Harvesting Lavender
With lavender plants in full bloom at this time of year, make the most of these fragrant flowers with help from our horticultural expert Chris, and his tips for harvesting lavender!
Cutting the flowers
Lavender is a bit like marmite, some people love it, and some people loathe it.
It has richly fragrant flowers and leaves, it’s easy to grow, it thrives in free draining soil, in a sunny spot and is drought tolerant.
One of the best cultivars for dried Lavender is ‘Grosso’ as it has a very strong scent which comes from its high essential oil content in the flower.
It is best harvested when a third of the lavender head is going over, a third is out, and the final third has yet to blossom.
Bees and butterflies are the best judges on when it’s ready to harvest as they will flock to the flowers in high numbers and get quite grumpy whilst you are trying to harvest some!
Cut the lavender as close as possible to the old wood of the plant, strip off any leaves from the long stalks so as when its dry they do not drop into your dried lavender, make a small bunch, then tie with string.
Drying your Lavender
The bunch then needs to be hung in a dry, airy place. A plastic storage box would suffice with bamboo or similar canes across the top to hang the lavender from.
As the lavender dries, it will start to drop, into the bottom of the box.
For it to be totally dry can take 2-3 weeks, the colour will fade slightly, but the scent will become very pungent especially on hot days.
Its fully dried if when you touch the lavender heads, it drops, then it’s ready to be pulled away from the stem.
This can be done by holding the base of the stem in one hand, and with the other hand slide your thumb and middle finger up towards the lavender head, where this will fall into the box, and the stalk will be bare.
Harvested lavender can be used for many things, including lavender bags to fragrance drawers. It’s also great for culinary use to. Try mixing it into a shortbread mix to make some aromatic lavender biscuits.
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