Home » Misc » Cutting lavender flowers

Cutting lavender flowers


How to harvest lavender at just the right time

As you know from our last blog post, lavender harvest is a special occasion. It comes once a year, and though it’s somewhat of a frantic time for us here at the farm, it’s certainly an occasion worth celebrating.

So much goodness comes out of harvesting lavender. Enjoying beautiful sunrises, taking in sweet and uplifting smells, connecting to the land, participating in the bounty of plant medicine…

Harvesting lavender offers a plethora of benefits. It’s also definitely a

skill.

And it’s one you can learn.

Phase One: Knowing
when to harvest is the half of it.

No matter what you intend to use lavender for, harvesting it at the right time is essential to creating a high-quality product. By watching your lavender plants grow and transform throughout the season, you’ll develop a sense as to when the time is right for harvesting.

As weather warms in the spring (and after a nice spring pruning), lavender plants begin to send up stems and tightly closed spikes.

Buds form on the spikes and grow, eventually changing from green to a greenish hue of lavender (or white, or blue, or pink…). Then, the flowers (corolla) emerge from the buds – The lavender is blooming.

Not all buds on the same spike bloom at once. Look at these two spikes, for example:

 

Sprig #1 has closed buds, while Sprig #2 is blooming and ready for harvest

These sprigs of lavender are from the same plant.

#1 is still “green”, meaning it’s too early to harvest. Notice how its buds are completely closed, and they still have a translucent, greenish hue.

#2 is ready to be harvested. Some of its buds are in full bloom, and many others (the buds with the dried, blue-violet petals on their tips) have already bloomed.

Generally, you want to harvest a stem of lavender when about half of the buds are in bloom.

Of course, you may not be inclined to harvest lavender stem by stem. You can approach your lavender plants in sections, harvesting parts of the plant at various times, when each part is at its peak bloom.

You can also consider what you’ll be using lavender for to determine the right time to harvest. For example:

Those of us out there who are methodically-minded can try this approach: Take a random sample of about 20 stems of lavender to determine the general openness/readiness of a plant or a section of plants.

Phase Two: Understanding the basics, then learning from experience.

Now that you have an idea of what you’re looking for, you can grab your scissors – or your hand sickle – and get out there. The best way to learn is by doing. The more time you spend around your lavender plants, the more you’ll begin to pick up on their subtleties.

Cut low so that you get long stems, but don’t cut into the woody base of the plant, as this will stunt new growth next year.

Bring rubber bands so that you can make bundles of lavender as you harvest, which you can enjoy fresh or hang upside-down in a cool, dark place to dry. You can pull off some of the leaves as you harvest to speed up the drying process.

Freshly harvested Folgate lavender

And of course, you always want to harvest in the early morning, before the heat arrives. Lavender loses its oil to the heat of the day, so harvesting in the cool of the morning (before 10am) you’ll harvest lavender with a higher oil content.

With a little practice and observation, you’ll be a skilled lavender harvester in no time.

True Grosso in bloom as the sun rises

How to Harvest, Prune & Dry Lavender Flowers ~ Homestead and Chill

Are you growing lavender in your garden? Read along to learn how to harvest fresh lavender flowers, along with several ways to dry and use them! Of all the scents in our garden, the fragrance of fresh lavender blooms has to be one of my all-time favorites. Yet lavender is so much more than just a pretty, aromatic flower! Soothing to both your skin and mind alike, lavender is an edible, versatile, highly-healing plant. It is also very attractive to pollinators, which is always a desirable feature in a sustainable garden. 

English, Spanish, French…oh my! No matter what type of lavender you grow, all of these tips on how to harvest and dry fresh lavender apply. Harvesting lavender is incredibly easy. Plus, the more you harvest, the more blooms will come! In this article, we’ll go over the best time to harvest lavender, exactly where to trim it, as well as how to give the plant a deeper prune. Then I’ll show you three ways to dry fresh lavender buds, and share plenty of ideas on what to do with them! How does lavender salve, sachets, and cocktails sound?

A handful of French lavender blooms. (The bee in this article’s feature photo shown above is enjoying some of our English lavender)


Quick Tips on Growing Lavender


Growing lavender can be fairly fuss-free in the right climate and conditions. In general, lavender can grow as a perennial in USDA zones 5 through 10, though nuances among each variety or climate can make the plants more or less happy. For example, we live in zone 9b/10a and our lavender grows readily – like a weed! Here, lavender bushes grow several feet in every direction and bloom essentially year round. Meanwhile folks in Florida (also zone 9b/10a) may struggle to grow lavender at all. That is because lavender thrives in warm, sunny, arid Mediterranean climates, and it doesn’t do well in high humidity or wet conditions.  

One way to offset frequent rains and dampness is to grow lavender in a container. Use a well-draining potting soil mixed with sand, or even a cactus potting mix. Above all else, avoid overwatering it. Excessive moisture and overwatering is the most common cause of death in lavender. Soggy roots will quickly lead to fungal disease and demise. When planting lavender directly in the ground, choose a sunny location with excellent drainage and sandy soil. Lavender doesn’t need a lot of compost, fertilizer, or overly rich soil. In fact, it is happiest in poor rocky soil. 

Lavender is slow and finicky to start from seed, though possible. Follow these tips to start lavender seeds indoors, but give them up to a month or two to germinate. The quick-and-easiest way to grow lavender is to start with an established seedling or nursery plant. Truthfully, that is what we’ve always done! Young plants can also be slow growers at first, so be patient with them. By year two or three, the roots become established and they’ll grow and bloom more vigorously. First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap.


Lavender Varieties


There are numerous varieties of lavender to choose from. Most all of them fall into one of the broader groups of either English, French, or Spanish lavender. Some stay quite compact, while others get huge! Dozens of hybrids exist too. All varieties offer wonderful aroma and are technically edible, though English and lavandin varieties (L. x intermedia) are the most sweet and palatable for culinary applications.

Seek out varieties that are well-suited to your climate. For example, true English Lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia) are the most cold-hardy, including ‘Hidecote’ and ‘Munstead’ varieties of English lavender. Those are the few rated down to zone 5. French and Spanish lavenders do better in warmer climates and higher zones. ‘Phenomenal’ is a true English lavender that is known to handle the heat and humidity of the southeast. Lavandula stoechas and L. dentata are also among some of the more humidity-tolerant varieties.

If you aren’t sure what your USDA growing zone is, use this simple zip code lookup tool to find out. I always suggest plant shopping at locally-owned nurseries – they’ll likely carry lavender varieties best suited to your area! We grow a wide selection of French, Spanish, and English lavender varieties in our temperate garden.

Spanish lavender in our front yard garden.


HOW TO HARVEST LAVENDER FLOWERS


If you’re able to successfully grow lavender, now comes the easiest (and most rewarding) part: harvesting. The best news is, the more you prune your lavender, the more flowers will grow! Harvesting and pruning lavender also encourages branching, resulting in an increasingly bushy plant. 

Some of the most common questions I receive about growing lavender are “when is the best time to harvest lavender?” and “exactly how do you harvest or prune lavender?” – so let’s go over all of the above!


When to Harvest Lavender


The best time to harvest lavender is: early, on many levels! Early spring, early bloom, early morning. 

Harvesting lavender flowers in the early spring will give the plant ample time to produce another flush of blooms to enjoy again in the late summer to fall. This is especially pertinent if you have a short summer growing season. In frost-free climates where some varieties of lavender may bloom year-round, you can continually harvest small bunches over and over throughout the year. 

If you have hopes for the highest fragrance and essential oil content, the best time to harvest individual lavender flowers is early in their bloom cycle. Meaning, when the young tender buds are tight and barely starting to bloom. Fully-open lavender flowers will boast the most color, and are highly attractive for bouquets. As lavender flowers age, their aroma and therapeutic oil content decreases. Also, mature browning flower buds will crumble and fall off the stem more easily, which isn’t ideal for bouquets and can make for a messy drying process. However, I don’t let that stop me from sometimes using older blooms too! Late is better than never, as removing spent blooms is good for the plant regardless.

Finally, herbalists traditionally harvest medicinal flowers in the early morning, once any dew has dried but when the plants are still perky from the cool night air. As the day goes on, some of the fragrant essential oils and terpenes will begin to dissipate in the hot sun. I try to follow this practice as much as possible, especially when I plan to make medicinal oil or salve from the lavender buds. However, life is busy – so pick ‘em when you can!

Provence lavender in early bloom. Note how most of the individual buds are still closed, with a couple that have just opened.


Where to Harvest Lavender Flowers


To harvest individual lavender flowers, first identify the bloom that you wish to harvest. Then, follow the stem down from the flower bud until you reach a junction where two side leaves, new buds, or branches have begun to form. Using small pruning snips or scissors, cut the stem there – just above the leaves or side branches. Once the center stem and flower is removed, the plant redirects its energy. Now, those two side shoots will rapidly grow and produce fresh flowers of their own! 

For longer stems or a bouquet that also includes some green foliage, simply follow the main stem down a little farther, snipping above a similar branching junction but deeper into the plant. You may find the need to do this with smaller, compact lavender plants that have less space between the bud and leaf nodes. Or, to clip a little extra off a large established plant. 

After harvest, you ’ll be left with a nice little bunch of lavender – perfect to hang and dry, or to display as a beautiful bouquet. To enjoy lavender like classic cut flowers, simply place the harvested blooms in a vase of water (if you don’t intend to dry them). For medicinal or edible applications, you’ll want to use it as soon as possible for the best fragrance and flavor. Keep reading below to learn how to dry fresh lavender. 

Locating a junction/leaf node along the main stem (the flower bud is above my hand)Trim just above a node or junction along the main stem.Within a few days after trimming the center stem, the young side branches will rapidly grow and develop flower buds of their own.


How to Prune Lavender


Pruning lavender is similar to the harvesting process, just a bit more vigorous! Plan to prune your lavender plant once or twice per year. Always prune after flowering. If you prune lavender right before it goes into bloom, it will significantly delay the arrival of flowers.

The first and less crucial “pruning” session can simply be harvesting a good amount of the first bloom of flowers in spring. Even if you aren’t harvesting flowers to keep and dry, the act of deadheading (removing spent blooms) is great for overall plant health and promotes new growth. During the spring prune, aim to cut back about a quarter to one-third of the plant.   

The best time to give your lavender plant a slightly harder prune is in the fall, after the last bout of flowers fades. Hardy English lavender varieties naturally die back in the winter and respond better to hard pruning than non-English varieties. 

An illustration of where to prune English lavender, just above the old woody growth. Image courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs


Pruning English Lavender

Prune English lavender back by one-half to two-thirds of the new growth each fall. As with harvesting, trim just above leaf nodes or side branches. Avoid cutting into the lowest bare woody growth. Take a peek around the base of the lavender plant: you’ll see tough woody growth close to the ground that has no sprouts or leaf nodes, and more tender growth (green or light brown) above that. Trim at least a few inches above the naked woody part, leaving behind a couple leaf nodes per branch. 


Pruning Spanish & French Lavender

To prune more tender Spanish and French lavender varieties, be more gentle than you would with English Lavender. Cutting back too much can damage and potentially kill the plant. Lightly prune, harvest, or deadhead blooms throughout the growing season. Then towards the end of summer, prune the shrub into a rounded mound of foliage. Most gardening resources recommend taking off no more than one-third of the plant. 


Despite the “best practices”, don’t be too nervous about pruning! A just-pruned lavender plant can look quite rough around the edges… literally. Don’t worry, it will bounce back and fill in! Plus, routine pruning actually prolongs the life of the plant. We have cut some established plants that were yellowing and looking a bit sad waaaaaay back (almost to the ground, into the “no-no” woody zone) and they were full of lush new growth within a few months. The more established the plant, the more resilient it is to a hard prune.

This massive lavender bush had grown unchecked to block an entire pathway in our front yard garden (out past the row of pavers) – so we hacked it back hard! I knew it was established enough to handle a good prune, and I did end up cutting down into the wood growth in some places. See the photo to follow.The undercarriage of the massive lavender bush shown above. This is about a month after it got a major cut back. Even though I cut into the woody parts (avoiding the main “trunk”), you can see fresh new green growth already starting to sprout from the wood. I wouldn’t recommend doing this to the entire plant, but this side needed it.


HOW TO DRY LAVENDER FLOWERS


Now that you’ve harvested fresh lavender, let’s talk about three different ways you can dry it. The method you choose is totally up to you. I will touch on some of the pros and cons of each. 


1) Hanging Lavender to Dry


The most simple way to dry fresh lavender is to let it hang dry. 


Clearly, this method of drying lavender works best in warm arid climates or controlled indoor conditions that enable the lavender to thoroughly dry. Living near the coast, we experience a bit of fog and mild humidity, and our decorative lavender dries pretty well this way. We have bouquets of dried lavender on display in every room! 

I hung this one in a sunny room, so the color faded a bit. That’s okay – it was the leftovers from a quick round of deadheading.


2) Drying Lavender in a Food Dehydrator


Another way to dry lavender is to use a food dehydrator. This process is also very easy, and much quicker than passively drying it at room temperature. I prefer to use a dehydrator to dry lavender that is intended to make lavender-infused oil or salve. It not only expedites the process, but also helps to ensure the lavender is 100% dry! Inadequately dried herbs that contain leftover moisture can easily cause medicinal oils to develop mold and spoil. With our cool foggy summers, this is simply what works best for us to guarantee success.

However, it is best to avoid overheating the lavender in order to preserve the highest level of essential oils and therapeutic benefits possible. Therefore, set your food dehydrator on the lowest temperature setting (no more than 100 to 105°F). 


To dry lavender in a dehydrator, this is the process that I follow:

Getting ready to go into the dehydrator. Our Goodwin creek lavender has small crumbly buds once dry, so I like to dry that on top of silicone tray liners.


3) Drying on Screens or in Baskets


The third and final way to dry lavender is much like the first method, minus the bunching and hanging. Some traditional herbalists simply lay out their fresh herbs and flowers to dry on screens, or in airy baskets. You can dry full lavender stems or just the buds this way.

Homemade herb drying racks can be assembled of a single or many “shelves” of flat framed screens. Or you could use a specialized multi-tier hanging herb drying rack like this one – which is what we use to dry other herbs, including cannabis. Also like the first method, allowing lavender to passively dry on screens or in baskets requires warm arid conditions – and time.  Spread the lavender flowers out in a single layer to allow good air flow between them.

This photo was taken after a big harvest, buds destined for the dehydrator. I would spread them out more rather than leaving them piled high to passively dry in a basket.


How to Store Dried Lavender


After the lavender has finished drying, one option is to leave the flower buds intact on the long stem, ideal for displaying dried bouquets or to use in dry floral arrangements. Otherwise, snip or strip the flower bud portion off of the stem and store it in an airtight glass container for maximum freshness, flavor, and aroma. Store the container in a cool, dark, and dry location. 


Ways to Use Dried Lavender 


Floral bouquets aside, there are dozens of creative ways to use dry lavender! Lavender is incredibly versatile and beneficial. It is used for aromatherapy, proven to help reduce anxiety, stress, depression, and insomnia. The aroma is also known to repel pest insects. In addition to smelling wonderful, lavender has many other health benefits. With natural anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-fungal, and pain relieving properties, dry lavender is ideal to use in homemade medicine and body care products.

As an edible flower, there are many culinary uses for lavender too! Remember, English and lavandin hybrid varieties are most popular to use in edible applications. The higher camphor content in Spanish and French lavender make them less palatable and sweet – yet camphor is an excellent terpene to ease swelling, itching, and pain!


Here are a few ideas of how to use dry lavender:


I plan to write more detailed articles about several of these ideas, so stay tuned! So far, I have shared tutorials on how to make lavender-infused oil here, and also homemade lavender salve here!

Our homemade lavender salve (now available for sale here) works wonders on dry skin, bites, scrapes, stings, scars, and more. Or, learn how to make your own here.


And that is how you harvest, prune, and dry lavender.


I bet you’re already reaching for your clippers and headed for the door! As you can see, harvesting and drying fresh lavender is super simple and rewarding. I also find the process really therapeutic – the perfect excuse to turn on some music, tune out, and snip snip snip away…

I hope you found this article to be useful and interesting! Please feel free to ask questions or say hi in the comments below, and spread the lavender love by sharing this article. Thank you for tuning in, and happy harvesting!


You may also enjoy these related articles:


When to harvest lavender?

Collecting lavender is an incomparable pleasure, especially if you cherished and raised it yourself. But when is it, darling, to collect? First, the exact time of harvesting lavender depends on where the lavender grows. For example, in the Alps, its flowering time is from mid-June to the end of July, while here lavender blooms from mid-June to

mid-August. Secondly, the timing of the lavender harvest depends on what you intend to do with your crop. The fact is that each stage of lavender flowering has a different type of aroma - at first lighter, and more mature in the full flowering phase. It is customary for us to collect lavender during its mass flowering, when 50% of the flowers bloom - at this time their color and aroma are most powerful. This period begins in late June - early July, some flower growers believe that it is best to collect lavender on Ivan Kupala Day, by the way, they say that all plants at this time reach the peak of their magical powers. nine0003


However, English lavender connoisseurs claim that the fragrance is most intense when ¾ of the flowers on the stem are open. Remember the basic rule - if lavender flowers are beautiful in the field, they will be beautiful when dried. It is very important to choose the right time of day to harvest lavender. The best time follows a few days of dry weather, when the morning is almost over and the dew has evaporated. Picking lavender flowers during dry weather greatly shortens the drying process because there will be less water in the stems. Cooler air temperatures in the morning are more favorable for lavender harvesting, because on a hot afternoon, lavender begins to "diffuse" its precious oil. In addition, there will be more bees during the day, the dialogue with them may not end in your favor. nine0003

When picking flowers for a bouquet of dried flowers, check the lavender daily and pick it only at the initial flowering stage, when only one or two of the flowers have opened. Then your flowers will not fall off the stems when they are completely dry. It is necessary to cut directly under the flowers, but never cut more than a third of the entire plant, otherwise the lavender may die. To create bouquets, in general, it is better to use lavandin, since the stems of lavandin are much longer and much thicker than those of real lavender. For harvesting, it is better to use secateurs, but sharp scissors are fine. nine0003

When harvesting lavender for drying flowers, you can be less concerned about the flowering stage, almost all flowers can be opened. However, if you have white and pink lavender in your garden, don't dry it along with the traditional "lavender" one, this will ruin the overall look of the dried flowers and make them look dirty.
If you need to dry a small amount of lavender, you can arrange it in rows on newspapers in a dark, dry room. Storing flowers in sunlight will kill their unique color. If you need to dry a large amount, you need to hang bunches of lavender where there is a lot of air and not enough light (for example, a barn). It usually takes one to two weeks for lavender flowers to fully dry, given our hot summer days in recent years. Be sure to keep dried lavender out of direct sunlight to preserve its beautiful color and rare fragrance. nine0009

If you are planning to obtain essential oil from lavender by steam distillation (and remember, of course, that up to 100 kg of raw materials are needed to obtain 1 kg), then inflorescences can be used as raw materials in the phase from the beginning of flowering to the complete end of flowering. However, lavender at the end of flowering, although it gives a good quality oil, but during storage it quickly acquires an unpleasant odor. The aroma of oil obtained from normal raw materials, at the stage of the beginning of flowering, even improves with storage. If you store the collected lavender for a day, for example, in a barn, followed by drying, the oil content in the flowers does not fall at all, and the essential oil has a more pleasant aroma without an undesirable grassy note. But the process of steam distillation is generally a topic for a completely separate conversation. nine0009 Oh, by the way, I completely forgot! For culinary use, picking lavender requires particularly close attention. Here I can only quote William Vasilievich Pokhlebkin, our domestic researcher and popularizer of cooking, author of numerous works on gastronomic history: wind, or in a light spirit from a heated stove. Especially appreciated are the bright blue lavender flowers, which should retain their color unchanged even after drying. Lavender has a strong, pronounced aroma, so it has traditionally been used almost exclusively to flavor soft drinks and vinegar. But lavender can be recommended for use in salads, cold appetizers, vegetable, mushroom and fish soups, and even roasts; at the same time, lavender is washed into powder and sprinkled, like pepper, on the indicated dishes. nine0003

Lavender harvest. When to collect, how to save: paprika_andlife — LiveJournal

We continue our conversation about lavender. I remind you that FM "Lavender" also continues!

See also "The Path of Lavender. Part 4. Lavender Festivals in Hungary"

More than once I have read gardeners complaining like "oh, how beautiful my lavender blooms, I don't want to pick it for a sachet ice cream cake cross out unnecessary !" So don't break it! Everything in nature has its own properties, and if you are serious about working with some plant, then you need to seriously study it. nine0003

The most important thing you always want to get from lavender is the aroma. The most important thing on which the aroma of a plant depends is the content of essential oils in it. The time when the essential oil content of lavender rises - the end of flowering! You just need to remember this.

For example, at such a time (see photo below) the fragrance of young leaves is stronger. And if there is a lot of lavender, this aroma can be clearly heard at a distance:

But the flowering is just beginning, even half of the spikelet has not yet blossomed. The aroma of lavender is heard only if you dive headlong into such a bush :) The aroma of fresh flowers is still mixed with the aroma of leaves. At such a time, lavender can only be plucked for fresh bouquets. nine0003

This is the kind of lavender (hybrid lavender) we often see in bouquets in photographs of foreign weddings and other celebrations. Naturally, the varieties and shades of flowers are different, but the bottom line is that its buds are still completely closed, so it has almost no aroma. And rightly so: the strong aroma of lavender cannot be sustained for a long time.

Many florists use this trick. If you are "in Provence", take a closer look at the bouquets of lavender that are sold in souvenir or special "lavender" stores: almost all of it is like that, having almost no aroma. It is not profitable for sellers to see bouquets crumble in front of buyers, leaving bare branches: lavender flowers hold on to the stem more tightly when they are still in buds. Therefore, sometimes such bouquets can also be additionally covered with some kind of fixative. nine0034 Naturally, lavender flowers taken from such bouquets should not be used in cooking!

This lavender is ready to be harvested. The spikelet faded by 1/2, or even by 3/4, the flowers wilted. The largest amount of essential oil is found in the cups of lavender, which remain after flowering on the stem. We call them flowers in everyday life

Even one small lavender bush at this time will spread a strong aroma!

This lavender is easy to recognize in bouquets or sold by weight. Look: the buds that did not open are completely closed, they seem to be velvet, the petals breaking through can be slightly visible from above. In the photo there is such an unblown spikelet at the top. nine0003

At the bottom right of the photo is a spikelet full of essential oil, which means the fragrance we need. In its cups there are small holes from wilted flowers. It is desirable that there are more than half of such cups on each stem.

Cups with holes look like this. Actually withered flowers that fell out of the cups are circled in purple in my photo. They are inconspicuous, also have an aroma and taste, but weaker than the cups. Therefore, if you are preparing homemade lavender, you can store and use the flowers along with the cups. The only difficulty will be that when drying, all these flowers can fall out completely, so you can lay fabric or clean paper under the bouquets. nine0003

A small amount of essential oil is also stored in lavender stems and leaves. When harvesting on plantations, lavender is cut along with a stem about 15-20 cm long, immediately making a formative pruning of the bush. How the plantations are harvested and how lavender essential oil is obtained, I will tell in another article.

So, what lavender lovers should remember:

for sachets, it is better to use cups of lavender collected at the end of flowering (when each spikelet has faded by 1/2, and preferably by 3/4). In this case, less lavender will be needed than if we took fresh flowers, and its fragrant properties will be better. nine0003

2) In freshly opened flowers, and even more so in buds, the content of essential oil is lower, therefore, they have less aroma.

In order to obtain a strong and long-lasting aroma, using lavender, for example, for culinary purposes, you need much more buds and fresh flowers than dried ones. In this case, as I said before, we may face another problem: the longer, for example, in a liquid, lavender is infused, giving off its aroma, the more it gives off its other qualities (bitter and astringent taste). nine0035 I will also tell you more about lavender in cooking in a separate article.

Therefore, let your lavender flower bed bloom peacefully, and you will harvest at the end of its flowering :) Just then, at the end of flowering, you can conduct aromatherapy sessions right in the garden, because the aroma from lavender will come from a strong, persistent and healthy!

3) When to harvest lavender. On a warm and sunny day (not rainy!), when the spikelets of the plant have almost completely faded. It is advisable to do this in the morning, right from the early morning, when the dew subsides. It is important not to be late with the harvest, otherwise the seeds will begin to ripen in the cups! nine0003

4) How to dry harvested lavender. Lavender spikelets are cut together with stems (approximately 15-20 cm), dried, like all fragrant plants: in a suspended state, flowers down. It is better to dry lavender in small bouquets, somewhere in the shade or in the attic, but in such a place there is no dust, moisture and it is well ventilated.

Learn more