I tried to grow some last year in Tulsa and both my bedding plants and the seeds went pffft.... Got nuthin'. I see it growing all around here but have no clue what the secret is. I'd love to have some advice on it too.

LR;
I'll be growing it this year. In fact, I'm going to start out in large tree pots. I've never grown it before but I know I have some places in the border of my yard that are barren and suitable for lavender according to the instructions of their preferred culture. I still need to amend that soil a bit and ready the "beds". I have cheap seeds so I'll be pre sprouting the seeds and then putting them into the prepared pots. In fact, I should start them very soon. Since the beds aren't ready, I need to start in pots, I think. Lovely stuff to be growing around our little yellow cottage, I think. Here, I have a lot of success starting things in pots and transplanting because my outdoor soil is so wretched. I often plant in the beds with a majority of the potting soil to ease the transition into this soil. My plants just seem to adjust better that way. Maybe next year I can have a better garden bed(s) and can start directly in that soil. I'm in Cushing with a steady supply of breezy wind so it can keep very dry with occasional moist mini-seasons such as we're experiencing now. I believe the lavender will like this as long as it has a chance to completely dry out between waterings.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

The secret is: buy plants. They seem hard to grow from seed.

Also, hill the spot where you plan to plant it. They don't like to much moisture... and they prefer gravel around them, to keep wet soil splashed up on them.

Moni

A few years ago I winter sowed some and had one plant that was healthy and about 8 inches tall. I was so proud. I had some construction going on and they dug it up before I got home, so I lost it.

Two days ago, I bought a plant and put it in the ground today.

Someone who posts on here grows lots of lavender, but I haven't seen her post for awhile. I think she lives somewhere around the Lawton area.

i agree about the seeds. i buy the plants and i have learned to put them where they can drain downhill. i love them so much that i would have them as a border if i could but for the water.

Loretta grows a lot of lavender I think, and I haven't seen her on here the last couple of weeks.

Lavender needs good drainage. Really good drainage. Even when I put it in a typical raised bed here with loamy clay full of compost and humus, I can lose it during normally wet month like April, May and Junes. I've had the best luck with it in a small raised bed made just for it where I added lots and lots of sand to facilitate good drainage. Last yer, though, that bed drained too well for the crazy heat we were having. I was gone to fires almost every day in July and August and wasn't paying much attention to how dry that bed was, and the lavender and rosemary died. So, I'll try again this year. The longest I've been able to keep lavender alive in the ground here is about 3 years, but considering our dense clay and the way we seem to have a major rain event every other year that drops between 8 and 12"" of rain in one day, I am surprised I can grow lavender at all in the ground. In pots it is easy. I just add a lot of gravel and sand to the container. I think Al's Gritty Mix from the Container Forum would be great for lavender, but that is just a guess on my part. I haven't tried it. This year I might.

Dawn

There are some plants that are just not made for growing from seed. Lsvender is one of them. They have very low germination rates and there are only certain varieties that can be grown from seed to begin with. If you've ever grown Lavender, you might notice that it never self-sows.

Plants are pretty inexpensive to purchase in the Herb sections of nurseries or at big box stores, so it makes it much more economical to purchase small plants than to attempt to grow it over and over from seed. Just direct sowing seeds won't be successful either. Just make sure you get one that is perennial here in Oklahoma as many varieties are not hardy in our zone.

Lavender requires - no, demands - strict, perfect drainage. I grow mine in pots now, and they are hardy to zone 6 (pot-grown perennials in our zone should be hardy to zone 6) in order to winter over outside. Otherwise, some sand and compost in soil, on ground slightly elevated to allow good drainage is key. Lavender also doesn't like humidity. Sometimes we have high humidity in Oklahoma, and my Lavender kind of "sulks along". It likes drier air more than most Mediterranean herbs. Lavender does not need to be fertilized, either.

I love it and the butterflies and bees love it, too!

I have 2 varieties right now that are hardy here, Lavendula x intermedia 'Provence' (a French Lavender), and Lavendula stoechas 'Madrid Pink' (a Spanish Lavender). Madrid Pink is so-called because of its rosy pink flowers with pink bracts - very pretty. Shorter flower stems, so it is not as good for cutting flowers as Provence is.

There are many species and cultivars on the market, so you have a large variety to choose from.

Susan

So, basically, it's a desert plant. I guess it would be idea for a rock garden? That's what I always thought of the middle east after visiting. Basically, they're sitting atop a huge rock with a little dirt stuck in the crevices and the entire middle east survives on what's grown in those crevices and the water that passes through them (Jordan river, e.g.). lol

Yes, Al's Gritty Mix would do well, probably. I would even add more lime to it, though, because Lavender loves a very alkaline soil.

Susan

Thanks for all the advice, think I'm gonna have to rethink how I was going to do that garden. I was originally thinking it would be nice to plant something along the fence there without any kind of visible boarder but i think we might end up building a small raised bed along that fence. my boyfriend has been talking about grading the yard away from the house and putting in a french drain, since we have some flooding issues near the back door with all this rain. we were out there in the rain the other night digging a small trench to help redirect some water away from the door. lol fun stuffs. not really sure how or when hes going to end up doing that so it kinda puts anything I want to do out there on hold or he'll just end up messing it all up when he decides to work out there.

Also, when looking for sand to add to the garden, where do you get it? is there a specific kind? Looking at our local walmarts garden center they seem to only have playsand, Would Atwoods have something better/cheaper?

I tried to grow lavender from seeds this year with great success. I had sown about 2-3 seeds in each plug with ProMix, them potted up them in large cups yesterday only as shown pictures.

A friend of mine gifted me a tiny (3") seedling of Lavender called 'Provence' bough from highcountrygardens.com It is grown in pretty large bush this year. I also planted two lavenders pots brought from WM, they were even larger than gifted plant, but they died. -Chandra

I've had good luck with lavender twice, at our previous house and our current one. Both times it was grown from purchased plants and planted in a raised setting, and both times it got some direct sun and some filtered sunlight because there were trees nearby, but I suspect would do just fine in full sun also. It's just in a raised flowerbed near the foundation of the house with no special soil and I don't give it any special treatment but do try to be sure I don't overwater it. The current one is now going into its fourth summer and it is larger and more beautiful each year. With the last two warm winters it has died back very little, but in a cold winter it can die back quite a bit but always comes out when it warms up. The current one survived the below zero temps in the winter of 2010-2011 and that was its first winter, so it's definitely hardy. I love lavender and would have fields of it if I could!!

Suzie

Suzie,

Hi! Long time to see. It is good to see you back here.

I suspect you must have well-drained sandy loam if your lavender is doing that well.

I have found it vexing to grow here, even in raised beds that still have a lot of clay in them despite my efforts to amend them.

I am in the process of creating a new garden out west of the barn and it has sandy-silty soil that drains like a sieve, so I feel pretty certain I'll be able to grow lavender there much more easily than in the other areas where we have clay.

I love lavender and would have fields of it too if I had more sandy soil for it. There's a lavender farm in Cooke County, TX, across the river from us and I'd love to have a lavender farm of my own, but at this point, I'd be content with just one long row of it in the new garden.

Dawn

Dawn,
Thank you, I tend to hibernate in the winter and poke my head back out when it warms up again :-). Last Thursday I went outside for what was going to be just a few minutes and it was so beautiful that I spent the entire afternoon outside cleaning up flowerbeds, etc. I bet you'll have good luck with lavender in that new garden, it sounds perfect for it!

Suzie

The first time I got lavender to grow was beginner's luck, lots of lime & drainage. It got huge & lived several years, but I didn't know I was supposed to prune it & I think that's what shortened its life. I tried winter sowing it this year in a whiskey barrel in lean, fast-draining soil & perlite & lime. In France it grows directly on lime cliffs, but got nothing (I sowed about 150 seeds). So I've planted small plants from Southwoods & covered with some of my floating row cover.

Laced Reason asked a good question about where to get good garden sand as an additive. I've got a good (free) natural source here in SE OK, but what do folks use? What kind of sand is best, especially for sowing very fine seeds like foxglove, carrots, etc.?

Hello guys,

I have successfully germinated Lavender from seeds.by :

You have to wrap the seeds with wet paper towel, (not to suggy) it should be normally wet, put it in a closed plastic bag.

The plastic bag should be placed in the fridge (Not freezer!)... Until they germinate... (check them every weekend... They should give roots...) when they do.. You plant them in peat moss... About a week it starts to grow... When it has leaves put it in sunny location, water it once a week.. That's it!!

I have succeeded growing English lavender... Now I am growing : White lavender + giant lavender.

They still in the fridge for about 3 weeks now.. Nothing is growing right now, I will wait more.. And see.

* this is the ONLY method I have succeeded, no other will work.

Thanks and good luck!! By the way growing from seeds take too much time, it takes about a full year for it to establish... It stays small plant

Hope this year they will bloom eventually in this spring.

Shady, last year I killed all my lavender seedlings, but this year I have 5 that are growing. They are still under the lights indoors...but they actually look healthy! I'm very excited about this. But, like you mentioned, they are slow growers. I started them maybe two months ago and they're just an inch or two tall...but they have several leaves each. Thanks for sharing your method!