Up-potting fern leaf lavender

[sepeters]

Hi all! I'm doing some up-potting in the garden and the fern leaf lavender needs it, bad! The neighbor gave it to me last spring, because he didn't know how to care for it and it was dying. It is doing much better, but I don't exactly know how to care for it either.

It's about a year old and over-wintered outside. It looks a little crummy right now but has been getting new growth the past few weeks and has been blooming (just a few flowers at a time) since May. It was silver n the summer, but light green now. It's about 12 inches tall, 20 inches at the flowers, but only 8 inches wide and is in a 1/2 gallon pot with regular garden soil mixed with some sand (has a pH of 7) and is lightly mulched with wood chips. I have not been fertilizing it at all, and it doesn't seem to like being watered much, though appears to enjoy compost tea once in a while.

Should this plant be in a much larger pot? And I don't think I have it in the right planting medium. Any recos? Mulch? Should I be fertilizing? And what is a good watering schedule? Not sure why it is green now, is that just the new growth? Basically, anything would be useful. As you can see I'm in the dark.

[imafan26]

Most lavenders are happier in the ground but, I have kept them in pot. Usually they are pruned in January, but only on young wood to get them to resprout. It sounds like yours is doing that already. Lavender likes a well drained soil not to rich. It doesn't like a lot of fertilizer so I only give mine a slow release once a year in the pots, or a little compost in the the ground. If it rains for a long period, the base of the lavender leaves will turn black.
If you live zone 8 or cooler you can grow more varieties than I can. I actually grow more lavendins because they can handle more heat.

https://hihort.blogspot.com/2011/11/lavender.html
https://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/la ... ndtips.htm

[sepeters]

Aha! Thank you, Imafan!
I wish I could put it in the ground! Unfortunately, I am in a tiny condo and have only one raised bed for the veggies and about a billion potted plants! Perhaps not what the HOA imagined when they approved a "small garden". They probably thought I meant flowers on the window sills.

Anyhoo... Do you think I should move it to 1 gallon pot and then re-pot when it needs it next, or just go for 3 gallons off the bat? I don't know if it dislikes it's roots being disturbed. It also has about 20 flower heads on it now, will I disrupt its flowering cycle? I don't have much experience with flowers (other than the experience of accidentally killing every flower I've ever had!) but recently have been planting a few with some success.

I live in zone 9a (sunset zone 13) and the honeybees and hummingbirds come all year as long something is blooming, so I'm trying to keep that up. Not sure what flowers grow well here, but I do like the look and smell of the lavender. Seems like it would make a nice ground cover along a pathway, even in a "desert landscaped" yard.

[imafan26]

Lavender should be transplanted into a larger parts as needed. They have an extensive root system.

When I take the lavender out of the pot, I do not take the root ball apart. I just score it with a knife or clippers.

I use peatlite. 50% peat moss 50% perlite. Any lite well drained mix works. I have even used cinders and peat moss. I add about 2 tsp of osmocote to the pot for a slow release fertilizer a year.

Lavender resents fertilizer, so only use a slow release and under feeding is fine. Compost tea is great, it will not be too rich for the lavender.

I don't like to use compost in pots because it holds on to water and I tend to over water, so I need a very dry mix.

In the ground lavender forms a large mound three feet in diameter and knee high. Lavender multifeda (fern leaf lavender) blooms most of the year for me.

My front yard slopes toward the street and it is perfect since lavender hates wet feet.

The potted lavender stays considerably smaller.

I just cut half of my lavender back.

I have killed my lavender before because I did not know I was not supposed to cut them back to far. So, now I just cut back half the lavender and let more light in. When I see the new leaves sprouting from the branches then I cut back the rest.

Lavender can be rooted from the cuttings. I have the best luck with young branches that have a fork. I root everything in perlite.

[sepeters]

Thanks again, Imafan! I was feeling pretty lost with that lavender. If it gets that big I'll def take your advice and only go up one pot size.
Now I am certain I have been over watering! The sun is so intense here that even in the winter the top few inches of soil will be bone dry within 2 days, but still fairly damp at the bottom because it is cold. Poor lavender with wet feet! If it doesn't like a lot of water or nutrients it will enjoy the native soil here, when I have the opportunity to get it in the ground. I did stop using peat moss a few years ago, for environmental reasons, but will find a new medium that drains better than compost.

I am working on trying to change my habits and water the flowers shallowly and less often, hoping that will help. I especially tend to over water and over veg my flowers with N.