For home gardeners, choosing whether to plant lavender from seeds, cuttings, or nursery plants depends largely on your goals, patience, and desired outcome. Each method has distinct advantages and disadvantages.
1. Planting from Seeds
Advantages:
-
Cost-Effective: Seeds are significantly cheaper than established plants, especially if you want many lavender plants.
-
Variety: You might find a wider or more unusual range of lavender species or specific cultivars available as seeds that aren't commonly sold as nursery plants.
-
Genetic Diversity (and potential for unique plants): Growing from seed allows for genetic variation. While this means the plants won't be "true to type" if they're hybrids or cross-pollinated, it can also lead to interesting, unique lavender plants with new combinations of traits.
-
Rewarding Experience: Successfully germinating and growing plants from tiny seeds can be a very satisfying gardening achievement.
Disadvantages:
-
Low and Slow Germination: Lavender seeds are notoriously slow and often have low germination rates. They typically require cold stratification (a period of cold, moist conditions) to break dormancy, mimicking winter. Even then, germination can take weeks or even months.
-
Variability: Most lavender cultivars (especially hybrids like Lavandins) will not grow true to the parent plant from seed. The resulting plants will be genetically different, and their characteristics (flower color, size, scent, hardiness) will be unpredictable. If you want a specific known variety, seeds are generally not the way to go.
-
Requires More Care in Early Stages: Seedlings are delicate and need controlled conditions (consistent moisture, light, warmth) to thrive. They are susceptible to damping-off disease.
-
Long Time to Maturity: It takes much longer for a plant grown from seed to reach flowering size compared to a cutting or nursery plant.
2. Planting from Cuttings
Advantages:
-
True to Type (Clones): This is the biggest advantage. A plant grown from a cutting is a genetic clone of the "mother" plant. If you take a cutting from a 'Munstead' lavender, the new plant will also be 'Munstead' with all its identical characteristics. This is crucial for maintaining specific cultivars.
-
Faster Growth: Cuttings develop into established plants much faster than seeds. You'll likely see flowers sooner.
-
Cost-Effective (if you have a parent plant): If you or a friend already have a healthy lavender plant, taking cuttings is essentially free.
-
Higher Success Rate: While not 100%, cuttings generally have a higher success rate of producing a viable plant than seeds, especially if you use rooting hormone.
Disadvantages:
-
Requires a Parent Plant: You need an existing lavender plant from which to take cuttings.
-
Timing: There are optimal times to take cuttings (softwood in spring/early summer, semi-ripe in mid-summer, hardwood in fall/winter), which requires some planning.
-
Requires Some Skill/Equipment: While relatively easy, it does involve specific steps (clean cuts, removing lower leaves, optional rooting hormone, proper potting medium).
-
Limited Number of New Plants: You can only take so many cuttings from a single parent plant without stressing it.
3. Planting from Nursery Plants (Starter Plants)
Advantages:
-
Instant Gratification: You get a well-established plant that is ready to go into your garden, often with flowers already forming or in bloom.
-
Guaranteed Cultivar: When you buy a named cultivar from a reputable nursery, you are guaranteed to get that specific variety with its known traits, as these are almost always propagated from cuttings.
-
Higher Success Rate: Nursery plants have established root systems and are generally robust, making them the easiest to transplant and get growing successfully.
-
Less Effort: No need for stratification, delicate seedling care, or rooting cuttings.
Disadvantages:
-
Highest Cost: This is the most expensive option per plant.
-
Limited Variety (sometimes): While nurseries carry popular varieties, they might not have every single obscure lavender species or cultivar you're looking for.
-
Potential for Transplant Shock: Even established plants can experience a brief period of stress when moved from the nursery pot to your garden, though this is usually minor with proper care.
Recommendation for Home Gardeners:
-
For most home gardeners who want specific, reliable lavender varieties, buying nursery plants is the best and easiest option. You get a healthy, established plant that is "true to type" and will quickly provide flowers and fragrance.
-
If you want to expand your collection of a specific existing lavender plant you already have, or if a friend has a variety you love, cuttings are an excellent and cost-effective way to get more identical plants.
-
Growing from seeds is best reserved for gardeners who enjoy the challenge, have patience, want a large quantity of plants cheaply, or are interested in the genetic variability and potential for unique, un-named hybrids (or are specifically growing varieties like 'Munstead' or 'Vera' English lavender, which are more reliable from seed).
Lavender Farm in Door County Wisconsin. You can buy lavender products online at islandlavender.com