Harvesting Lavendar

loukeates

Hi,

just wondered if anyone has any ideas how to harvest lavender. ive recently moved to a new house and it has a big lavender bush outside. So thought i might try to harvest some to make lavender bags.

any ideas?

annie123

cut the flower stems with scissors, tie into bundles and hang to dry somewhere dry, like a shed or cool cupboard with some airflow.

Kay_Peel

It's best to harvest the lavender when they are dry. If you've had prolonged rainy spells or if you cut them when they are covered in dew then they are not in tip-top condition to begin the drying process. Leave it for a dry week and cut them just before noon, on a sunny day, if possible.

You want good colourful blooms that are just beginning to open, rather than those in full flower. Hang them in a dark space, out of sunlight, and they should be ready within 10 days.

Here's a tip for next year. Instead of a glut of blooms, try to prolong the flowering season by pinching back half of the growing tips in early May. New shoots will form quickly and they will flower a few weeks after your main harvest. Harvest the stalks carefully (I use a scissors) because new shoots will form once you've 'pruned' the stalks off. These shoots flower in late summer/early Autumn. I get a succession of blooms right up to the middle of October to harvest and I find this much more manageable and satisfying.

Good luck!

RebekahR

Has anyone also extracted oil from lavender to use? Is this relatively easy to do? Would love to get my own.

jsh99

you could also make lavender biscuits - Yummy!!

emiff6

RebekahR wrote: »

Has anyone also extracted oil from lavender to use? Is this relatively easy to do? Would love to get my own.

Lavender oil is made by steam distillation and you need bucketloads of flowers to get a tiny amount of oil. I suppose you could try steeping lavender heads in some scentless oil but I'm not sure it would work.

loukeates

Thanks for that! shall try if we ever have a dry day lol