When to plant??

Hi all0)

I am new to this site and in need of your help. I have bought some Lavender Munstead for the garden and they have arrived as plugs. I know i have to grow them on for a month or so but what i need to know is when is it safe to plant out. A gardening book states that i can plant Lavender out in Autumn but the instuctions that came with the plants says to wait until the final frost. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

If they are tiny then unless you have really good soil I would be inclined to pot them up (3" or 9cm pots) and mollycoddle them until the Spring. if you have an unheated conservatory, greenhouse or cold-frame that should be fine. A windowsill indoors is probably going to be too warm and not have enough light (for that temperature) through the Winter.

Otherwise I fear you may lose some through the winter if the plants are tiny.

Others may have different views though

 

As Kristen says, if they are tiny, do as he suggests. Lavender is hardy, but very small plants all need some TLC at this time of year.

If they're larger I would be inclined to plant them out, as I like to get stuff planted in autumn when the soil is still warm. But only if they are big enough to fend for themselves!

 

Here's a link to some Lavender Plug plants I raised a couple of years ago. This was in the Spring, so a bit easier to tend for in pots, and then they were planted out that Autumn, but if yours are this small then they need to be in pots for the Winter, not outside I reckon.

http://kgarden.wordpress.com/projects/shrubbery/#19Apr08

Sorry, couldn't find any pictures of how they looked a year later, but they are full-size now, two years later :thumb:

 

Ok, they're small! Any Lavender plants I've bought have been bigger than those.

Out of curiosity, do they really only take two years until fully grown? I've taken Lavender cuttings and they took a lot longer to 'bush up' to anything resembling a decent plant.

 

The ones I've got are a small-ish / dwarf variety. I reckon they were raised by tissue culture and were a very good quality, and uniform (hence I think tissue culture) set of plants. I grew them in the conservatory for the first year, so they were pretty pampered, which may have helped, but when they flowered the second season they looked like reasonably decent sized plants.