grow, marvel, eat, laugh, persevere

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Collecting Lavender Seeds

Walking through the garden the other day, I accidently noticed that my Lavender had gone to seed!
I have to say that, besides the Cleome, this Lavender was by far the easiest to identify and to collect seeds from. I find identifying seed heads plants very stressful. I'm getting better at it but it is not that easy for me to determine what is trash and what is seed. I also never know if it's time to collect the seeds or not. I am frequently bent over staring at a dead flower trying to spot something that will scream "I'M A SEED - COLLECT ME". With these, it was simple.

I saw this (see picture above) and got very excited. "Maybe there are seeds in there!" So, I cut off abunch of these and brought them in the house to take a look. Indeed, just inside the pod there is a nice little roundish black seed. Perfect! This is the easiest kind for me. I hate having to sift though all the trash to try to identify what is a seed and what is isnt, like with the Rudbeckia whose seeds look only slightly different from the garbage.

These Lavender plants were the ones I ordered online and when I received them I was so mad at myself for paying 15 bucks for 3 microscopic plants. Not only that, but they did absolutely nothing in the area of growing for a couple of months. Then, one day, they took off and started blooming. I can't wait to try to grow this from seed and I'll definately be sharing these seedlings (hopefully I can make them grow) with GB who lost a ton of Lavender plants this year. Big shout-out to my good friend B who reads my blog from time to time. Want some Lavender, B?

I was also mesmerized by the strong scent of lavender that surrounded me while I was collecting seeds but by the end of this, I had a headache from being emersed in the smell of lavender for so long. It's gotten me thinking about what I can make with this dried lavender. So, please pass on your suggestions or tell me what you do with your dried lavender and I'll get to work!

5 comments:

  1. The easiest thing to do with dried lavender (the leaves usually) is to make a sachet of them. Put about a tablespoon of crushed dried lavender in the middle of a circle of netting and make a little bag tied with a ribbon. Makes a good mini-present for Christmas. Lavender is supposed to repel moths that eat clothes. Even if it doesn't it makes your clothes smell good when you pull them out of the drawer.

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  2. Gina,
    Check this out, it might be a big help to you.

    http://www.theseedsite.co.uk/db1.html

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  3. Lavender may need longer time to germinate in Asia it has no constant cool temperatur, unlike cold counries. But there are ways to chill them to make it faster.
    Please visit our site for more lavender seed.
    Lavender Seeds on Sale

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  4. I'm going out into my lavender patch today to do just what you did... thanks for the encouragement... I feel very similarly-- what is lavender seed and what isn't? When I brought dry lavender in as a bouquet it dropped what looked like seeds all over the counter... teeny tiny little orbs, like amaranth-size, maybe smaller. I'm thinking those are seeds and, if so, I too will be planting lots this coming Spring... I see a yard full of lavender coming up-- "drifts and drifts" as I have heard it described. Maybe over the septic field if the roots are not too long-- wouldn't that be cool?

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  5. Just found this site while looking for info regarding collecting seeds.....and read your post about lavender. Just wanted to that we use long cotton sport tube socks to fill with a mix of white rice, flax seed and dried lavender flowers to make "rice socks". Fill sock to a level...sew across the top, twice, 1/4 inch from first row of stitches (I leave the cuff and fold it over the end). These can be heated in the microwave for 2 minutes and 30 seconds and used as heating pads. They keep you warm all night if placed in your bed and are good for sore backs and necks from gardening!

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