As part of our "Year of the Perennial", we are trying our hand at growing lavender from seed. We have found that a lot of the lavender plants at nurseries are generic. I was at Stein's this morning and they had several flats of Lavender Angustifolia, which is a generic term for English lavender. Late last year, I surfed the internet and found seeds for two specific varieties of English lavender: 'Vera', and 'Hidcote Superior'. Both can be used for culinary purposes, and 'Vera' is said to be very cold-hardy and fragrant.
Lavender is tricky to grow from seed, and is known for poor germination rates. The first step is to cold-stratify the seeds. In early February, I moistened a paper towel with a spray bottle, sprinkled the seeds across half the towel, folded it into quarters, and placed it into a labeled ziplock bag. The bags then went into the crisper of our refrigerator for 5 weeks, along with some prairie seeds that I am also trying to grow this year.
I took the bags out of the refrigerator in mid-March and placed them in a sunny window for 2 weeks. I probably let them sit a little too long, as the 'Vera' variety germinated in the towel and started to set roots. I filled a 60-cell tray with seed starting mix, and using tweezers, picked the seeds and seedlings up and placed them into a cell. The cells were labeled and placed into a watering tray, and set on a heating pad in a southern window.
A week later, the seedlings had settled in and the seeds have started to spout. I then moved the tray to a grow light setup. I am trying something a little different this year with heating pads. I find that my seedlings get leggy, and am wondering if a heating pad gets them growing too quickly. I turned the heating pad off after a week in the tray, once most of the seedlings broke through the top of the soil. Lavender does not like wet feet, so we need to water carefully from the top with a sprayer and a little under watering. Lavender is slow-growing, so it will be interesting to see how big they get over the next 8 weeks.
Comments