What lavender are you growing?

This far north plant choice is going to be everything. English lavenders are always going to be the most cold tolerant- Munstead or Hidecote should work best.

Potted or in the ground are your choice- the ground would be my choice purely so I don't have to tend them over the winter. I'd pile lots of leaves over them for winter.

You could always sink them into the ground pot and all- that give you the benefits of insulation yet still is easy enough to pick them up in the spring to move to their final spot. I do that quite often with fall stragglers that I can't decide what to do with.

I had a NOID lavender that was planted in the ground and left completely unprotected for something like 10 years, always came back reliably. I've overwintered a few at this house, too -- none of them winter protected. I never cut them back until spring until I saw bud swelling/active growth. The problem is growth in the spring is very slow. You may think it's dead but it's not. A couple of mine did not start putting on growth until end of May this year.

Thanks for the ideas. It is some sort of English lavender. We got them at a lavender farm down the road, unfortunately, they went out of business and I can't ask them for advice.

I wanted to do leaves around them last year, but it got super windy and blew them all out of my yard before I could gather them. Usually that is a good thing, but I actually wanted them this time. lol

I would plant them in the ground and protect them over winter

How best to cover anything is going to be dependent on location. Which, as usual, we don't know.

I feel there is a Phantom Tollbooth reference in here somewhere. How does an 'average' plant, planted in an 'average' climate, averagly perform?

We're in zone 5a and close to 4b.

==>> that might be two thirds of the US .. how about narrowing it down for us . .. big city name ..

does you ground freeze??? where are you ..

does your ground perc and drain..??? .. where are you ... what is your soil type.. if clay.. maybe just kill them now.. lol ....

L is very hard to winter over...and winter drainage is imperative ... you might need to build a nursery bed.. or a cold fame ...

ken

ps: where are you.. lol ...

Coincidentally we visited a Lavender farm today. I was impressed. (CDN zone 6)

And a swathe of of sunflowers:

Is that you, Rouge?

I appreciate the exact questions. I am between Madison, La Crosse, and Wisconsin Dells in Wisconsin. The ground definitely freezes. My "soil" is almost pure sand with great drainage.

We have basically the same soil as the lavender farm had and am growing the same plants they did.