Lavender: care and how to plant it to enjoy its beautiful flowers

Lavender, with its purple flowers and seductive scent, symbolizes the Mediterranean like no other plant. Adapts well to different weather conditions and land. It just needs to be protected from too cold winds and frost.

His presence on the bed of the garden beautifies him and gives him joy, but it is also possible enjoy potted lavender that we can place on balconies and terraces. we tell you the basic lavender care at home.

When and how to plant lavender

The main planting season for lavender is from april to june and even in July.

If you have seeds, in february you can plant lavender in the greenhouse or on the windowsill.In April or May you can plant the young plant in a warm and sunny place for your lavender plant.The bush requires an almost sterile calcareous soil, sandy, poor in organic matter.It is important for the plant that the soil in the garden or in the pot is permeable. Lavender does not tolerate waterlogging at all. It is better to water less than too much. If your soil tends to have excessive moisture due to being too clayey, add sand and gravel to the ground when you plant it. If necessary, put more gravel or stones on the soil surface around the plant so they store heat and protect the lavender from the wind. If the soil pH is below 6, the soil is too acidic. You can check the value of the soil using pH strips that you can find in pharmacies, gardeners, and stores that sell aquariums. If the soil is too acidic, you can add garden lime or rock dust.

Lavender is relatively hardy. In case of strong frost, it is recommended to move the lavender against the wall of the house in the pot or protect it with aluminum foil and vegetable fleece.

Lavender: basic care to make it beautiful

Lavender Bloom Season

Lavender’s blooming period usually lasts half a year, from May to September. From spring to fall, lavender bathes your garden in a sea of ​​purple flowers, which bees and bumblebees love to visit.

Lavender Watering

Think of the lavender fields of Provence: it’s sunny and hot and hardly any rain. You need to water your lavender in the same way. The motto is “less is more”.

In summer, just water it once or twice a week depending on the temperature. In winter, once every 7-10 days is enough.

Lavender prefers to search for water with its roots than to be flooded. If you remove the wild grasses around them, you will avoid competition for water. To maintain moisture in the soil, you can put stones around the bush.

In this video we tell you a trick to know if you are watering well:

How to fertilize lavender

It is best to fertilize lavender once at the start of the season in spring. For it, the best option is liquid vegetable compost. Lavender is not very tolerant of nitrogen which can be found in chemical fertilizers or manure.

If it seems to you that it does not produce enough flowers, you can add some supplement to the water rich in iron and other minerals, suitable for organic production.

How to prune lavender

Depending on the variety, lavender should be pruned at the end of August until the end of September so that it remains compact and does not wither. If you missed this moment, you can also reduce the lavender in spring, but only the tips of the shoots can be shortened by a few centimeters. The following applies to fall pruning:

Use pruning shears or hedge trimmers. Trim the lavender one-third to half its size. It is important not to cut into old wood. It is best to cut the lavender bush into rounded shapes.

How to reproduce lavender by cuttings and division

The propagation from cuttings is easy and fast.These can be cut from the bush in spring or fall.

cut a bud about 10 cm long that is soft and not woody. Use a sharp knife.Quia the leaves from the bottom of the shoot so that 5 cm of the stem is exposed.If you have rooting gel, smear the open end of the branch to increase growth rate and speed (wear gloves).Use calcareous soil that is not too wet or, alternatively, clay granules, which are sterile and prevent waterlogging.Potted cuttings should be kept in a warm place, but not under the scorching sun.After two months, the cut should have developed new shoots.

Also it is possible to divide the lavender mother plant. To do this, dig up the plant, being careful not to break the roots, and divide the plant in half.