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Calming lavender is the lavandula angustifolia. The ‘English lavender’. Here in Spain it does not seem to be very well known. That’s a pity because the calming quality of Angustifolia lavender is phenomenal.
After shooting 50 species of flowers on and around our lavender farm in March and April, I continue here with the wildflowers in the Alpujarras in May.
In France, lavender flowers from mid-June to mid-July. This is when large fields of mostly lavandin bloom. But did you know that true lavender – Lavandula angustifolia – often flowers already from May? My lavender garden is at 1200 metres in Andalusia, Spain, and here the lavender is already in bloom. I can imagine that lower down the lavender blooms even earlier. Flowering season has started!
Last spring, four lavender plants had aphids. I didn’t take it too seriously and that wasn’t a good idea. Within a short time, the plants were covered in aphids and ants were coming and going. The plants looked worse and worse. I knew they would survive, but I could forget about harvesting these plants for the time being.
I prune lavenders in early spring and after flowering. So now it is time to prune. The more plants you have, the more important it becomes to prune hygienically. But how to do that?
Wild flowers and spring! Every day that I go out the wild flowers surprise me. It seems as if they agree at night, to suddenly be all there the next morning. They pop up from nowhere. I will try to make this spring every day a picture. Most species are common but no less valuable for that. Wild flowers are good for biodiversity, for us humans and for the bees. They all tell the same message that it is (almost) spring!
Drying lavender is quite simple, but you can make mistakes that cost you a lot of time. If you dry your lavender right, you can enjoy the best smells. I tell you how I do it.
On our land grows a wild lavender. It is the lavandula pedunculata, or a lavender Stoechas. Here in the mountains of Andalusia the lavender stoechas or cantueso as it is called here blooms early in the year. While I start to harvest lavandula angustfolia, the stoechas has almost finished flowering. Today I’m going to prune the plant and harvest the flowers. The oil would be good for headaches and colds.
When do you harvest lavender? That depends on what you’re going to do with it.
Lavender cuttings I make at the same moment when I prune the lavender. In (early) spring with no more risk of frost. And after the summer bloom, in autumn. There are growers who prune in early spring and store the cuttings, if it’s still too cold, before they go into the ground. I try to find the optimum time for both.
