[azubah]

Anyone know how to germinate lavender? My first sowing has not come up and it has been in for a month.



title edited for search purposes

Thanks for the spelling edit. I'm hopeless without a spell-check.

[arugula]

I believe it needs sustained warmth over about 21 °C to germinate, so you might not have had that for long enough. Whether it will still germinate if you get it somewhere warm or whether you'll have to sow again, I'm not sure...

[aelf]

it is a devil to get going! I seeded two plug trays with 84 plugs in each in March and so far about 25 have germinated - they have been in the greenhouse, heated in march but not since. Every day now a new one pops its head up so patience is the key 

[azubah]

Thanks folks. Perhaps I have been too impatient and they will come up in a month or so.

[allotmentann]

I wonder whether lavender seed also needs to be fairly fresh to germinate. Last year I got one plant (old seed). This year I planted two varieties (new seed) and everything germinated. I didn't do anything special just started off in an unheated propagator indoors. I think they were fairly slow to germinate. Once germinated they were slow to grow but are now thriving since the sun arrived. I think I also read (somewhere?) that the seed doesn't like to be too damp. Definitely don't give up on them yet.

[chrissie B]

i had some once and almost gave up on them , they took ages i thik they come up when they want .
chrissie b

[Spana]

I had a free packet on a magazine about last June time and they came up like cress.  I grew on about 70 nice bushy little plants and put them out in the ground about a month ago. :happy:

Also sown the rest of the packet  and not a sign after 6 weeks so probably the two things mentioned above, fresh seed and warmth make all the difference to germination.

Blast, got to go and buy some more seed now

[VegGirl7]

I bought fresh seeds this year and sowed loads on 18th March (in an unheated greenhouse)

Had totally given up on them, soil was even left to dry out a couple of times but then was at the lotty on sunday, just about to reuse the tray for something else and I spotted 2 tiny seedlings   

They seem to like neglect 

[azubah]

I need not give up hope then. I have neglected mine and let them dry out a few times last week.

[chrissie B]

i did get some that came from a plant in the front garden , they just seeded themselve s but the plant died looked old  though
chrissie b

[azubah]

I have an old plant in the garden which is flowering now, so I will get some seed from that and try again. None of the packet seed has come up yet.

[JayG]

Lavender must be one of the easiest plants to propagate from semi-ripe cuttings (my English lavender was growing far too big for the space it was in so I stuck two cuttings in the garden last September and they both took - well-drained soil is the key.) 

[Spana]

Lavender must be one of the easiest plants to propagate from semi-ripe cuttings (my English lavender was growing far too big for the space it was in so I stuck two cuttings in the garden last September and they both took - well-drained soil is the key.) 

They are but if you need a lot of plants seed is better. 

My 70 little seed plants turned into about 90 for planting out. When they sent out a long shoot i snipped it of and did it as a cutting. They are all growing away fast  and  have all flowered this year. I cant tell now which were the cutting plants :happy:

I need about another 150 -200 plants to finish my plan so I've just sown 2 more packets of seed, 1 english 1 french.

The little plants seem very expensive to buy so i'm hoping to save quite a bit of money :happy:

[JayG]

Gosh, didn't realise you love lavender so much you're setting up an industrial production line! 

[mumofstig]

sounds much like Monty with his box hedging