Sadly lavender, like most mediterranean sub shrubs, just isn’t a happy houseplant. They need lots of light. The ’tendrils’ appear to be etiolated flower stems. Your plant looks overwatered and light starved. I think your best chance is to harden it off and cross your fingers.

Flower stems makes sense. Now that you say it, it looks just like a floppy version of a flower spike ... minus the flower. This plant might be on any sort of timing given that it was being sold midwinter. My back room is south facing, but it may be less bright than the greenhouse at the garden center, so I guess that could have created it's desire for more light.

It received the exact same treatment as the other over wintering lavender, so I'm not sure why this one would be overwatered where the other was fine. They get watered when dry (dry dry, not just surface dry). Usually my overwintering herbs succumb to neglect ... had to stop keeping them in the basement window because I'd forget them for too long and they'd dehydrate and die. (Only dormant plants get to stay down there now.)

Hardening off started middle of last week for this plant, along with the tomato/pepper seedlings and other herb plants (new and old), once we finally stopped having frost and freeze warnings. (And of course we're now predicted to have mid 90s later this week ... ugh).

I bring my herbs infor the winter because dormant plants aren't very useful for cooking, especially when under a blanket of snow. They live outside when they can. I don't expect them to thrive indoors, but I do expect a new lavender to survive at least as well as an older one. As for watering, plants get checked maybe once a week or when one is drooping; watering occurs on a plant by plant basis, so only plants that are dry get watered; the rest get to wait until next check. (Seedlings and succulents are excluded from this ... my ecchevaria is lucky if it gets watered ... ever.) Plants at our house are provided with benign neglect and should be able to survive the desert test. Plants only get anything special if they show clear signs of nutrient deficiency. I have lavenders outside ... or at least I did; they don't always survive the winter. Please do not lump me in with big box stores. I don't have any issue keeping lavender alive in the summer.

The older, happy lavender for reference:

It was much bigger when it came in ... It will continue to be eaten while its friends settle in (being hardened off currently).

I am sorry to say that is NOT a happy lavender....very far from it!! It is barely hanging on!

Believe flora when she says these are not houseplants and will only just survive being kept indoors over winter, never thrive.

English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, is the hardiest and also the preferred choice for any culinary uses (not all lavenders taste the same). And can be used dried with equal effectiveness.

Hidcote Superior is reputed as being the most cold tolerant (-30F) so go ahead and plant your lavender outside in full sun and in lean, very well drained soil and leave it out there. Just harvest what you need for winter culinary uses in early fall and dry.

You are just torturing these poor things!!

Sorry to say I agree. The second lavender, while not quite as miserable as the first, is not in good health. It is severely etiolated. The sooner you can harden it off and get it outside, the better.

It is severely pruned ... it started throwing out the new, wispier growth occurred when the weather decided to go nuts (alternating between about 30°F and 80°F), about a week or two ago. It's been going outside for a week and a half or so. Again, none of my herbs are true houseplants; they are container plants that come in for the winter. Okay, there's a parsley that doesn't go outside anymore ... I guess that might make it a houseplant now; it gets aphids outside. The rest just overwinter, though, and then go back out to their designated locations. I also have pepper plants that overwinter inside; some dwindle around spring (probably because we don't feed or repot them), some make it through a second season outside.

We've had 'Hidcote' before. I don't know what happened to it, but I don't have it anymore. I can also confirm that all garden lavenders have not returned. One was 'Munstead;' the others I don't have the tags. There were three or four of them in different spots ... all sites are vacant. One of those might have been the 'Hidcote'. There are sections of our garden we suspect are closer to zone 5 microclimates ... we get die back on sages, thymes, and oreganos, as well ... I still have the greek oregano in one bed, though I think it's only the self-seeds and the original plant is gone along with the thymes, lavender, and sage that used to grow there (I converted the bed to daylilies after losing them).

I haven't tried 'Superior.' I bought 'Grosso' for a new site (newly cleared of grass and weeds), though obviously I don't know how it will do since it only arrived a couple weeks ago. I sorted for zone 5 lavenders when selecting it, assuming a zone 6 one wouldn't survive.

Dried lavender is not ideal for my purposes, as I'm using sprigs of it and thyme in a butter-basted steak recipe. I'm basically using it like one would use rosemary. It gets pulled off before serving.

The 'Grosso' is planned with a hyssop and was supposed to have a purple sage with it, but I might switch out the sage ... I suspect the provence/white provence (zone 6) wouldn't be perennial, but I have four, including this one, so I could try it. I'd plant a rosemary, but they're not hardy in my yard either (have had many, but they never came back, so we just bought them as if they were annuals until we switched to pots for them).

I do appreciate the advice and knowledge here ... forgot to say that. Herbs are just such a challenge here sometimes, and I'd rather have these perennials be perennial, even if short-lived, rather than annual relying on reseeding to survive (I'm looking at you oregano ...)

Mint always survives ... I'm pretty sure it's unkillable.

I’m not sure why dried lavender won’t work for your recipe. You say you use it ’like rosemary’. So in that case it can be used dried in sprigs.

Grosso is a cultivar of Lavandula x intermedia. It is not nearly as cold hardy as English lavender. And it is not recommended for culinary purposes. This is the type of lavender they make perfume from. It is very oily and perfumey and tastes soapy.

btw. a zone 6 should be a decent climate for most of these Mediterranean herbs to overwinter provided they are planted in an appropriate position and with the type of soil they prefer. Most of the issues with these plants being unable to overwinter well is the soil does not drain well enough. Damp soil for too long will kill them off faster than the cold will.

The Grosso was purchased as an ornamental for the garden, along with the hyssop (which I wouldn't even know how to use) ... I should have said that.

I can't say I've ever seen rosemary dried as a sprig ... around here, dried herbs of any variety are loose dry leaves ... but then the only dry herb I've ever harvested is coriander. I used to dry flowers forever ago ... I've never tried drying the herbs I grow. Do the leaves not just all fall off the stems after drying?

I grow my own rosemary and dry it in complete branches about a foot long. I simply leave it out on the kitchen counter. You don’t need any equipment. The leaves do not fall off when dried. If you want to put the herbs into jars you need to rub the leaves off. Thyme, oregano, bay, fennel and lavender can all be treated the same way. If rosemary will not overwinter for you, you could cut and dry the whole plant instead of trying to keep it alive inside. Another easy herb to dry is fennel seed. Also flowering branches of Oregano which you’ll see sold in Italian markets. The flavour of home dried whole herbs is much superior to the dusty commercial rubbed stuff.

Very low tech herb drying ...