Gardening

Growing Lavender from seeds

13 July 2008 - Now this is something worthwhile doing.  In South Africa, a decent Lavender plant in a 1 litre bag could easily set you back some R50.  In most cases when I needed lavender, I needed to plant a hedge, requiring some 10 or more plants.  Believe me, gardening is great, but when the cost of gardening starts to compete with the food on the table, it starts to lack all forms of being an attractive hobby.  So, we make a plan.  Harvest the seeds from a mature lavender plant, sow the seeds, and grow your own lavenders.  All you really need is patience, since it takes a while.

05 August 2008 - How wrong can one man be (about the need for patience!)  The seeds must have been germinating for some time, since I have at least 100 cute little lavender plants standing 5 mm high!

10 August 2008 - Taking chances.  I have, with the aid of a small screwdriver, been transplanting the little lavender plants into a seed tray, one plant per pocket.  I am not sure about how successful this would be, since most of them did not have much more than a single root.  Will have to see.  I took the entire tray, and enclosed it into a see through plastic bag, making sure that the bag does not touch the plants.

17 August 2008 - Well, well!  Second stage leaves are forming, and not a single little plant has died.  I used a water soluble fertilizer (Dr Phishers Classic) in a .5 teaspoon per 2 litre dilution ration to encourage growth today.  I will have to see if this mixture is too strong, or if there is benefit to be had from this early application or not.  The little plants are now about 12mm high, and I think they need a little more (diffused) light, since they are somewhat long-legged.

Will keep you posted!

Last updated on

13 August 2010