Lavender

mardatha

Why do you never see lavender seeds, only plug plants?

DaftyDuck

They are there in the seed catalogues.... and growing in my greenhouse at the moment.

They'll take a couple of years to make a decent plant, but if you like to grow things yourself, cheap seed can be had: mine came from Suffolk Herbs, although all seed merchants have them.

You can, of course, grow from cuttings just as well.

mardatha

Ok ty, and if I'm not being a pain, can you tell me how to grow from cuttings? I seem to spend a lot of money buying plants from garden centres every year - and I wanted to make a sort of lavender border right along the path which would mean a lot of plug plants... would make more sense trying to use seeds and cuttings.

DaftyDuck

Seed... instructions on the packet, some say plant Aug, chill seed, etc, etc, but I've found they are pretty easy to grow at most times of year. I use the plastic cell planting trays from Poundland, and stick one seed in each.

Cuttings, these are even easier. I'd recommend some rooting hormone to help, but it's not really necessary. £1:50 ish in Wilko, some Pound shops sell it, expensive in Homebase etc.

Take a lavender plant, and cut as many 4 - 6 inch lengths from it as you can. Rub most of the side branches and leaves off, leaving the top inch or two with leaves on. (Dip the cut ends into rooting hormone to lightly cover the bottom couple of inches, if you have bought some). Stick them into compost... pretty much anything will do, you'll find loads of seed & potting compost at this time of year... Lidl has bags at £1 for 20litres, £2 for 40..., Aldi slightly more expensive, Wilco normally good value as well. You can add a little sand or gravel to help, but Lavender is such a good rooter you'll not need to. Stick these pots in moderate shade (you don't want them to dry out while they have no or few roots) and wait for a couple of months. When the pots have little roots sticking out of the bottom, you've got yourself loads more plants.

With Lavender, a "cheat" way is to dig up an entire bush, and then replant it much too deep, ensuring as many branches are in the soil as possible. De-leaf the below-soil bits. Two months later, almost all those branches will have some roots of their own!

mardatha

Why did I not know all this before ?? lol I never see lavender seeds and I never knew that cuttings were so easy. God - the amount of things I don't know !!!
No Wilkinsons here but I will get it from garden centre, ty

foxgloves

Never see seeds? I've just sown a trayful this morning! I can't remember the brand....Thompson & Morgan, i think, but mine were free. My Mum got them on a magazine & didn't want them. You could go halves on a packet if you know anyone else who'd like to grow some.

emiff6

Like your new avatar, Mardatha

nightingalesgarden

Thought this article might be of interest.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/9104923/Lavender-after-the-snow-and-labelling-issues.html

I remembered as my neighbours plant laid lavender boarder didn't survive last year while my (admittedly smaller and less pretty) English from seed saw the winter through.

Rummer

I got seeds from homebase and they germinated well. Sadly they didn't make it when we went on holiday and suffered a dry spell.

mardatha

Since this is Scotland, mine have never had to cope with a dry spell!
I have Hidcote, and they survived 4 feet of snow and down to -19 so I will stick to that kind. I took some cuttings today to try, if it works good, and if not then no worries. I will also look for seeds. tyty

Rummer

mardatha wrote: »

Since this is Scotland, mine have never had to cope with a dry spell!
I have Hidcote, and they survived 4 feet of snow and down to -19 so I will stick to that kind. I took some cuttings today to try, if it works good, and if not then no worries. I will also look for seeds. tyty

I am in Scotland too and they did have to cope without watering when we were away.