Growing and Caring for French Lavender

If the temperatures in your growing zone never drop below freezing, then you won’t need to take special measures to keep your French lavender alive during the winter months, as long as it is planted in well-draining soil. In areas of the country where French lavender isn’t hardy (Zone 7 and below), grow it as an annual or in a container that you can overwinter indoors.

French lavender – planting, care and pruning

French lavender appreciates well-draining, light and even poor soils.

It can grow more or less anywhere, but is vulnerable when temperatures drop below 19°F (-7°C) in winter.

• We recommend planting in fall, but you can plant in spring without any problems.
• Water once, well, at the beginning and then refrain from watering.
• No need to add fertilizer.
• French lavender grows well in chalky soil, but won’t be happy in acidic soil.

Prepare a place that is well endowed with sunlight with well drained soil. If your soil is clay, mix sand into it to make it lighter.

• Refer to our guidelines for planting shrubs.
• To grow a low lavender hedge, plant one stem every 12 to 16 inches (30 to 40 cm).

Planting in pots and container growing

One important tip to grow French lavender in pots: avoid soil moisture at all costs.

• Double-check that the pot has a hole.
• Add a drainage layer at the bottom: small gravel or clay pebbles.

Usually, young plants require repotting the moment you’ve purchased them. Repot to a container only 2 inches (5 cm) wider for that first season.

Afterwards, either upsize the pot by one size, or plant it directly in a pot that is the ideal size: 1 to 1½ feet across (30 to 40 cm).

At that point, simply replenish nutrients with fertilizer such as fermented weed tea.

Watering French lavender

Lavender excels at resisting drought. There are only four cases when you must water your French lavender:

• at planting, once, thoroughly
• during extreme heat waves (over 95°F or 35°C)
• if your French lavender is growing in a covered spot that never gets any rain.
• in pots (wait until soil is dry).

Perfume makers say that the dryer the season, the more fragrant the perfume!

French lavender pruning and care

Pruning this lavender is possible, but only on sections that still bear leaves. If you prune back to dry wood, it won’t grow back…

• At the end of winter, follow the rounded shape of the plant.
  Avoid cutting off old growth, because woody branches rarely send out new shoots.
  Favor pruning only on young, tender shoots rather than old, hard wood.
• If your climate zone has mild winters, you can also trim your lavender bush in fall.
• After the blooming, snip off dead flower stems to trigger more blooming.

If your plant is old with bare spots, you’ve got two options to make it full again:

• Layer the lavender to produce new, healthy bushes that are immediately vigorous (L. dentata in particular air-layers well).
• Hard prune your lavender over a few years. French lavender can be hard pruned, but not all at once.

Protection and care in winter

French lavender is vulnerable to harsh freezing, 19°F (-7°C), and can’t survive sustained cold spells.

• Protect the base with mulch in winter. Use mineral mulch like pebbles if possible.
• Drainage must be excellent.

Drying French lavender flowers

French lavender can keep for months, even years, if kept in a dry place away from the sun’s rays.

• Cut lavender flowers are an excellent way to perfume clothes and laundry.
• Best is to hang bunches upside-down to dry before storing or using them (great for dried flower bouquets, for instance).
• Traditionally, locals filled small cotton pouches with lavender flowers to perfume laundry in the closet.
• A variant that doesn’t require cloth or sewing is making ribbon wands.

Diseases and pests

There aren’t any. Actually, this flower often helps as a pest repellent. Like marigold, it repels aphids, so you can plant it around rose trees to protect them.

In rare cases where the plant is weak due to overwatering, the shrub may develop leaf spot (Septoria).

Although butterflies love to drink its nectar, you won’t find caterpillars on the leaves, none like to eat it!

All there is to know about French lavender

French lavender got its name from France. It was developed and grown there to produce oil for perfume. In France, a common name for it is “butterfly lavender” (lavande papillon) because flower tips look like butterflies.

Flowers are stouter that those of common lavender, and like its cousin, it has also been grown for thousands of years. Traditional uses included bathing, protecting linens, perfume, and availing of its medicinal benefits.

Together with the olive tree, this sub-shrub is one of the symbols of French Provence and the Mediterranean.

In landscaping, French lavender beautifies rock beds, edges and flower beds.

• Note : in Australia and Spain, this lavender is an invasive weed and should not be planted. It’s not invasive in the USA (California…).

Smart tip about French lavender

A great source of nectar, French lavender attracts honeybees to the garden, a welcome addition!

Images: 123RF: Christian Bridgwater; adobestock: Kotcha K, CC BY 2.0: M’s Photography, Katja Schulz, CC BY-SA 2.0: Tracie Hall; dreamstime: Chernetskaya; Pixabay: Courtney, Daniel Wanke

Written by Gaspard Lorthiois | Loves helping out, especially when it comes to growing things. Worked in herbal medicine, runs a farm, and dabbles in tech. Master’s degree and engineer.

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Carol vivian wrote on 5 November 2021 at 13 h 40 min

My French lavender is still in bloom, I would like to prune them but we have had our first frost, would this do any harm.

Hi Carol, usually for French lavender you can actually leave the plant as it is until the end of winter. There’s no need to prune now. That way, you might still get the occasional flower. If you prefer to prune now, it’s also possible, but it’s best to wait for a warmer spell: it takes a few days for plants to cure their wounds well. It’s best if it doesn’t freeze during this period. So check the weather for a warm spell when it won’t freeze for 3-4 days in a row.

Annabel Hurdman wrote on 21 June 2021 at 14 h 35 min

Hello – I have just received 2 x French Lavender patio trees – they look “grey” half way up and battered – what can I do to help it?

Hi Annabel, seems like the older leaves have taken a beating! It’s normal for the older leaves to turn gray and, in the end, fall off. Newer leaves higher up are taking over. What you can do to get bushes that are dense and lush is to prune them back to just above the first few “nice, green” leaves: this will trigger branching out in many places. It’ll fill the shrub up and hide the barer branches inside. Keep the shape round, it usually looks nicer. Here’s a link on how to prune french lavender (all lavenders are similar in this respect). Note that it’s best to do this in Spring so that flowers still have time to form over Summer, but if you’re willing to sacrifice this year’s blooming you can go ahead and prune now, you’ll have a slightly higher chance of getting new growth lower down, in the area where the gray leaves are.

Hi black thumb, soon to turn green! At the beginning, a smallish pot will do, for instance 6 or 8 inches across (15-20 cm), but once your lavender is already three or four years old you should double the size of the pot for it to have the space to grow (1 to 1½ feet or 30 to 40 cm). That size will suit it to the end. You can also start it directly in the larger of the two sizes, but it’ll seem small for its pot size!

MRS R WEST wrote on 26 February 2021 at 20 h 44 min

Can you tell me how to protect French lavender in winter ours has died possibly through the frost where it is in a normal flower bed THANK YOU.

Hello Mrs West, sure. If it gets really cold every year, a good solution would be to try planting it using the pot-in-the-ground system, so that you can take it out before winter and store it in a garage or place that won’t freeze. If you prefer to leave it in place, try to winterize it (article on winterizing here) with horticultural fleece or a clear plastic bag loosely wrapped around the bunch. You can also heap a pile of straw atop the shrub. Usually that keeps the harshest frost at bay. Come Spring, pull the hay away to free your French lavender. Lastly, you should know French lavender is the least hardy species. If it fails you repeatedly, try planting English lavender or Spike lavender, they’re both hardier than French Lavender.

I recieved a French lavender tree for mothers day. It was doing great, flowering and looked healthy for a couple months. Now its turning brown and yellow and no more flowers. Its in the 80s and I only water when its dry… How am I killing my beautiful lavender? 🙁

Hello Christina, brown is usually lack of water but yellow is often a sign of overwatering… If the plant is in a pot and the pot itself in a pot holder, it’s really important to make sure that when you water, the pot doesn’t wallow in water inside the pot holder. If you’re careful to let it drain out fully before putting the pot back in the pot holder, then it probably isn’t a problem of overwatering. So it might be drying out for lack of water perhaps. Try watering it a bit more often, still smaller amounts. This is especially true for potted plants, they tend to dry out faster. It might be that the soil is too acidic. This happens if you use bark mulch or if there isn’t much lime in the soil. Compost will raise pH from acid towards neutral. Wood ash will even bring it into slightly alkaline range, which is good for lavender. To a point, it’s normal for the plant to stop blooming. After all, usually the blooming season for French Lavender is around two-three weeks, after that the flower panicles dry out over the next two months.

My french lavender is doing wonderful where I planted it. It has so many flowers n I wanted to use them so I cut them off. I work w herbs n dry them all the time when I when I tried to dry them they got sticky. That doesn’t happen w my mother
Lavender. Do u know why it does that? Thank u

Hi Charlene, that’s surprising. Do you think a disease or an insect was on them? Normally French lavender dries just like the other ones. It’s still spring so maybe they were really full of sap, possibly it rained before picking them? In this season you’d have to dry them by tying smaller clumps together not more than 10 or 15 to a cluster.

VANESSA ANN Merriman wrote on 30 November 2019 at 12 h 31 min
Mythia Sky Bergren wrote on 4 August 2019 at 20 h 54 min
Gaspard Lorthiois wrote on 6 August 2019 at 17 h 30 min

French lavender can take drought but not overwatering. Water only when the dirt around the plant is dry deep down, like a finger’s depth deep. If the ground drains well, water thoroughly. But if the soil retains water well (if you have mulch, for example), then only water a little, like a glassful of water, and wait until dry again.

Growing and Caring for French Lavender

Fanciers of French lavender love it for a lot more than its pleasant scent and dainty purple blossoms. Many are captivated by the distinctive serrated foliage that looks like it has been clipped with tiny pinking shears. Others appreciate its exceptionally long bloom time, with the flowers continuing for months on end, from early summer all the way until fall. And some value French lavender’s mounded shrub-like habit, which makes the plant versatile enough to be used as a fragrant, low-growing hedge.

Despite its many attributes, French lavender is very specific about its growing conditions and isn’t well-suited for some climates, particularly areas with cold winters. Here’s advice on what it takes to keep your French lavender healthy and brimming with blooms.

BASICS

Botanical name:

Lavandula dentata and hybrids

Note: French lavender was once classified as a sub-type of Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas), but is now considered to be a distinct species. However, Spanish lavender is still sometimes mislabeled as French lavender, so be sure to check the plant tag to make sure you’re buying L. dentata. Most commonly grown is gray French lavender (Lavandula dentata var. candicans) which is also a little tougher than the straight species.

Other common names:

Toothed lavender, fringed lavender

Plant type:

Zones:

Typically 8-11, although some varieties are hardy down to zone 7.

Native range:

Mediterranean region and the Arabian peninsula

Exposure:

Size:

1 to 3 feet tall and up to 5 feet wide

Bloom time:

Early summer to fall. May bloom year-round in climates where frost doesn’t occur.

Foliage:

Most French lavenders have narrow, grayish green, finely-toothed leaves, but there’s also a variety with white variegation. Foliage remains evergreen in warmer climates.

Flowers:

Lavender to deep blue-violet, tipped with pale purple bracts.

Special attributes:

• Heat and drought tolerant, making it ideal for waterwise landscapes
• Attracts bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects
• Deer and rabbit resistant
• Long bloom season
• Highly aromatic foliage, with an intoxicating rosemary-like scent

Toxicity:

All types of lavender contains a small amount of linalool, a compound that may be toxic to dogs and cats, according to the ASPCA, especially if ingested in large quantities.

PLANTING FRENCH LAVENDER

Photo by: Ro.Panaitescu / Shutterstock

When to plant:

In the spring after the soil has warmed up and the threat of frost has passed. May also be planted in the fall in areas with mild winters.

Where to plant:

This Mediterranean native requires sunny, hot, dry conditions to flourish. A climate with high temperatures, infrequent rainfall during the growing season, and low humidity is ideal. As with all lavender species, plant in a site that receives full sun (at least 6 hours daily). If not given ample sunlight, plants will bloom poorly, lack vigor, and be less fragrant.

Soil requirements:

Grows best in sandy, nutrient-poor, alkaline soil that provides excellent drainage. Avoid planting in heavy clay or in low spots prone to standing water.

How to plant:

It is generally easier to grow French lavender from nursery starts, since the seeds are small and tend to have a slow and erratic germination rate. To ensure good air circulation, space plants 2 to 3 feet apart, depending on their width at maturity. Water right after planting and continue to water every few days until plants become established. Because good drainage is essential, consider growing your plants in mounds, raised beds, or on slopes.

Growing in containers:

Compact varieties of French lavender (such as ‘Linda Ligon’) are perfect for growing in containers, which is a good option in areas where the plant isn’t hardy because you can move the pots indoors over winter. Be sure to plant in a high-quality, fast-draining potting mix in a container with multiple drainage holes, so your lavender won’t be sitting in standing water.

FRENCH LAVENDER CARE

French lavender foliage. Photo by: Edita Medeina / Shutterstock

Watering:

Established French lavender plants are extremely drought tolerant and only need to be watered during prolonged dry spells. To prevent root rot and fungal diseases, avoid overwatering and keep the leaves dry by watering at ground level or using drip irrigation. During the winter, when plants are dormant, no supplemental watering is needed.

Amendments and fertilizer:

Because French lavender is native to regions having sandy or rocky soils with low fertility, avoid using amendments that enrich the soil, such as compost or other organic matter. If you have dense clay soil, amend it with red lava rock or rice hulls to improve drainage. Also work some lime into the soil if it’s highly acidic (with a pH below 5.5). French lavender grows best in alkaline soils and won’t survive in soil that is too acidic. (Learn how to test the pH of your soil.)

Fertilizing French lavender is rarely necessary and may cause a surge in foliage growth at the expense of flower production. Plants will generally be more robust when grown in poor soil that is low in nutrients.

Pruning and deadheading:

The best time to prune French lavender is in early spring, which will stimulate new growth and increase flower production. You can also prune again in the fall, after the flowers have faded, to reshape the plant and promote denser, thicker growth. Because French lavender will not grow back from old wood, drastically cutting it down to its woody base can kill it, so be sure to make your pruning cuts just above new leaf growth. Throughout the flowering season, deadhead your plants regularly to encourage the development of new blooms.

Overwintering:

In climates where temperatures dip below zero degrees Fahrenheit, insulate your plants with a winter mulch of evergreen boughs, shredded leaves, or straw, especially if there’s a lack of snow cover. Proper soil drainage is also essential to plant survival in areas with cold, damp winters.

Propagation:

From seed or by stem cuttings taken from new growth in spring, before flower buds form.

Pests and diseases:

Few pest or disease problems, but is susceptible to root rot and powdery mildew, especially in damp, humid climates. Poor air circulation between plants and a lack of pruning can exacerbate the problem.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is French lavender a perennial?

French lavender is a perennial that will live for several years when grown under optimal conditions. However, it is not as long-lived as English lavender and typically has a lifespan of 4 to 5 years.

Is French lavender edible?

French lavender flowers are not suitable for human consumption. However, you can harvest the blooms for use as cut flowers or to add to potpourris and dried floral bouquets.

Will French lavender survive winter?

If the temperatures in your growing zone never drop below freezing, then you won’t need to take special measures to keep your French lavender alive during the winter months, as long as it is planted in well-draining soil. In areas of the country where French lavender isn’t hardy (Zone 7 and below), grow it as an annual or in a container that you can overwinter indoors.

How do French, Spanish, and English lavender differ?

Of the three common lavenders, the French variety is the only one with serrated leaves. It also is larger and longer blooming than its English and Spanish counterparts. Although French lavender fares better in hot climates, English lavender is the only species that will survive harsh freezing temperatures. Don’t confuse French lavender with fernleaf lavender (L. mutlifida), a similar species with more deeply lobed, fern-like foliage.

How do I grow French lavender indoors?

French lavender will do quite well growing in a container indoors if given at least four hours of direct sunlight daily, ideally from a south-facing window. Be sure to water sparingly throughout the winter months, while the plant is dormant, waiting until the top inch of soil feels dry to the touch. Never allow the roots to sit in standing water.