Comments on: Losing the lavender

By: From one gardener to another – The Inadvertent Gardener

From one gardener to another – The Inadvertent Gardener — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:38:38 +0000

[...] understand. If it hadn’t died on me before I left, I would have tried to bring my Iowa lavender plant with me to [...]

By: inadvertentgardener

inadvertentgardener — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:40:13 +0000

Annie, do you realize your lavender is a second-grader? Or could be? That’s amazing! Good tip about the drainage — I bet you’re right.

By: Annie in Austin

Annie in Austin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:00:52 +0000

Sometimes lavender lived through the winter in my Illinois garden, and sometimes it dies over winter here in Texas so I’ve decided it can’t be just cold. In my limited experience lavender needs extremely good drainage, and if there’s water around the roots when the temperatures drop that plant is usually a goner. I’ve planted 3 different varieties in a gravelly new bed so this winter will be another experiment.

Sorry you lost your special plant, Genie – I have a lavender in a big terracotta pot that’s about 7-years old so know how you feel!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

By: inadvertentgardener

inadvertentgardener — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:19:59 +0000

chzplz, I think this was a tough winter for a lot of plants.

Nancy Bond, yes — something else special is in order!

Heather, that was part of CA’s appeal, for sure…

Jane, I have been meaning to buy an indoor rosemary plant, but yes — I suspect it needs to start indoors and stay indoors rather than be moved indoors.

Curmudgeon, you can definitely grow it in Iowa — that friend who told me originally about overwintering it had HUGE plants in her yard. How cool that you were able to get some of your plants to your new home.

Zannie, glad to hear it does great here! I’m going to have to give it a whirl…

Nezza, a baby elephant? Really?

Michelle, yes — an excuse for plant shopping is never a bad thing…

Mme. Meow, it is surprisingly hard, isn’t it? Especially with certain plants.

Pomona Belvedere, thanks for that tip on Annie’s Annuals — I will definitely go check that place out!

By: pomona belvedere

pomona belvedere — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:58:51 +0000

Oakland is a great place for lavender. (Just so everyone knows, not all of California is a warm-winter haven. There is still snow in some spots in the mountains.) I’m sorry your old one bit the dust. I think whacking them back might be helpful, I hate to do it but they always look better when I do. But I garden in zone 8 (more or less), so that might not work in colder areas.

And if you want to take a trip to Richmond (about 15 minutes), check out Annie’s Annuals, a very fun selection. You’re in a botanical haven there in the East Bay, your dead lavender has sacrificed itself for the greater gardening glory.

By: Mme. Meow

Mme. Meow — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:33:51 +0000

I don’t know what it was about this post, but it touched me. Losing a plant is hard in an inexplicable way, and I remember some losses very acutely.

I hope you find some glorious lavender in California.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:03:26 +0000

Aw man, I remember that lavender when it was resurrected. Even if it won’t be the same it will be a great excuse to go plant shopping and check out the local digs!

By: nezza

nezza — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:33:49 +0000

My lavender does okay here too (UK). I have a nice hedge in the front garden. Well….it was doing well until a baby elephant sat on part of it. Needless to say I think it was a drunk baby elephant in the middle of the night. I love lavender in the summer when it’s full of bees and butterflies. I’m sure it will love the Californian climate.

I wish I could move to CA! Maybe one day.

By: Zannie

Zannie — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:27:28 +0000

Lavender does great here (I’m in San Francisco). I got a scraggly little plant last spring from someone who was moving to Switzerland–I dug it out of their planter, put it in my yard and threw a little bit of water at it now and then while it was getting established. It put out one bloom that year. This year it’s three or four times the original size and covered in blooms. And I see huge, almost out of control lavender bushes all over the peninsula. Seriously, these things are three feet tall and just as wide.

It’s a shame your plant didn’t make it; if it handled the trip and the transplanting, it would have thought it had died and gone to heaven.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:44:29 +0000

Poor lavender. I had no idea you could grow it in IA! I did my first bit of gardening in Decora IA. Just some pots and the most gorgeous fuschia. When we left the midwest and drove west our back seat contained 3 cat carriers and all the plants we couldn’t stand to leave behind due to sentimental attachments. This included an orchid–the most exotic thing we’d managed to not kill. Orchid bit the dust soon after we settled in–fell off the fridge with some kitty help. But the friendship pothos–all our friends have cuttings–is now 8 years old.