My friend just bought a bunch of lavendar from a mail order catalog, and dh bought me some from the same catalog for mothers day. I tried to grow it from seed, but my stupid dog kept getting the seedlings (ok preseedlings! LOL) and destroying them. My friend got her lavendar the other day and it's only like 2-4 inches tall. How long does it take to go from that little bitty lavendar to an 18 inch tall plant. One summer? More summers?

Really curious here - tia!

I think it took ours 2 summers.

and now it looks as though last year's winter killed most of them. :wah: we're waiting to see, but it doesn't look good.

Awww man! That sucks that the winter killed them. I didn't realize they were that fickle - I can't remember what neck of the woods your from - is it really cold where you live, or am I going to put a lot of effort into these suckers just to have the winter kill mine out to? The seeds I planted were yours - well until Cosmo the collie ate them. Dadgum dog. I've got some great soil to work into the ground, so I'm helping that helps them out some, but still, I was hoping for a good turn out as far as size (not flowers) went this year. Aw well.

I have not had good luck growing lavender. I had a friend give me some off her plant and it died. I bought organic seeds from an online source and was just thinking the same thing~How long will it take to grow? I want to be able to use the lavender in my salves. I will be growing the seeds in containers on my deck, so hopefully I will not have to worry about animals getting into them.~ Just Elizabeth who loves to dig in the soil with her little gardening tools that her Grandmother gave her. :heart:

I planted 27 lavendar plants. The next morning 24 plants looked great. Then it rained for 2 days straight - flooded out my little bed, and now I have 7 lavendar plants that look like they might make it. :( I wanted to use them for landscaping purposes, and I really needed 24 of them to have a row across the front. Now I'll just be happy if I can keep them alive long enough to transplant them elsewhere.

Ah well, I did put some succulents right next to all the lavendars so at least I have something green across the front of my bed.

Just wanted to give you a big ol' hug Duck! :D

On lavendar.....hm....i dunno, i think the stuff I grew came out of a tiny baby plant I got somewhere, and it's all over my mom's yard now. She could have been transplanting it since I moved out though, who knows? I did almost nothing to mine except weed and water, but we don't get too cold here either, lotsa rain but it was planted in an 'island' or raised dirt in the middle of the lawn. My parents got the yard landscaped one year.....anyway....


just big hugs!
jessica

Woohoo! Jessica YOU'RE BACK!!!! I've missed you! Is your computer all fixed?!? I got you a card for you the other day and was going to post that I was looking for your addy! I sure hope everything is going great, and if you have lavendar all over your yard, then I AM SO FREAKIN' JEALOUS right now! Couldn't happen to a better mama though! :big hug: :heart: I missed you so much!!!!

It's all over my mom's yard. Where do you live again? (email me!) I'm sure I can get some out if I knew how to take some, and could mail it to you. I want some of her baby japanese lace maple trees so I could get it then, but you can't do anything with trees unless they month has an 'r' in it and it's may-june-july-august next so.....Hm....can you mess with lavendar in r-less months? isn't it more shrub/herb like?
I need more books....
:p
jessica

The variety of lavender that we have started out as a small plant last summer and grew slowly but steadily last year. This spring so far it has more than doubled in size. By the end of the summer it should be almost to its full size.

All of our perennials behave this way. Moderate growth the first year and then huge growth spurt the second year. So the beds look sparse the first year, great the second and amazing the third. It's hard to resist the temptation to plant more plants that first year so it looks more filled in.

I'm planning on taking out a hideous juniper hedge along our driveway next spring and planting a ton of lavender in its place. Plus we'll probably put several lavender plants in our new perennial beds in the backyard.

Oh yeah, as far as cold-hardiness, the ones we have are hardy to at least Zone 4 which is what our area is (though we get away with a lot of Zone 5 stuff if we're careful).