How to Harvest Spanish Lavender

Spanish lavender has a uniquely shaped flower head.

Lavender brings a wonderful scent to the herb garden. Long treasured as a potent fragrance, it has been used to make perfume, create a medicinal herb and flavor a variety of dishes. While it is difficult to find lavender commercially, harvesting and drying lavender from the home garden is a simple affair. Spanish lavender, like other lavenders, has wonderfully fragrant flowers. Unlike other lavenders, the flowers of Spanish lavender are larger. This has no effect on the flavor or the processing of the blooms.

Things You'll Need

• Pruners
• Rubber band

Instructions

1. Check lavender flowers for readiness by examining the flower heads regularly once the plant reaches 2 years of age. Begin to cut the lavender when the first few florets start to open. Continue every day thereafter until you have harvested all the flowers.

2. Cut flower stalks just below the first pair of leaves. Make a bunch of lavender that is approximately 1/2 an inch in diameter. Tie the bunch securely together with a rubber band. The rubber band should be toward the bottom of the stems to allow the flowers to breathe as much as possible.

3. Hang the tied lavender stalks in a dark, well-ventilated area, with the flowers pointing toward the floor. Heat the room to 115 degrees Fahrenheit if possible, as this will accelerate the drying process. Check regularly for dryness, which should occur in two to three weeks in an unheated space.

References

• North Carolina Cooperative Extension; Lavender: History, Taxonomy, and Production; Joe-Ann McCoy, et al.
• University of California at Davis; Lavender; Debbie Notaro; September 2003