If I remember correctly, one of my grandmothers used to keep lavender sprigs rolled up in her handkerchief. A couple of great-aunts sewed the dried flowers of French lavender into sachets to keep in their underwear drawers, and my former mother-in-law propagated endless sprigs of the stuff for her very difficult, dry hillside garden. A friend on Waiheke Island grew acres of it commercially for a while, and there’s no question that when it flowered, it was the most gorgeous vista on the island.
I’ve grown a few bushes from time to time but found them a bit sparse and leggy, although there’s no denying the perfume is fabulous. I came across it the other day when I was trying to liberate our apple tree from the comfrey I’d planted under it for some reason which I’ve since forgotten. A bit of lavender had got in the mix and it was sending a few determined shoots out into the sun.
The watering can was sitting nearby and suddenly a vision of swathes of lavender plants growing up against a zincalume fence arrived in my head. I clipped a few cuttings off the submerged plant to pop in a jar until such time as I remembered to stick them in the ground, and promised myself a quick trip to the garden centre at the weekend to source some proper plants.
Happily, though, lavender is easily grown from cuttings and the best time to take them is in summer. For once, my timing is about right. And if I get really enthusiastic, I can keep cutting until the end of autumn. Plenty of time and opportunity for a serious lavender swathe.
The best way is to choose healthy stems that are about six months old. Make your stems about 10cm long, trim off the bottom leaves and push half the cutting into moist seed-raising mix or sand. Keep it damp and you should have roots in three or four weeks. How easy is that?
Transplant it into a pot, keep it in a sheltered spot until new leaves appear and you can see roots coming through the bottom of the pot, and you’re good to go – into the garden that is. However, my former mother-in-law used to stick her cuttings straight in the ground and she certainly never had any shortage of lavender.
Heaps of sun and good drainage is the go for lavender. We’re kindred spirits in that regard – Mediterranean lavender prefer heat, drought and salt spray. They don’t like to be moved once planted, either, and neither do I when I’m somewhere there’s sun and salt spray.
Go for neutral or slightly alkaline pH, and nice loose soil that’ll allow the water to drain freely and the roots to spread.
If you’re worried about the drainage, a handful of sand or small gravel in the bottom of your planting hole will help. You shouldn’t need to fertilise lavender but if you want it to get off to a speedy start, you could use a general garden fertiliser in spring to get it going and enhance flowering. If your soil is acidic, use lime or dolomite once a year.
However, if you’re like me and want a really leafy plant, you can use more fertiliser. But be warned – it may not have as strong a scent.
There are two main kinds of lavender to choose from. The Spica group includes English lavenders (Lavendula angustifolia syn. L spica) and evidently these produce the highest quality oil and best fragrance. The flowers keep their perfume so they’re great for sachets in your underwear drawer (good grief!) or for potpourri. The peak of flowering is in summer and these plants grow well as a low hedge.
Stoechas-type lavenders include the most commonly grown French lavender (Lavendula dentata), Spanish or Italian lavender (Lavendula stoechas) and many others bred from these varieties. They flower from early spring through to late autumn and even in winter if they’re warm enough. They’re not as highly scented as the English varieties but they’re more tolerant of humidity, so that might do it for me.
