Lavender Growing Series: Propagating

Hello lavender fans!

This is the first in a series of posts detailing how to grow your own lavender.

We are going go from the ground up, so to speak; this week we shall be talking about how to propagate lavender. This is for all of you who have a particular plant that you want to introduce to a different area of the garden, or to transpose into a pot.

When

Mid Spring: early April – mid May

Equipment

For those of you not familiar with the term propagation, it is simply the growing of plants from cuttings. For this, you will need:

• established healthy lavender plant
• pair of secateurs
• fine, ‘seed and cuttings’ compost
• 4cm planter

(optional)

• rooting powder

Process

First of all you need to identify a healthy looking lavender plant, basically any plant that would survive you taking a few stems from it. Then, with a clean pair of secateurs, take your cuttings or plugs. Only go for green, healthy stems, do not go for any lavender that is not dead headed; it should have no flower on it. They should be around 4-6 inches long.

Once you have got all the desired cuttings, put them in an airtight container to retain all the moisture whilst you prepare the planters. Spread the compost into each planter, pressing it down to ensure that the plugs will be able to stand upright once planted.

Take your plugs and from the base of the stem to a couple of inches up, strip away any woodiness to expose the green underneath, then cut the base of the stem at a 45 degree angle. At this point you would dip the plugs into rooting powder, to encourage growth.

These plugs prefer humid, but not wet, conditions, so keep them in a greenhouse out of sunlight. To check whether they are beginning to root, pull on them very gently. If there is any resistance, then they have begun to root, if they start to come straight out of the compost, then they are not ready.

Once they have rooted, you can then pot them up into larger pots.