Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Growing Baby Lavender

Propagating Lavender

Lavender is easy to propagate if you have a few plants to start with. Autumn cuttings work well, so this is the time to start preparing for any lavender propagation that you'd like to do before the cold weather arrives. Start by preparing a mixture of potting soil and sand. Cut a 2" - 3" lavender sprig from a main plant stem. Strip off any of the lower leaves. Dip the stem in rooting compound (hormone), but be sure to read the safety precautions first! (The rooting compound will speed up the process of propagation, but it not essential). Press the cutting into the potting mixture and place it in a warm, sunny room. It's important to keep the cutting moist, but not soggy. Once the plant has rooted, move outdoors for a few hours each day to acclimate it to nature. When the cutting has doubled or tripled in size, it is ready to plant in your garden in a well-drained location.

Another easy way to start lavender is to leave the stem right on the plant, but gently bend it down so it touches the earth. Secure in place with a rock or stone, and give it time to root. Once that happens, dig up the new baby plant and move it to where you'd like it to grow.

With the price of lavender plants, this is a simple and easy method of increasing your plant production --- while being easy on the pocketbook.

Photo: Purple Haze Lavender Farm

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:31 PM

    Thank you so much for these tips! I was motivated by your lavender posts to, FINALLY go and buy my own plant but didn't want to keep spending $6.00 every time I wanted a new one. This will help a great deal.

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  2. I love this photo and the look of this farm...

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  3. Anonymous10:33 AM

    I don't have any lavender to root, but do you think that this would work for rosemary?

    Love your blog, btw!!

    Barbara

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  4. Thank you for posting this tip on how to grow lavender. I love lavender and how a couple of plants I want to propagate.

    I came over here from Two Frog Home but I see you 'know' Lovella at What Matters Most!

    Willow

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  5. Thanks for the tip! I love lavender and will give this a try!
    Cathie

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  6. I moved two of my plants this year and they thrived with the increase of sunlight hours! I think I'll give this a go, though, I'm never very successful at propagation! I'll have to get some fresh rooting hormone - that might aid things a bit! Thank you for you tips! Everyone needs more lavender, right?

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  7. Hi, I'm very interested to grow lavenders. I live in Asia, Singapore. I can't find lavender seeds in Singapore. Can propogation be done by using the flower stalks?

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  8. Hello there! I tried layering on my Petunia and the stem died.

    Would you mind showing a picture of layering being done on a Lavender. I want to try it with my new Lavender.

    ReplyDelete

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