Lavender Canpakes

[_Jersey Girl]

Canpakes,

On an previous thread, we talked about lavender and the plans I had for my "yard", which is really not a yard, it's a forest. I bought lavender bedding plants and planted them in large containers and they grew all summer. I don't know what I was supposed to do with them over winter, but they've been outside the whole time. They look dead.

Should I start watering them or do you think that I killed them?

Anyway, I'm working on making the plans reality this year. :-D If I get more lavender, what should I be doing with them in winter? Should I put them in the ground and take my chances, or go for containers again? I have 3 tires that would make good containers.

Thanks for whatever advice you have for me!

[_canpakes]

Hi, Jersey Girl!

I have to admit that things don't sound too good for those plants if we are this far into the year and there's not a speck of green on 'em. But I don't think that you did anything wrong, specifically. I suspect a combination of things:

1. I don't remember which types of lavender that we talked about planting, but I may have assumed that you were in a warmer climate than you actually are. Between tales of being trapped in your home snowbound for a week last winter and your recent remark about snow falling as recently as a few weeks ago (?), I'm pretty convinced that you must have found yourself a nice little place in the highlands of Idaho or somewhere in Montana. : ) For some reason I had thought earlier that you lived in a more southerly and temperate clime that got some snow ... but not enough to mimic scenes from Fargo or The Grey. So if I had recommended Spanish lavender, it would have been a recommendation better suited for a warmer area (it kicks butt down here where we have already seen 100- degree days) but English types are much better at dealing with cold spells, like v. angustifolia or intermedia. My bad, not yours.

2. Plants in containers will be more susceptible to the cold than plants growing directly in the ground given no special considerations for the former, so here again, your harsh winter may have dealt them a bit more than they were ready for. The upside to containers is that you have full control over the density and makeup of the soil; lavender does not do well in a heavy soil so containers with a more balanced mix can be a huge help if soggy soil is what you are dealing with for your ground. Otherwise, if the containers are moveable to closer to the house or into a protected area during the coldest times of the year, then that can also give the plants a better chance at making it through a tough cold spell.

You could try giving your 'lavender sticks' some water for a week or two to see what happens, but if the stems remain crispy and snap cleanly with no bending when you pick one, and no new green growth pops out at the base, then chances are that those fellows are goners. I would not lose hope, though - lavender still may be able to 'take' if your winter conditions aren't always so severe and if you can find the hardier English varieties at your local nursery.

[_Jersey Girl]

Our last snow was on Sunday!

I'll try watering them and putting them in the sun for a couple of weeks and see what happens. I know that I should have taken them inside over winter. We had so much going on and I forgot about them. I've seen them do well at lower elevations. I think we live too high up for them to winter over outdoors in the ground or containers.

If I need to replace them, I'll go with the containers again and bring them indoors over winter. It wouldn't be the first time I kept blooming plants indoors through winter. ;-)

Thanks a million, canpakes!