As many of you know this was a difficult year in the land of enchantment for lavender.  Because of the late freeze and the unpredictable temperature swing that happened in April many lavender plants were lost or severely damaged.  Lavender plants that were many years old and even young ones could  not handle the extreme temperature change that occurred in April.  If you remember, we had a heat wave for a week, then in a 24 hour period we had a cold front move in with cold winds and snow.  It is neither the cold nor the heat that hurts lavender, it is the extreme change of temperature.  As the plants began to wake up from the heat, fluid begins to go up into the plant, then when the cold front came in it dehydrated it leaving it to appear as if it had been freeze dried.  This is what damaged New Mexico lavender this year.

New Mexico has a perfect growing environment for lavender with the exception of the heavy drying winds and the temperature swings of April and May. 

Here at the Purple Adobe Lavender Farm we have been busy with research and trials on how to work with the unpredictability of mother nature during her spring fling, and how to protect our lavender and advise you our customers on what will help them get through this difficulty.  

We hosted a lavender symposium of lavender growers from New Mexico who brought their experience and ideas together on how best we can deal with these situations. 

If you experienced this with your lavender here are some of the ideas I feel are best......... 

Within the die back of the plant there is still life.  You can tell this by cutting back until you find green inside. Or you can just leave it and wait and see what the plant can do to heal itself.  Many of our plants that appeared to be damaged beyond help, we decided to just leave them alone to see what they might do themselves.  We wanted to see if they had their own way of dealing with the damage.  And to our very happy surprise a good percentage of them showed new growth and will fully recover by next year.  We were excited to say the least!

You can severly cut back the lavender being careful NOT to cut too far into the hard wood.  We did this to see during the heat of the summer if it would force new growth.  This worked on some but not all.  But the growth that did come in was very healthy, and may come back fully next year.

Take cuttings from the green tufts along the side, and root a new plant.  This option is a little more time consuming and may not be worth the effort.  But we have had success with this, and it did require a greenhouse.

Now.... if all that seems like too much.... seems like a grower job and not yours... you can cover your plant around December or January ( or even earlier if you want) until they wake up in May, after the last frost.  This will give them protection from the cold wind, and leave in a bit of heat that will help them resist the cold.  The product I would suggest is called row cover.   It is a white cover cloth that is thin in texture, allows light in, takes water in, and is able to breathe.  It will not hurt your plants, it will help them.  You can use 1.5 oz to 3 oz weight.  Cover your plant and use long u pins to hold down the cloth.  You can save your cloth from year to year reusing it for the following years.  In the long run it will save you money and frustration from plant loss.

Pruning your lavender is essential to maintain the lavender's health and strengthen its own immune system.  Click here to go to the pruning video. (it takes a few minutes to download) It is very easy and requires very little time and effort for the health and beauty your plant will give you in the coming year.

And.... you can always drop us an email if you have any questions that we might be able to help with, or stop by Santa Fe Farmer's Market.  We will be at Farmer's Market through the winter on Saturdays.  We plan to be inside for the winter market starting in November with our lavender products.  We hope to see you there.

Good Luck Lavender Lovers