Drooping French Lavender

[ErinWales]

Hello everyone!

I've recently purchased some potted french lavender, which was already flowering and beautiful at the time of purchase. I repotted the plants into slightly larger pots in well-draining soil (cactus soil). When I took them out of the original pots they seemed to be pretty root-bound so I did my best to loosen the root ball, without doing too much damage to the roots. I live in Los Angeles and the plants get about 3-4 hours of direct afternoon sun each day.

I am experiencing issues with them, however, and I'm not sure what the main problem may be. The lavender heads often droop and some of the leaves are brown and dry. I water probably every 2 days and when I do so usually most of the heads will perk back up, but not all of them. I've been afraid of overwatering because I know they are prone to root rot, but is this a sign that am I under-watering them? I stick my finger into the soil to test that its dry before I water and it usually takes a couple days to completely dry-out.

Any advice? Attaching a photo of droopy heads and brown leaves. Should I trim back brown areas or droopy heads?

THANK YOU!!! Really don't want to kill these guys.

[GardeningCook]

I'm just "guessing" that it's a combination of both too little sun and too little watering. Lavenders really need full-day sun (as in 6-8 hours) to thrive, & while you're right that overwatering kills more of them than underwatering, the fact that your plants seem to perk up a bit when you water them, has me thinking that they need more. The trick will be figuring out a balance of more water vs. the limited sun yours are getting. Unfortunately, another STRONG possibility is that you have a disease situation going on here. "Leaf Wilt Disease" immediately springs to mind since your plant has all the symptoms, & it's fairly common in lavenders. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is a cure for it.

[ErinWales]

Thank you for your reply! I hadn't even looked into anything other than root rot, but seems like leaf wilt could be the culprit.
I'll try a little more watering and see if that helps though too. Maybe I can find another spot to get it some more sun. Unfortunately I'm in an apartment and the window boxes are shaded by a magnolia tree for part of the day.

We'll see... regardless of my lavender's future, thank you again for your reply!

Erin

[GardeningCook]

You're very welcome, & I do help your plant recovers.

[imafan26]

It might be a little bit of transplant shock too. I usually don't do much more than score roots anymore. I don't try to break apart the root ball too much. Cactus mix is well drained but if it is dissimilar to what the plant was growing in , that might not make it happy either. I also don't put plants out in full sun after I buy them especially if I buy them from a store that has had the plants indoors or under shade for a while. I will put the plant in a more sheltered spot and gradually move them out over a period of a week or so.

[ErinWales]

Imafan26, good thought! I considered transport shock as well, but I've never had a plant go through that so I didn't even know what it looked like (but I've also never worked with lavender). It was in a different type of soil and it was thriving in a mostly shaded area of my local Trader Joe's. So, I did introduce it to a totally new environment, and also prob didn't help it much when I tried to loosen the root ball...

I'll just keep an eye on em. Step up my watering... hope they spring back a little. Thank you so much for your advice!

Do you think I should trim back the sprigs that are dry/brown looking?

[imafan26]

The dry ones for sure. Actually lavender that is growing like to be cut back regularly to keep it bushy otherwise it gets lanky and woody. Eventually, I move mine out to full sun because they do prefer to be there, I just give them time to acclimate first.