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Harvesting and drying lavender is simple – simply snip off the stems just before the flowers open and when you’ve gathered enough for your needs, tie the stems together and hang them up to dry somewhere sheltered.
When should you harvest French lavender?
When harvesting lavender for essential oil distillation, wait until 50%-100% of the buds are blooming. When harvesting lavender for dried buds to use in potpourri, sachets or culinary uses, harvest when 25%-50% of the buds are blooming.
How do you harvest and dry French lavender?
The most simple way to dry fresh lavender is to let it hang dry. Collect handful-size bouquets, secure the stems together with twine or a rubber band, and hang them upside down to passively dry. If you harvested a lot of lavender at once, it is best to create and hang several small bunches rather than one large one.
What can I do with French lavender?
Creative Uses. Because of its dark purple flowers, French lavender works well when dried and used for ornamental purposes. The flowers of the French lavender plant work well in potpourri. Because of its strong aroma, French lavender is also used in making soaps and perfumes.
Should you deadhead French lavender?
Deadhead French lavender regularly throughout the summer. This prolongs the flowering and creates new growth the following April/May.
Should I prune French lavender?
Pruning French lavender is possible, but must be exclusively performed on growth that still bears leaves. If you prune dry wood, it won’t grow back… At the end of winter, prune as you wish, but follow the rounded shape of the plant. Avoid cutting off old growth, because those branches rarely send out new shoots.
Is French lavender good for drying?
The blooms do make nice lavender wands and potpourris. Harvest flowers for drying before any of the blossoms start to turn brown. Dried French lavender flowers make nice additions to dried floral bouquets.
Can I harvest lavender leaves?
To harvest lavender leaves, you can either cut small springs, or pinch off individual leaves as you need them. Just be sure to use the tender new growth, and avoid any dry or brown leaves. What is this? If you don’t want to sacrifice the flowers, then make sure to gather the sprigs after the stem is done blooming.
How do you harvest lavender so it keeps growing?
The flowering stems can be harvested while in bloom or snipped off after the flowers fade to keep the plant tidy. Leave the foliage over the winter to protect new growth from frosts, then in spring trim the plants fairly hard to prevent them from becoming leggy and bare at the base.
What is the difference between lavender and French lavender?
The difference between French and English lavender is that English lavender is cold hardy and lives much longer (up to 15 years) whereas French Lavender does not tolerate cold, only lives for 5 years but flowers for much longer.
Is French lavender poisonous?
Lavandula stoechas can be toxic.
What happens if you don’t prune lavender?
An annual pruning is an important step for long-lasting lavender (Lavandula spp. and hybrids) plants. Without it they grow a large, lanky, woody base that can split open — it looks bad and shortens the plant’s lifespan.
Does French lavender come back?
Lavender does come back after Winter if they are planted in the appropriate climate. French and Spanish lavenders are not cold hardy and may not come back after a cold Winter with freezing temperatures whereas English lavender can tolerate cold climates and grow again in the Spring.
How long does French lavender live?
How long does lavender live? Lavenders are not long-lived plants. Expect tender varieties to live for about five years. If pruned correctly, hardy types can live for about 15 years (as many as 20 years, in some cases).
How do I care for my indoor French lavender plant?
The dos of growing lavender indoors Give your plant as much sunlight as you can. A south-facing window is a prime option. Pot in quick-draining soil. Lavender thrives in a well-draining, rocky medium. Try your hand at a smaller variety. There are many to choose from—we recommend giving French lavender a try!.
How do you revive French lavender?
The only way to revive lavender that has been in the shade is to transfer it to a pot and place it in the sun as quickly as possible. Lavenders require sun all year round, including during the winter dormancy so plant the lavender in a nice open space that is not under a tree canopy or any other shade.
What can you do with fresh picked lavender?
Grow culinary lavenders, like English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) or lavandins (Lavandula x intermedia), and harvest flowers to flavor baked goods. Make lavender butter or sugar and use these to infuse the floral flavor into cookies or cakes. Or add dried lavender buds to tea for a floral burst.
What to do with lavender after it blooms?
Give them a trim after the first flush of flowers has faded. Do not cut them back hard as with other kinds of lavenders (it can kill them). Deadhead for the rest of the season. In late summer shape foliage into a mounded form.
What is better English or French lavender?
If you’re looking for the characteristic lavender smell, choose English lavender. It produces the strong scent that permeates the air, while French lavender has a much lighter scent, which while nice, is more reminiscent of rosemary.
Does French lavender smell?
The French Lavender plants are bigger plants (producing more lavender per plant). Aroma is sweet with slightly camphorous scent. The French Lavender scent is used more for its aromatic properties and considered good in cleaning products and products designed to freshen your home.
Is French lavender good for bees?
Bees love lavender. This fragrant herb provides nectar for foraging bees from spring and through summer. From personal observation, they seem to like both English lavender and French lavender and hybrids.
