Growing Lavender: Useful Tips

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Lavender is not only an incredibly fragrant, but also an extremely useful plant, which is why some summer residents dare to start growing it on their plots. It is widely used for the preparation of baths and medicinal herbal infusions, for the manufacture of fragrant pillows and sachets, moreover, with its addition, all kinds of teas, compotes and lemonades are prepared. No wonder lavender is called "blue gold"! So why not try to grow this beauty on your site? Where to start and how to achieve excellent results in this difficult, but at the same time interesting and important business?

About seeds

Before you start sowing lavender seeds, they must be stratified, that is, they must be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of months. You can do a little differently - plant the seeds in a small pot or container, cover everything thoroughly with plastic and leave it outside until February (otherwise the seeds may not sprout). And with the onset of February or March, this container is transferred to a warm place, watered well and begin to expect the first shoots.

Preplant processing of cuttings

Immediately before planting, lavender cuttings are recommended to be treated with "Kornevin", "Epin" or any other similar means. At the same time, the stems of cuttings buried in the ground must be freed from the leaves - this will help not to encounter decay.

By the way, it is possible to increase the number of plants not only by dividing the bushes in autumn or spring, but also by obtaining layers of adult bushes in the summer.

About survival and cold resistance

The best survival rate is typical for summer, and not for autumn cuttings. Initially, they can be planted both in containers and in open ground, while in the second case, they will take root much better. Summer cuttings are usually carried out at the first cut of flowers, and autumn - simultaneously with autumn cut.

With the onset of winter, lavender cuttings rooted in the ground must be properly covered with spunbond - after all, do not forget that lavender is a southern plant. As for the specimens rooted in containers, they are placed for the winter in bright, cold rooms (even on glazed balconies), the temperature in which does not fall below five to seven degrees, and occasionally watered. And in order to get a guaranteed result, it is still better to give preference not to fashionable lavender varieties, but to the most common narrow-leaved lavender, which boasts the greatest resistance to cold.

What should be the soil?

Oddly enough, but poor soil will be the best option for growing lavender - it germinates easily and develops excellently and blooms even between road tiles! And even in the ground with construction debris, you will soon see the first shoots!

Do you need fertilizers?

As practice shows, lavender is completely indifferent to fertilizers, that is, there is no need for feeding when growing it.

How to water?

Watering should be limited, as excess water will provoke decay. As a rule, lavender is watered only during dry periods or after the flowers have been cut. And the cuttings intended for subsequent rooting are ideally watered two to three times a week.

Formation

It is achieved either by pruning adult specimens (in autumn and spring), or by pinching seedlings and cuttings. At the same time, pruning should in no case be too low - during its implementation it is very important to try not to remove the buds from which peduncles with stems develop. And pruning the lavender growing in containers makes it easy to get luxurious bonsai!

Try to plant these beautiful flowers in your summer cottage, and they will surely thank you with a lot of the most useful properties!