what's happening to my lavendar and rosemary?

[yonnielovesveggies]

Hi folks

Part of my lavender plant is looking healthy. Part of it looks wilted and droppy.

[img]https://img165.poco.cn/mypoco/myphoto/20110918/21/6435775920110918213330071.jpg[/img]

I usually keep it in a south facing window as an indoor plant. During the day, I take it outside for direct sunlight. I do this about 4 times a week. I don't water it much. Pretty much wait until the soil feels bone dry before I do so.

As for my rosemary plant. The top part of the rosemary looks ok, but the lower needles of the plant turn brown and drop off. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I treat it in much the same way as I treat the lavender (described above).

[img]https://img165.poco.cn/mypoco/myphoto/20110918/21/6435775920110918214347060.jpg[/img]

Can anyone shed some light on how to take better care of them? Most grateful to you all!

Yonnie

[PunkRotten]

Well both of these plants really need well draining soil. My Rosemary is doing fine, it get lots of sun and I water lightly about once a week. But my Lavender looks similar to yours. I am thinking too much water and/or the soils drainage is not that good.


Remember though these plants are drought tolerant so they can handle a lot of heat and dryness. So try to not water it for a awhile and give it as much sun as possible and see if it improves. I already lost a lavender plant and I am afraid I am gonna lose this other one.

[applestar]

Good advice about checking the drainage.

Also, are there any fine spider web-like silk strands and/or do any of the dried up leaves feel sticky? If they do, they may be infested by spider mites.

[yonnielovesveggies]

ok, I'll check for drainage and quit watering for a while.

Nothing sticky going on.. no visible bugs or anything either. Could it be time to repot by any chance?

[yonnielovesveggies]

So I've put both the rosemary and the lavender into new pots with better draining soil, taking care not to disturb the root balls.

Should I be trimming the dead branches of the lavender back at all? If so, is there a method to this?

If the drainage of the previous soil wasn't any good, wouldn't moving the plant into a bigger pot just carry the previous problem over into a newer bigger pot? Or doesn't it work this way?

Thankyou!

[rainbowgardener]

I haven't tried growing lavender indoors. Where I am, I can leave mine out all winter. But I have to bring rosemary in for the winter, so I know it can be pretty tricky to maintain indoors.

Here's a thread we had about maintaining lavender and rosemary indoors:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30935&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

What I learned is that the rosemary likes very free draining, slightly alkaline soil, like they would sell for cactus and that it likes to get its water mostly by misting.

[yonnielovesveggies]

Thank you Rainbow Gardener!

Hmm.. so - sun, humidity and cold. Not so sure that's a manageable combo.. most my sunny areas are warm. Until winter that is.. which is just around the corner. I hope the lavender holds out. Maybe it will perk up with the winter cold.

Will cutting off dead lavender branches be a good idea to help nutrition get to the parts of the plant that are still alive?

Thanks again