Lavender

Lavender is grown at scales ranging from garden and landscape plantings to dedicated commercial fields supplying dried flower and essential oil markets, with some regions developing lavender cultivation into a significant agritourism activity.

Plants are long-lived when well sited, though productivity and oil quality typically decline with age, leading commercial growers to replace fields on a multi-year rotation.

Family

Lamiaceae (mint family)

Genus

Lavandula

Principal species

Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender); Lavandula × intermedia (lavandin) is also widely grown commercially

Growth habit

Woody-based evergreen to semi-evergreen shrub with narrow, silvery-green leaves and terminal flower spikes

Lavender is native to the Mediterranean region, particularly the mountains of southern France, Spain, and Italy, where it grows wild on dry, well-drained, often calcareous slopes.

France remains a major producer of lavender and lavandin essential oil, with additional significant production in Bulgaria and other countries with suitable climates; smaller-scale cultivation occurs widely for garden and dried-flower markets.

Lavender requires full sun and is best adapted to a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and moderate winters. It tolerates drought well but generally dislikes prolonged high humidity, which favors foliar and root disease.

Well-drained, low-fertility sandy loams and loams, often alkaline, are preferred. Heavy, poorly drained soils are one of the most common causes of lavender decline in cultivation.

• Propagation by cuttings to maintain specific cultivar characteristics for oil composition and flower color
• Wide spacing and open planting to maximize airflow and sun exposure
• Annual pruning after flowering to maintain compact form and productive growth
• Field renewal on a multi-year cycle as commercial plantings age and productivity declines

Lavender generally requires low nitrogen inputs; excessive nitrogen promotes soft, disease-prone growth and can reduce essential oil concentration in the flowers.

Lavender is grown for oil as much as for flower, and the two aims pull irrigation in opposite directions: water through flowering builds biomass and dilutes the oil, while a dry finish concentrates it. A crop irrigated for yield of spike can therefore distil poorly. Plant loss in cultivation is more often from a wet root zone in winter than from summer drought, which is why the species is planted on ridges or slopes wherever the ground holds water.

Drip irrigation, applied sparingly, is preferred where supplemental water is used, since it avoids the prolonged foliage and root-zone wetness lavender is sensitive to.

Root rot, particularly under poorly drained or overwatered conditions, is the most significant threat to established lavender plantings, and gray mold can affect flowers and foliage under cool, humid conditions. Spider mites and aphids are common pests.

Flower spikes are cut, typically when a proportion of flowers on the spike have opened, using hand tools or mechanical harvesters in commercial fields, and are then dried or promptly distilled to produce essential oil.

• Steam-distilled essential oil used in the fragrance, cosmetics, and personal-care industries
• Dried flowers used in sachets, potpourri, and decorative products
• Culinary use of flowers and buds in some baked goods and beverages
• Ornamental and landscape planting, including in pollinator-friendly gardens