Allotments 4 All

Hello all green house owners.
Thanks for helping me out over the past few months [even though you didn't know it]
When ever I got stuck I looked on this site and found past replies that gave me all the help I needed.
I have had my green house now for 3 months or so and all is growing well.
I now feel worthy enough to join you all.
My green house is purely for growing flowers for the garden, with the odd strawberry and tomato plant.
My speciality is Lavender, I have approx 50 plants in my garden. I love the stuff.
All the Best to you all.

hiya, lavender lover, and welcome..I'm a fan of lavender, I've got the common or garden variety and have just started getting other varieties, trouble is, I keep killing the french type off, any tips ?

Welcome LL, glad you've decided to join us.  Would love to see some pics of all your lavender which I love too.  Do you use it for anything - making shortbread, soap, smelly things to go in drawers?  :)

welcome lavender lover yes i,m a fan as well but my growing of it is a bit erratic
think it must be my heavy clay soil isn,t greenhouse gardening good don,t know what i did without it
marg

I have never liked French Lavender and so I have never grown it.
I only have 2 sorts of Lavender, Common English and dwarf all my plants have come from cuttings from the 2 I started with.

I'll post some pictures of my garden soon.
At first I use to dry the Lavender for decoration and then I started giving it to the church for their crafts but I think 4 to 5 pillow cases full of it was a bit too much for them to use and they stopped asking for it.
Nowadays I pick some for vases some times and just enjoy it being in my garden keeping the bees busy.
At the end of the summer when I cut it back I normally get around 6 black sacks of flower heads, I would love to give it to some one who would make use of it.

Hello Lavender, I'm new here too.

Astro.

Hello and welcome,

I'd be really interested to know a bit more about taking cuttings from lavender, and what are the does and don'ts of pruning.

Maybe you could let us all know how you do it as it sounds like you are good at it.

me too. I have never had any luck with growing it from cuttings and I usually kill the old plant off as well. I do try to prune it properly but it always gets too leggy.

This is the back fence in my garden. plenty of room for the children as well as having
lovely looking flowers for the bees and butterfly and not to mention the smell.






I have to cut back the lavender every few months just to be able to cut the grass with the mower.

I'll take some pictures for guides on how to take cuttings.

Hi lavender lover. I love lavender too, would really appreciate tips on cuttings.
It doesn't like pots does it? Every one I've ever had has died back and then never quite recovered for the next year. i'd love a lavender hedge for the lottie. Mine was really hating its pot so I took it down to the plot and it's really perked up. Oh and welcome to the site!

Find a small section of lavender which does not have any flowers.
Pull the small section off downwards.



This will leave a long thin stem and a open base where the roots will grow from.



Pop the base in some hormone powder and then in some cutting compost.
It may start to look dead after a few days but leave it as it can take around 4 - 5 weeks for it to root properly.
The cutting will establish after 2 -3 months.

As for cutting back each year, lavender responds very well to a very good hair cut.
Cut right back to just above the woody bit and pull off as much old wood as poss.
I cut mine back at the end of the summer [late september / early october] but some say it should be done at the begining of spring.
I very rarely water the lavender as it prefers dry conditions. Once I found that out it started to grow alot better.
For some reason my lavender flowers very early each year and then flowers again a few months later. I dont know why, but it is lovely getting a double helping each year.
The reason for my planting lavender all round the edge of my garden was because my grass never grew up to the edge of my fence. All my neighbours had trees, plants and bushes up against the fence on their side so the water would get taken up by their plants leaving none left for my grass. The lavender solved that problem.

Thanks for that LL.  ;D I've never watered them much, as you say, they don't like it. Really useful tip for cuttings, thank you.

Thanks too LL, I took some cuttings a few weeks ago & they got pulled out of their pots by birds - I kept putting them back but eventually gave up - I shall try again now I know how.  :)

Thanks LL,

I'll be having a go later, not sure my fledgling lavender plant will be able to cope with having too many bits pulled off though!

How do you treat the cuttings while you're waiting for them to root and establish? And is there a 'best' time to take cuttings - in the spring for example?

Welcome LL. Good to see so many new members, hope you enjoy. Thank you for tips on cuttings, I only have one plant but will try to take cuttings. As Belinda has already asked....When should we try cuttings?
Lorna

I've found you can take Lavender cuttings anytime but dont include any flowers in the cutting. Not sure why, they just seem to die off.
I keep my cuttings shelterd away from the wind and animals and just water them now and then to keep them moist but not wet. It takes some time for Lavender to take. A good way to see if its going ok is to pull a cutting up after a few weeks, if it's got a root the chances are the other have too. A cutting now should be ready for planting next spring.
Because the cutting looks bad for so long most people give up before it's given a real chance.

If your lavender looks ratty and un healthy take lots of cuttings now and then after the flowers have died back at the end of the summer cut the whole bush back to just above the woody bit.
You will wish you had done it years ago.

I get lots of bees in my garden but I wanted to try to encourage a queen to nest some time. Any one got any ideas how I can help them stay?

Thanks for the info Lavender Lover - now where on earth did I put the rooting powder?  ??? ???

Thank you for your clear instructions LL, we'll give that a try, we love lavender because the flowers are irresistible - we have to touch them as we walk past.  And the bees - they can't get enough of them  :) :)

Thanks Lavendar lover for those clear instructions  :) :)

Quote from: Lavender lover on June 18, 2007, 22:06:29

I get lots of bees in my garden but I wanted to try to encourage a queen to nest some time. Any one got any ideas how I can help them stay?

Great tips LL, thanks very much. Try kept animals for tips on bees. They know their stuff in there.  ;D