How to grow lavender: When to plant it, if it can grow inside and how to take cuttings

Lavenders grow in any reasonable garden soil in full sun or very light shade that is not too soggy. They also take well to life in pots and tubs. Most are reasonably hardy even in colder regions, but French lavender is less hardy and needs a sheltered spot.

Use a free draining peat-free potting compost for pot grown ones, ideally loam based (John Innes) or at least with added John Innes compost.

Because lavender needs abundant light and air all year it makes a poor indoor plant, but it will survive in cool, bright conservatories. Gardeners who hanker after winter lavender can consider cutting and drying some flowers in summer for winter decoration.

Plant lavenders in spring – there is no need for manure or fertiliser – and although watering in the first few months is often needed, they can fend for themselves in the following years.

Lavenders flower in summer and can be pruned before flowering in mid-spring by clipping to remove frost-damaged or untidy growth. However, pruning after flowering is preferable, when the spent flower stalks are trimmed along with about a thumb-width of the green shoot.

Lavenders won’t regrow if old bare wood is pruned. When plants get old, straggly and gnarled with few flowers, replacement is necessary. Happily, lavender grows readily from cuttings, ideally taken in late summer, although early summer and autumn cuttings are often successful.

Choose healthy non-flowering shoots of the current season’s growth 7-10cm long in the morning while they are full of moisture, cutting just below a leaf joint or node with a very sharp knife or secateurs.

Fill medium-sized, 10cm diameter pots, with peat-free multipurpose potting compost with 50 per cent grit or perlite added.

Remove the lowest leaves, keeping only those on the top half of the cutting and insert the bare part of the stem into the cutting compost.

Water the container and cover with a white or a transparent plastic bag and secure. Leave in a warm, shaded, but not dark place. Once rooting has started, gradually loosen the plastic bag until finally removing it. Leave the cuttings to grow over winter and pot up in the spring.

Lavender also grows well from seed, home-saved or bought, sown in spring so the seedlings have all summer to develop before winter.

Lavender is free of significant pests and diseases. Spittle bugs are common but do no harm.

Please refrain from bringing cuttings or plants back from holiday as a very destructive bacterial plant disease called Xylella is found in some regions, but not yet in Britain.