I enjoy the fragrance of lavender in my container garden and they are easy to grow. But you need to take care of them so they don’t end up drooping.

Your lavender plant is drooping because it’s getting too much water. The overwatering causes stress to the lavender because it prefers dry conditions. It’s best to grow lavender plants in well-drained sandy soil so it does not retain moisture for long.

This article will give you further insight into how to properly care for your plant, what may be causing your lavender plant to droop, why this happens, how to prevent your lavender from turning into a droopy plant. So keep reading if you’d like to understand how lavender plants work.

Why Is My Lavender Plant Drooping?

Before starting to discuss why lavender plants droop, it is important to understand some of their characteristics, which will help understand how they work and how you can properly care for them.

Lavender can grow in various temperatures, ideally between 7°C and 21°C (45°F and 70°F). They require well-drained sandy soil, and if your soil is too compacted, you might want to consider adding some organic matter in order to improve draining. Excessive moisture can cause the root of the plant to rot.

Lavender needs bright sunlight in order to grow adequately. Even though they’re drought resistant, they will need to be watered more often while they are first established. Lavender is best planted in the spring when the soil begins warming up.

In the winter, lavender plants will need extra care. As the temperature drops, it’ll be harder for the plant to stay alive. You might want to consider creating protection around your plants or keeping them in a pot so that in the winter, you can freely move them inside.

Just make sure to keep them in areas that receive abundant amounts of sunlight and that you don’t water them too regularly as they won’t need to be watered as often.

Overwatering

It is not uncommon to mistake an overwatered plant for an underwatered plant. The foliage of overwatered lavender plants tends to turn brown or yellow, giving it the appearance of an underwatered plant.

If you water your plant too often, it will begin to droop. As mentioned before, they are drought-resistant plants, meaning that these plants are very easy to overwater. They don’t need to be watered as much as you’d think.

Moisture-Retaining Soil

Planting lavender in a moisture-retaining soil, such as clay that will maintain the soil’s dampness is not such a good idea.

Why?

Because excessive moisture will cause the lavender plant to droop, lavender needs a porous soil, in which the water quickly drains. Excessive moisture might also damage the roots and possibly cause them to rot.

Fertile Soil

Lavender, as a plant that favors sandy soils, requires soil with a low nutrient count. Therefore, if you’re adding fertilizer to the soil or planting it in soil that might be too fertile, the plant will promote foliage growth; therefore, it will produce fewer flowers, and the plant itself will have a droopy appearance.

How to Prevent Lavender Plants From Drooping

It is easy for a lavender plant to droop, so it is important to be aware of how you can prevent this from happening and keep your garden looking beautiful without having to worry about the issue.

Here are some helpful tips that might help you solve your problems with droopy lavender plants:

Stop Watering Your Lavender Plant So Often

As mentioned before, overwatering is probably the reason why your plant is droopy, so try to reduce the number of times you’re watering it.

These are very drought-resistant plants. The only time they need to be watered more frequently is when they have been just moved or transplanted and need to be established. Depending on the weather, they might even go as long as two weeks without needing to be watered.

According to the Garden Report, English lavender species can be kept outside during the winter because they are more tolerable to cold weather, so they might not need to be watered for the entire season. This is because since the temperature tends to drop, so does the evaporation rate, meaning there is more rainfall, which is enough for them to survive these months.

On the other hand, Spanish, French, and Italian lavender species cannot handle the cold in the same way as English lavender species do. So they might have to be moved inside or planted only in the warmer months. Check the labels when you buy the plants to know what they can and can’t tolerate.

Let the Soil Dry

Not only should you tone down on watering your lavender plant, but you should also allow the soil to dry in between periods of watering. This is essential because it gives the roots time to dry properly, preventing them from being damaged, from rooting and preventing the plant from drooping.

Transplant the Lavender

If the soil in which you planted your lavender plant is still too moist even though you’ve slowed down your watering rate, maybe the issue has to do with the soil’s drainage. If this seems to be the issue, you might have to consider transplanting your lavender plant. Move it to a sort of soil that will be more suitable for the plan, like sand, for example, or you can resort to a mix of both soil and sand.

Plant It in a Container

According to the RHS, a great way to prevent lavender from getting too much water and to prevent the roots from rotting is to grow your lavender plants in a container. In order to grow lavender in a container, the first thing you need to do is pick and choose the right one. This means a container with a good amount of drainage holes. If you intend to use a saucer, make sure it’s not attached to the bottom.

You should place the container somewhere where it’ll be exposed to the sun for at least 8 hours a day and water them sparingly and follow all of the steps above.

Don’t Fertilize the Plant

Lavender plants prefer soil that is low on nutrients. If you think your soil is too fertile for the plants, you can remove the lavender from where it is planted. Then, you can mix it with some sand, seeing as sand is naturally low on nutrients. Finally, you just have to replant it. This way, the lavender will grow and thrive in an appropriate spot for its needs, and this process won’t allow it to droop.

Though it may seem like it’s complicated to keep your lavender plant from drooping, it all comes down to the type of soil you use and the characteristics it has, as well as how often you water the plant and if you give the plant and its roots enough time to dry

Conclusion

Usually, too much water and moisture in the soil is the number one reason for a lavender plant to be droopy; however, this can be caused by various factors such as drainage issues, over fertile soil, and moisture-retaining soils.

The best way to help your lavender plant if it’s droopy is to make sure you know what caused the problem, this way you know steps to follow and can solve the issue and help the plant before it dies.


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