harvesting lavender?

[rainbowgardener]

I've looked on line a couple times and haven't found any good answers about how to harvest lavender. They tell you things like pick it in the AM for best fragrance. OK. But my concern is how much can I harvest and how far back can I cut it, without setting the plant back too far for next year. I'm not sure what it's growth pattern is. It seems like it sends some new shoots up from the roots, but also some of the stems I left from last year came back and branched more. So I'm not sure about how much is ok to cut...

I have a bunch of lavender (lucky me! ) and I would like to use some. Thought I would make some lavender based Christmas projects.

Thanks for the help!

[Kisal]

The amount of stem you can take will vary with the size of the plant. You don't want to cut the plant back so far that there's nothing left but wood, or it won't regrow. You also want to maintain the plant in a nice rounded shape.

The amount of stem you take will vary, depending on how you intend to use the lavender. For example, if you're making wands or wreaths, you'll need stems about 6 to 10 inches, but if you're distilling oil, then you need much less stem.

If you go to YouTube and type harvest lavender in the search box, you will find several videos that demonstrate various harvesting techniques. I didn't find any one of the videos to be what I would call 'excellent', but they all offered some important pieces of information. If you watch a couple of them, you may find the answers you need.

JMO, but I thought the ACHS (American College of Health Studies) series was particularly informative, although they don't demonstrate the actual cutting process until the second installment.

[Sage Hermit]

How do you prepare lavender in my climate in MN? its very cold her and I plan to make some essentail oils from it. please give me tips on Lavender too. I see it in the neighbors yard only for a little while each year.

[rainbowgardener]

I'm not sure what you mean by preparing lavender and I'm not sure what the cold has to do with it.. once the lavender is harvested, all the rest is indoor activity.

If you truly want to produce essential oils, you need distilling equipment. You can buy a still or find kits and plans for homemade. Otherwise you can produce lavender flavored oil. You take a small tight-sealing jar, fill it up with lavender and then pour some mild vegetable oil in it. Seal it and let it sit for a week or two. Strain the lavender out, then fill the jar with fresh lavender and repeat the process, until the oil is as fragrant as you want it. I did this last year and I wasn't real satisfied. The oil is still vegetable oil, not a very pretty color, not as intense a fragrance as true essential oil, and it doesn't keep very well.

You can also make an alcohol tincture of lavender, which comes out a better color and retains more of the fragrance, but even in sealed jars evaporates away after awhile.

But for true essential oil, you need a still. I'm lusting after one

I'm not sure what other tips on lavender you want, if you have more questions, ask a bit more specifically.

But in MN you are in zone 2, 3, or 4. I don't believe there are any lavenders hardy north of zone 5 and that may be pushing it. So if your neighbors are growing lavender, they are either growing it in pots and bringing it in for the winter or treating like an annual and starting over every spring (not very effective as it is slow growing in it's first year until established).

[rainbowgardener]

Kisal - Thanks for the links. I did watch the videos, which emboldened me to go out and cut my lavender. I dried it all this time and am using it in sachets, teas, flavorings, decorating homemade candles, and making the neckwarmers you see in catalogs (fill a tube with rice and flaxseed scented with lavender -- then people can pop it in the microwave to warm and use it on shoulders or where ever gets achey. S'posed to be very relaxing)

Next year a still!

[Sage Hermit]

Thank you rainbowgardener that information helps out. Maybe if I had a green house I could still grow here. I know how to make essential oils from a lot of plants but I don't know how to grow the lavender. I tried seeds but none of them sprouted.

sorry to derail the thread.

[Kisal]

Try lavender starts, instead of seeds. I have started lavender from seed, but it isn't easy. I think one seed out of the entire packet I planted actually germinated and grew into a plant.

Try English lavender ... Lavandula angustifolia ... rather than any of the other varieties. It tends to be more cold hardy. Also, I seem to have better luck with lavender in the ground, rather than in containers.

Lavender prefers an alkaline, very-well-drained soil.

Just some suggestions for you to try.

[rainbowgardener]

Kisal is right that lavender is slow to start from seeds. I've done it and now have some flourishing plants (three years later!). It has a low germination rate and grows veeerrrry slooooowly at the beginning.

Where she is in zone 7b and even where I am in 6b, it tends to grow better in the ground than in containers (I have some each way and the plants in the ground are doing better). However, I doubt that is true where you are in zone 2 or 3. To have it in the ground at all, you would have to be digging it up and moving it all the time, which slows plants down, and you have so little time where your ground is actually warm enough for lavender, I can't imagine that it would be worth uprooting the plant for, to give it three months in the ground. It will grow in containers, I have the containers to prove it!

PS. Sage Hermit: So how do you make essential oils? Do you have a still or what do you do?

[applestar]

This spring, when I trimmed my lavenders, I stuck the cuttings in patches of sand in my veg garden. 1 out of 3 or 4 cuttings "took" and are spending the winter in the veg garden, hopefully to winter over safely, then I'm going to transplant them to their permanent locations.

Maybe planting the lavender in larger clay pots and burying the pot in the ground during the growing season would work? That way, the lavender, pot and all, can be dug up, outside surface cleaned, and brought indoors to a more sheltered location during the winter months.

[Sage Hermit]

Distilling is the easy part it seems.

[rainbowgardener]

tell us more, Sage Hermit. How do you do the distilling?

[Sage Hermit]

Well, All you have to do is get a still throw you lavender ( My not want to use stems) in there collect the vapors and cool then separate from the water. it doesnt get more complicated than that although you can heat too much and destroy so use a low setting. Lavender can be done with a homemade still or you can buy one. The end product should be stored in dark glass bottles because the sun light harms the oil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uLbtur1xGU

This is what I would hopefuly get after I can grow enough.

Are you going to make oils? Can I have some!!? All my oil ran out. I personally do not ave a still but I researched how to make oils in my aromatherapy class when I was in Massage therapy school.

I mentioned this age old method Enfleurage:

The process of enfleurage also yields an absolute, although this method is virtually obsolete nowadays. It is very time consuming and labour intensive and, therefore, highly expensive. Formerly this was the main method of extraction for delicate flowers such as jasmine which continue to produce perfume even after they have ben picked. It involves the use of purified odourless cold fat which is spread over sheets of glass mounted in large rectangular wooden frames. Flowers are strewn upon this layer of fat which absorbs the essential oil. After approximately a day the flowers are removed to be replaced by fresh flowers. The process is repeated many times - even beyond months - until the fat is saturated.

Can you show us your lavender?


hope I helped. Its my goal to one day be on the level where I can produce my own oils so I am watching this thread.


If I had a bunch of lavender all I'd do is make oils from it, and save seeds. Repeat.

Found this: from Joy of Lavender

Harvesting lavender for drying is best done when the flowers are in full color, and either before they start to open or the flowers are only 1/3 open. The flowers keep a stronger color when picked at this bud stage.

You can cut 1/3 to 1/2 off the top of your plant each year. Make sure you leave about 4 weeks before your expected first frost, so the plant has time to harden off.

Cut your flowers with a hand shear or small sickle on a dry and sunny day. The dew needs to be off of the plants before you harvest. A humid or foggy day can cause mildewing.