Lavender

Abot Lavender

Life with lavender brightens even the darkest days. In the fancy scientific world, it is recognized as Lavandula angustifolia. This versatile bloom exclusively belongs to the mint family, Lamiaceae, but its aroma and taste have a whole new saga. The name of the flower signifies its luxuriously elegant color.

Lavender is a small herbaceous perennial that comprehensively includes grey-green leaves and long lilac or lavender-colored flowering shoots. The leaves can attain the pinnate shape or be simple measuring 1 to 2 inches. Its flower can be seen on shoots or spikes and can reach a height of about 1-3 feet.

They serve exquisitely both in culinary and medicinal disciplines. They are utilized to address a lot of disorders such as insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, depression, acne, and so forth. It is also hailed to promote hair growth. Also, it fights fungal infections, normalizes blood pressure and rate heart rate and deals with a plethora of skin diseases.

The principle active ingredients that account for the potency of lavender are a-pinene, limonene, 1,8-cineole, cis-ocimene, trans-ocimene, 3-octanone, camphor, linalool, linalyl acetate, caryophyllene, terpinen-4-ol, and lavendulyl acetate. These compounds have all the secret recipes that alleviate the nuisance of your life.

From managing inflammation to healing burns, making lavender sugar to flavoring desserts, this royal herb is appraised all around the globe and deserves to slip into your routine.

Growing

The Victorian beloved needs spring for the best plantation. It can be planted in fall but the chances of survival are quite less in winter. The arid regions and full sun exposure stimulate their better growth.

Lavender does not admire moist and wet areas so better opt for either a heavy clay soil that supports a well-drainage system or compost the soil. To ensure more drainage, try adding some soil and gravels to the soil, it will bring wonders to your lavender in much-hated winters.

It does not demand any fancy soil. Instead, it flourishes even in the moderately fertile or poor soil.

Indoor plantation does not support the growth of lavenders in the northern climate. It should be planted outdoor in springtime before the last frost dates which to acclimatize the plant for the winters.

On the contrary, in regions of harsh winters and high humidity, a containerized plant will do well so that you can easily bring them inside at the onset of winter.

Harvest

The sown seeds of lavender germinate slowly. They can germinate in as little as 14 days or as long as 2 months. Excessive sunlight and watering the plant to a smaller extent bring wonders to its health.

In summer, flowering occurs. The flowers bear both stamen and pistil. This elite herb is either pollinated by bare hands or insects. In hand-pollination, an anther bearing pollen grains is touched on the surface of stigma to bring about pollination. The hand-pollination process is recognized as self-pollination because both the organs that participated in pollination belong to the same plant.

After fertilization, small nutlet fruits take birth. The fruits bear seeds that are utilized for further repetition of above-mentioned events.

Lavender flowers are harvested in July as they are approximately half to three quarters bloomed. It has also been noted that flowers are liable to produce the maximum amount of oil at this godly hour of their lives so keep your shears ready.

The flowers of the lavender plant are supremely important because they are the ones that are employed readily in various culinary and medicinal disciplines.

The stalks of the flowers are harvested to be used fresh or dried. Even if you do not want to harvest the flowers, just prune when your sight lands on a fading flower to trigger the growth of new ones.

To stimulate the growth of new foliage and flowers, cut the woody stems by one third.

To preserve the compounds and its expensive scent, dry the flowers. The processing of drying can stretch up to 2 weeks so, be patient. For further conservation of its fragrance, store them in airtight container or zip-lock bags in a dark, dry and cool place.

Usage

We all adore the benefits that come with lavender and don’t leave a chance of adding it to our routine.

Tincture - Either dried or fresh, both forms of lavender flower can be utilized to macerate in grain alcohol at least 6 weeks with intermittent agitation. The strained liquid serves as a lavender tincture.
Tea - Dried lavender leaves are soaked in steaming water for 10 to 15 minutes. To spark the flavor, peppermint leaves and honey can also be added.
Decoction - Dried lavender flowers are boiled with water to form its decoction.
Salve - Lavender essential oil or dried flowers are blended with different oils and beeswax to form salve.
Syrup - dried or fresh lavender flowers are added in the mixture of water and white sugar to make lavender syrup.
Infused oil - Dried or fresh lavender flowers are infused with either coconut or olive oil for 3 weeks to enjoy the perks of lavender oil.