About Lavender Plants

Lavender plants are a common and popular herb. This is partly due to the ease by which they can thrive in a garden, partly due to their attractive smell in the garden, and partly due to the many uses for dried lavender around the home. Lavender can be grown successfully by most gardeners as long as they take the necessary steps to ensure that the lavender plants are properly established.

Features

Lavender is a very fragrant herb that scents the air in a garden and is extremely aromatic when it is dried. Lavender grows as a small shrub with tiny purple flowers. Dried lavender is used to make sachets and to scent many personal care products such as lotions, creams and perfumes. Lavender can also be used in cooking and to make an oil.

Geography

Lavender plants grow well in most conditions. Lavender needs at least six hours of full sunlight each day and also needs soil that is well drained. A soil that contains higher sand content rather than clay content will produce healthier and more abundant lavender plants. Lavender plants can grow successfully up to Zone 5.

Significance

When establishing a new lavender plant, add a soil enhancer such as peat moss or compost to the soil directly around the lavender plant. Make sure that a newly planted lavender plant gets regular and adequate water during the first season of growing. After a lavender plant has been successfully established, they are quite resilient and can tolerate drought conditions.

Benefits

Lavender grows successfully in pots because lavender plants prefer to grow in confined conditions. Growing lavender in pots allows you to keep lavender plants growing year round because the pots can be brought into the house during the winter and placed on a sunny windowsill. Water lavender plants in pots when the soil is dry to the touch. Do not water the foliage, pour water carefully only at the plant base.

Warning

Lavender plants have a lifespan that is different from many other perennial plants. Lavender plants typically grow happily and are healthy for between three and five years. After five years, lavender plants start to decline, the flowering grows sparse, and the plants do not appear as robust and healthy.

Prevention/Solution

Too much moisture is typically the downfall of lavender plants. If a lavender plant's roots are overly wet during the winter or if the growing season has extremely high humidity levels, a lavender plant will suffer. Some ways to counteract high moisture levels are to make certain that there is adequate spacing between the lavender plants to allow for enough air to flow in and around the plants and to make sure that the plants receive enough sunlight. Mulch the plant roots during the winter to protect from damage from freezing and thawing conditions.