, Provence, Royal Purple, Cinderella, and Hidcote.

The old stems of lavender become woody, and the plant does not transplant as easily as other perennials. If it must be transplanted, move it out in spring just after new growth points begin to grow, and replant it immediately. It can also be propagated by layering.

Precautions

Lavender is prone to root rot. To avoid this, never overwater lavender plants, and keep watering in winter to a minimum.