Lavender is a tough Mediterranean shrub that thrives on what looks like neglect — poor soil, blazing sun and little water — and sulks or dies with the opposite. Almost every lavender failure comes down to two things: not enough sun, or soil that stays wet. Get the position and drainage right and the rest is easy.
Know your type — hardiness varies
The lavenders differ importantly in hardiness. English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is the hardiest, most fragrant and best for culinary use and cold gardens. French and Spanish lavenders (with the showy “rabbit-ear” bracts) are more tender and may not survive hard winters outdoors. Choose the type to suit your climate before anything else.
Sun and soil are everything
Give lavender the sunniest spot you have — full sun all day — and sharp, free-draining soil. It actually prefers poor, even stony, slightly alkaline ground; rich, heavy or wet soil is the main killer, rotting the roots over winter. On clay or in wet gardens, plant on a raised mound, add plenty of grit to the planting area, or grow it in pots of gritty, free-draining mix (see improving soil drainage).
When and how to plant
Plant lavender in spring so it has the whole growing season to establish a strong root system before facing winter wet and cold — autumn planting into cold, damp soil is far riskier. Space plants generously for good airflow (crowded, humid plants are prone to rot), water them in, and then water only enough to establish them.
Watering — less is more
Once established, lavender is highly drought-tolerant and resents regular watering; overwatering is a far more common cause of death than drought. Water new plants through their first dry summer, then leave established plants to fend for themselves except in prolonged drought. Container lavenders need a little more attention but must never sit in waterlogged pots.
Pruning to prevent woodiness
The most important ongoing job is an annual prune to keep the plant compact and stop it turning into a sprawling, bare, woody bush. Trim it lightly each year — typically after flowering — shaping the soft, leafy growth into a neat mound. The golden rule: never cut back into the old, bare wood, which usually will not reshoot. Regular light pruning from a young age keeps a lavender bushy and long-lived.
Common problems
Root rot and dieback come from wet, heavy soil — the number-one killer — so fix drainage first (see root rot). Woody, leggy, gappy plants result from never pruning, or from cutting too hard into old wood; light annual pruning prevents it. Frost damage affects the tender French and Spanish types in cold winters — grow those in pots you can shelter, or choose hardy English lavender.
Harvest and use
Cut lavender for drying just as the flower spikes open, in the morning once any dew has dried, when the fragrance is strongest. Hang small bunches upside down in a warm, airy place. Harvesting also doubles as part of that all-important annual trim.
Propagating lavender from cuttings
Lavender is easy and cheap to propagate from cuttings, which is the best way to replace ageing plants or fill a hedge. Take non-flowering shoots in summer, strip the lower leaves, and insert the cuttings into gritty, free-draining compost kept just moist in a bright, airy spot; they root readily over a few weeks. Because seed-raised lavender can be variable, cuttings are also the way to reproduce a particular plant exactly. Raising your own means you can plant a whole low hedge for the cost of a single parent plant.
Growing lavender in containers
A pot is the perfect answer where garden soil is heavy or wet, and lets you move tender French and Spanish types under cover for winter. Use a gritty, free-draining mix — adding extra grit or perlite — and a container with good drainage holes, and never leave the pot standing in a saucer of water. Water only when the mix has dried, feed sparingly if at all, and give the pot the sunniest position you have. Repot every couple of years, and prune as for border plants to keep the shape.
Lavender for pollinators, and reviving old plants
Few plants are better for bees and other pollinators, which flock to the flowers through summer, making lavender as valuable to wildlife as it is fragrant. If a plant has already been allowed to become woody and gappy, you can sometimes improve it by pruning the greener growth hard while leaving some leaf on every stem — but because lavender rarely reshoots from bare old wood, a badly woody plant is usually best replaced, ideally with a cutting taken from it first. Prevention, through light annual pruning from the start, is far easier than cure.