How do you successfully transplant Lavender?

[Smart Red]

Hardening off is the process of setting the tender plants outside for a short time, then taking back inside. Lengthen the time spent outside to acclimate them to the change in temperatures as opposed to taking them from a warm, cozy inside enviroment to the harsh, cold outdoors. :tools

"Hardening off" refers to more than an adjustment from warm and cozy to harsh and cold. It is also needed to harden plants off against sunburn and windy conditions even if the inside/outside air differential is not a factor.

When you put your tender plants outside, put them in the shade and gradually increase the length of time outside and increase the length of time in the sun. Providing moving air from a fan and "rainfall" inside will help to strengthen the stems for when they are subjected to windy and rainy conditions outside. All this should be done gradually so the plants get used to their new environment.

Love, Smart Red

 

[baymule]

You said it better than I did, Smart Red!

 

[ducks4you]

Fortunately, they're looking pretty good, right now. Two are in front of my north window of a 1st floor bedroom, and the other is in a hanging basket in the south window of an upstairs bedroom. IT was hanging in the north window of my unheated garage until a month ago, and still looks great.
I can certainly move them to my east facing porch, with my other "greenhoused" vegetables in April. It's great bc nothing gets frosted there.

 

[897tgigvib]

Lavender, they are listed as zone 5. In barely, and usually zone 4 southwest Montana they are generally grown indoors in sunny windows. Those we had left at seasons end at the nursery, we'd bring a few in the greenhouse and leave a few in the covered beds. Among those we'd get a few that survived the winter. When I left there, I left my boss with plans for a zone 5 bed south of a bright fence, not far from the stream, that truly seemed to be a zone 5 microclimate spot where snow melted fastest of anywhere.

Lavender plants toughen as they age. Their first year they are real tender with soft stems. As they age their lower stems become woody, almost like desert sagebrush, with flaky bark. I have seen some very beautiful "old" Lavenders. Old for a Lavender is 10 years. I suppose they might make it to 30, and would not be surprised if some Lavender person has one specimen a century old. But for most of us, Lavenders are short lived perennials, somewhere between herb and woody, more woody as they age. An old Lavender has a rugged look, and can be very beautiful with rocks and driftwood, and maybe some perennial yellow alyssum or the likes under and around it.

Losing a 15 year old Lavender can be like losing a pet. One is in process of slowly passing on a mile and a half from here at a resort on the lake.

They love good drainage, nice late spring warmth and water, a bit of water in summer, and mostly just prune off the flower stems.

Marshall, on proxy server

 

[ducks4you]

I listen to "MidAmerican Gardener," from my local (Champaign, IL) PBS station every week, and there are locals that grow lavendar outside. I wouldn't have considered it, had I not know this.
I keep looking at the bed around the house every year. ANYTHING that needs lot of water doesn't make it there, so I know that the drainage is good.
I guess it will just be a good experiment to try bc each plant cost me $1 (clearance plants.) Nice to know that it won't last forever, but I sure would like to have a waft of it when I leave the house every day.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ducks, I'd bet that if you got hold of those folks from your pbs station who are growing the Lavender that they'd tell you it was tender when it was young.

You can, or at least should be able to grow Lavender. It's those first few years of getting them to survive outside during winter that will be difficult.

I suggest a system of protection, maybe a wood framed remay type cloth enclosure, to cover them during your extra cold spells. Try bringing one inside the house during it's first couple winters.

Lavender: If you ask me, is zone 6 or 7 when young. 5 or 6 the next year, 4 or 5 the 3rd year, and will not be a steady zone 4 plant. almost...maybe...with some help...could be...z 4

I wonder if there is a variety that toughens up faster and more ruggedly. That should be doable with normal breeding and selecting.

 

[ducks4you]

What do you think about repotting them (as necessary) and growing them in pots in their final location outside during the growing season, then bringing them inside for winter for a few years? I'm in no hurry. Once the garden season gets here and I get back into heavy duty horse training, I won't have time to construct your suggestion, but it's a good suggestion.

 

[thistlebloom]

I grow lavender and I've never babied it. I'm technically zone 5, but it has zone 4 tendencies some years. I think the main thing is watering. Lavenders need water to do their best, but wont tolerate wet feet or continual damp.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ducks, you can probably have your Lavender in sunken pots for their first couple seasons.

Use an oversized pot with maybe the bottom cut mostly out for extra good drainage and don't sink it all the way into the soil. You can hide the top of the pot sticking up with wood ships or some Alyssum or the like growing around it. Make sure it has super good draining soil under it good and deep.

When you lift it at the end of the season it'll probably have roots growing out. You can uppot it to save the roots. My guess is you'll only have to do that for 2 winters. After that you should notice it has woody stems.

Lavender does not much send new growth up from the roots. If the top of the plant dies, she is probably a goner. Be careful with each main branch.

I really think Lavender is a good candidate for plant breeders to work on for toughness improving using normal breeding techniques. I do not know if some species have different chromosome numbers for advanced normal wide crossing to get poly or tetraploids. (No, I do not know or completely understand that more complicated stuff, but it is not gmo or frankenstein stuff).

 

[ducks4you]

Thanks. I was rethinking the covering suggestion you made. I keep all pots from plants I've bought, and I have a collection of fruit tree plastic pots. I have used those to winter cover plants before, and since I keep livestock, I always have some straw. I also like the last suggestion. Would they do ok if I pruned them in September, so they'd fit under a pot with a brick on top?