The beautiful purple lavender flowers have the most amazing characteristic smell, well known and used in many products. Essential oils in the lavender plant are what produces this aroma, lavender is cultivated for. Lavender is one of the best-known Herbs of Provence, but in fact, it grows in many other parts of the world as well.
Lavender is cultivated for its beauty and decorative properties for gardens, and there are many, many variants available now, including pink lavender. It blooms at the height of summer, first flowers appear in the Provence around end of May, but harvest time is later.
Essential lavender oil is famous and the predominant use of lavender flowers. Another well-known use of lavender flowers are herb sachets and potpourries – for decorative, aroma and pest repelling reasons. Lavender is also used as herbal filler inside sachets used to freshen linens. Dried and sealed in pouches, lavender flowers are placed among stored items of clothing to give a fresh fragrance and to deter moths.
Uses of lavender and lavender oil
The beautiful smell of lavender is used in soaps in the Provence and in many beauty products. Last but not least, lavender flowers can be used in teas, be it for decorative or wellness reasons.
Lavender oil has many amazing properties: first of all, you can use it of course in your aroma lamp. But it is also antiseptic, can be used with cleaning products, and mixed with almond or olive oil amongst others, it is a remedy for sun burn. In traditional medicine, lavender has been used for many centuries, and today, there are various studies indicating therapeutic properties.
Lavender Blue Relaxing Moments
On a mental level, lavender essential oil is said to be calming, and lavender pillows or drops of lavender oil on cotton balls or similar are supposed to help with calm sleep. I myself like to use essential lavender oil when I have migraines or want to calm down before sleep. Also for colds – then I put one drop of lavender oil behind my ear lobes, or on my wrists. When I have discomfort in my ears, I put one drop of lavender oil on a cotton ball and put that in my ears. *
For a nice relaxing hot bath with lavender, add about 8 drops of essential lavender oil to a base oil (if you are not vegan, you can also use honey), mix well, then add to the bath water right before your bath. Alternatively, you can use sachets with dried lavender flowers and hang them under the tap while you are filling your bath. You can add a few drops of lavender oil to shower gels, shampoos, and creams.
Some facts about Lavandula
The latin name is Lavandula (common name lavender), the “official” type used for cultivation and essential oils is “Lavandula officinalis”. Lavender belongs to the flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It can be found in Europe, northern and eastern Africa, southwest Asia to India.
The word lavender is thought to be derived from Old French lavandre, a form of the Latin lavare (to wash), another idea is that the name may be derived from Latin livere, “blueish”.
The name “English lavender” is commonly used for Lavandula angustifolia, “French lavender” and “Spanish lavender” both may refer to either L. stoechas or to L. dentata.
Phytochemicals in Lavender plants
Some 100 individual phytochemicals have been extracted from lavender oil, including major contents of linalyl acetate (30-55%), linalool (20-35%), tannins (5-10%), and caryophyllene (8%), with lesser amounts of sesquiterpenoids, perillyl alcohols, esters, oxides, ketones, cineole, camphor, beta-ocimene, limonene, caproic acid, and caryophyllene oxide. The relative amounts of these compounds vary considerably among lavender species.
Lavender in the kitchen: Culinary use
Culinary lavender is usually English lavender, the most commonly used species in cooking (L. angustifolia ‘Munstead’). Some compare it to lemon or citrus notes. Lavender is sometimes added to the spice mixture “herbes de Provence”, and is used for example in pasta sauces, salads and dressings, and even desserts or other baked goods.
The potency – the aroma – of the lavender flowers is higher after drying, therefore use less dried lavender buds / flowers for cooking than fresh lavender flowers.
Use of lavender greens for cooking
The greens are used similarly to rosemary or combined with rosemary to flavor meat and vegetables in savory dishes. They can also be used to make a tea that is milder than teas made with the flowers.
How to grow lavender in your herb garden
Lavender is not hard to grow, and it is very decorative. You can either grow it in the garden soil directly, in mixed beds, or even in pots. What is important though, is, that lavender is a mediterranean plant, meaning that it needs full sun (a lot), and that the soil needs to be well drained, sandy, or even rocky.
Lavenders flourish best in dry, well-drained, sandy or gravelly soils in full sun. Lavender plants don’t need much fertilizer but good air circulation. Organic mulches can leave too much moisture for lavender plants which could cause root rot. Therefore, stones, crushed rocks of gravel is a better material to cover the soil around lavender plants (if at all). It grows best in soils with a pH between 6 and 8.
Don’t cover the soil with mulch and don’t water too much, or it will be too much moisture for lavender. It stays alive over many years, by the way. Lavender can be grown well together with other meditarrenean plants that also need drier and well drained soils, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, …
Planting Lavender
You can grow lavender from seeds, cuttings or from plants bought from a gardener. It is best to buy the young plants and replant them into your garden. Prune lavender in winter or early spring.
Mix and and / or gravel with your soil before planting. In pots, pay attention to good drainage and the bottom of the pot specifically.
It goes well into rock gardens and slopes. As mentioned earlier, do not use organic mulch around lavender plants but rather stones or gravel (or nothing).
If the soil is too acidic, then it will be very hard to grow healthy lavender plants.
If you pay attention to these basic tips, it will be easy to grow lavender, it is normally not a high maintenance plant, once the conditions are right. Most importantly, plan a spot that gets full sun.
The best time for plant is spring, after the last frost.
How to Harvest Lavender
Harvesting and drying lavender is really easy. Just pick the flowers with their stems (best time is in the morning), with or without scissors, and then hang a bundle upside down to dry. Once dried, you can the flowers as they are, or strip the single buds off, and store them in a liddes jar, or in a linen sachet. As potpourri, simply fill as much lavender flowers as you want into a pretty bowl along with other preferred dried flowers. It goes well with rose buds.
I hope this article gave you a good overview, more detailed uses and applications for your wellness will be covered in a different article.
Disclaimer
- *Do not use for children, especially not babies. Consult your doctor or health care practitioner if you experience any health issues or if pregnant. Do not use essential lavender oil internally, and do not put directly in ears, do not let any lavender oil come into your eyes. Make sure you are not allergic to this type of plants and oils before using.
