Lavender is a charming plant that is characterized by purple blooms or fragrant flowers that are used for making perfume and sachets. Lavender plants also boast of gray-green aromatic foliage and can be used for crafts, beauty purposes, medicinal remedies as well as culinary recipes among others. This plant is just fantastic and it consists of so many benefits.
Lavenders thrive under warm and sunny weather conditions outdoors. If your weather is not conducive, you may be wondering if it is possible to grow this amazing shrub indoors. Can you grow lavender indoors? This article attempts to answer this question and provide as much information as possible about the steps you can take to grow lavender indoors.
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Tips About Growing Lavender Indoors
One important aspect of Lavender is that it has a timeless charm and has been a major feature in different gardens across the world for centuries. The plant is easy to grow and maintain since it needs good drainage and sufficient room to grow while at the same time it does not require constant watering.
The plant has a wonderful smell and it is capable of attracting beneficial insects like bees. However, growing lavender indoors can be a bit challenging but the following tips can help you achieve your goal if you want to grow this wonderful plant inside your home.
How to Grow Lavender Indoors?
Lavender is generally an outside plant and it thrives in a warm climate that is often similar to hot Mediterranean areas where it grows naturally in the bush. While not all types of Lavender plants grow well in containers in your living room, some can do well. As long as you pick the best indoor varieties of lavender and give them the needed exposure, it is possible to grow these plants indoors.
What is the Best Lavender Plant for Indoors?
Now that you know that there are specific types of Lavender plants that thrive indoors, the first thing you should do is to choose the ideal container plant. Regular lavender plants usually grow waist high and you would not need these since they may not thrive indoors.
Therefore, dwarf lavender plants are appropriate for growing indoors. There are different types of dwarf lavender plants that thrive indoors which include ‘Goodwin Creek Grey’ as well as ‘Munstead.’ These are fragrant and consist of rosy-purple flowers and the other perfect choice is ‘Little Lottie’ which boasts of soft pink flower spikes.
Other types of plants you can consider include French lavender (Lavandula dentata), fern leaf lavender which loves moisture (Lavandula multifida) as well as Canary Island lavender (Lavandula canariensis). When you have identified the right type of lavender plant to grow indoors then you are left with performing the actual planting.
Choose the Right Pot
It is imperative to select the right pot for lavender and it should be a few inches larger than the root ball of the plant. You should also make sure that the pot has sufficient drainage holes to enhance good drainage which is a basic requirement when you want to successfully grow lavender plants either indoors or outdoors.
Apart from choosing the right pot, you must also get the right amount of soil that consists of sand, compost, and perlite. A light potting mix is ideal since it drains well. You must know that excess soil can lead to too much moisture which can cause rotting of the roots of the lavender plants. As noted on top, this plant does not need constant watering.
You should add a bit of lime to the soil to tip it toward alkaline. The other strategy is to add some crushed eggshells which help to prevent soil from turning acidic. You can add these every month.
Placement of the Pot
When growing lavender indoors, the thumb rule is that the plants should get as much light as possible. Therefore, you should choose the appropriate location for the pots containing the plants so that they can get sufficient light during the day. The plants should get direct sunlight for a minimum of about four hours every day.
You can choose south-facing windows for placement of your pots containing lavender plants since these receive more sunshine. You can rotate the pot every week to achieve uniform growth and flowering of the plants. If the Lavender plant receives poor light, it may produce weak flowers or it may cease altogether producing flowers and it can be susceptible to disease.
Good ventilation is also important for the lavender plant to grow well. However, you must avoid placing the pot where there is direct circulation of heat produced inside the house such as the kitchen. From spring to mid-fall, the ideal temperature for the lavender plants is 50 to 55 degrees F at night and 70 degrees F during the day.
Watering the Plant
When watering the lavender plant in the pot, avoid leaving the soil too wet since this may cause rot. Check with your fingers to ensure that the soil is slightly dry but also make sure that it is not completely dry. Complete dryness of the soil might result in the yellowing of the leaves of the lavender plant. If you move the plant outside during springtime, remember that it is prone to quick drying so you must constantly water it.
Pruning the Lavender Plant
You must constantly prune the plant to promote the growth of new leaves. This should be mainly done after harvesting to promote the sprouting of new leaves. You must be careful to avoid over-pruning since this can impact the flowering of the plant.
Conclusion
Lavender plants produce sweet smell from their blooms and they can be used for making perfume, soap and many more. Lavender plants can also be used for culinary purposes and the plants usually thrive in gardens under hot conditions. However, you can grow lavender plants indoors though this can be a challenging feat.
To succeed in growing lavender plants indoors, there are specific tips outlined above that you should follow. I hope you have enjoyed reading this post. If you have any comments, you can leave them below.
