The Best How To Guide To Propagate Lavender From Cuttings

The most amazing this about plants is that you can take a cutting of them and propagate it to a new little plant with the same DNA as the plant you cut it from. To propagate lavender you only need 3 things, soil, rooting hormone, and a cutting of lavender.

True to Variety

The only way that you can know what type of lavender you are planting is by taking a cutting from a known variety of the plant. You can plant lavender from seed but then you get all different unknown varieties. This doesn’t work if you are selling your lavender and need to know its properties either for oil, culinary or even selling plants. People want to know what they are getting.

Rooting Hormone

The best way to propagate lavender is to take 2-3 inch cuttings and root them with a rooting hormone. You can do this by natural methods such as willow bark tea, watered down vinegar, cinnamon, potatoes; or you can by a rooting powder.

I’ve tried all the different rooting techniques several times to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke that it worked or didn’t work. The results varied. And my research (testing all the methods I found) taught me that rooting hormone was the easiest way to go with the best results.

Willow bark works well but takes preparation, Vinegar works but is touchy (too hard to get the perfect amount of acidity), Neither Cinnamon nor Potatoes did anything special, in fact most of my propagations with cinnamon and potatoes failed.

I just like the simplicity of the rooting powder.

Steps to Propagate Lavender

Step One

To propagate lavender start by taking 2-3 inch cuttings of your favorite lavender plant. Choose your cuttings from down in the woody section where the plant is well established.

Step Two

Remove the leaves from the bottom inch of the stem.

Step Three

Dip the base of the stem in rooting hormone

Step Four & Five:

Put the cutting in moistened potting soil and cover it with a clear dome like a mini green house. I use the Gardenz Propagation starter kit with clear dome but you could use a milk carton or anything with a clear plastic container.

Keep the cuttings well watered and in the sun.

After a few weeks you should have roots on your propagate lavender. These plants are still really tender so take car when you transfer them to the outdoors. You want it to be warm but not too late in the growing season. They need all the time they can get to grow big healthy roots.

You’ll have healthy beautiful plants in no time. You can use this propagation method on almost any perennial.

What are your favorite plants to propagate? Do you have a method that works best for you? Share your success with us.