What to Do With Your Lavender in June – 5 Easy Tasks Done Now Will Give You Fabulous Fragrance and Better Blooms
Lavender plants are blooming in June and filling gardens with wonderful scent. Keep plants happy and blooming with a few easy tasks.
June is an important time for lavender care. In many growing regions, this is when the fragrant herb starts to bloom. In warmer regions, your lavender should already be actively flowering. This means that maintenance is important for keeping your plants healthy and productive.
Growing lavender isn’t difficult, but it does require timely care, including these June tasks that will ensure healthy growth, continuous flowering, and a tidier appearance.
Let's dig in to the essential care tasks for your lavender plants in June.
1. Start Harvesting
This is one of the best summer chores for lavender. If your plants have begun flowering, you can start harvesting now. English lavender is in peak bloom in many regions in June, while other types are just getting going. Harvesting lavender now—and throughout the summer— allows you to enjoy the flowers and prevents plants from getting leggy.
Use sharp, clean shears or scissors to snip off entire stems in bloom. (Our editors swear by the Felco 2 pruning shears, which can be found on Amazon). Make the cut a few inches below the flower spike, but avoid cutting down to the woody part of the stem. Lavender plants won’t produce new growth from old wood.
Use your harvest as fresh cut stems for arrangements or let the flowers dry for use in potpourri or sachets, soaps and other beauty products, or culinary recipes.
2. Deadhead Spent Flowers
You probably don’t want to harvest all of your lavender flowers. The pretty, fragrant flower spikes that remain on plants are part of their appeal in garden beds and along walkways. However, it is important to deadhead these as they fade.
Deadheading lavender redirects energy away from seed production and back into the plant to keep it healthy and to promote strong growth next season. Depending on where you grow lavender, deadheading may also encourage a second flush of blooms this season.
Snip off flower stalks once they are totally spent and before they start producing seeds. Snip each stem just above the first set of healthy leaves. You can use any flowers that dried on the stalks as long as they haven’t begun to rot. They should still be fragrant.
3. Check Soil Moisture and Water as Needed
Lavender is generally a drought-tolerant plant. In fact, it can suffer if grown in soil that stays consistently moist and will not survive standing water for long. On the other hand, rising temperatures and dry spells in summer can be problematic for any plant.
Finding balance in the soil for lavender is key. Check the soil around your plants periodically. If there is too much moisture, you may need to improve drainage. If the soil is always dry due to weather conditions, water your lavender periodically. Use a moisture meter like this one from Amazon, or check the soil with your finger. Water when the first two inches (5 cm) or deeper is dry.
Use a soaker hose irrigation system to water deeply and avoid getting the leaves wet. Give the roots a good, deep soaking infrequently during dry periods without rain. Water more often for new and young plants to help them establish deep roots. Regardless of the age of the plant, less is always more when it comes to watering lavender.
4. Prune Lightly and Check for Problems
Lavender can get leggy and floppy during its active summer growing season. Pruning lavender can prevent or fix this issue, but keep it light. Save heavy pruning for later in summer or fall. Now is the time to tidy and gently shape your lavender plants to keep them looking shapely and healthy.
When you make pruning cuts on lavender, always keep at least an inch of green growth above the woody part of the stem. New growth rarely comes from the old wood on lavender plants, so if you cut too far, that stem might not recover.
You can double up this chore with another important one: checking for pests and disease. Lavender isn’t as susceptible to these as other plants, but it’s still worth being vigilant. Look for aphids, spittlebugs, root rot, and fungal diseases. Signs of issues include wilting or blackened stems, especially if the soil is moist, yellow foliage, and sticky residue on leaves. Remove diseased parts of the plant and use a spray of water or neem oil to manage minor pest infestations.
5. Manage Weeds and Airflow
Too much moisture is the most common killer of lavender plants. Water that gets trapped close to stems, on leaves, and in the soil can quickly lead to fungal diseases and rot. Manage the soil with appropriate watering.
To keep leaves and stems dry, take steps to ensure good airflow within and between plants. If your lavender plants have grown over the years to the point they crowd each other, do some light trimming to open up spaces between and within them.
It’s also important to keep up with weeds. Not only do they compete with plants for nutrients, but they also reduce airflow and trap moisture when they crowd your lavender plants. Pull weeds that are likely shooting up now that the weather is consistently warm.
June care for lavender plants is basic but essential. Start harvesting flowers, deadhead those that remain in place, prune lightly, water as needed, and keep on top of weeds, pests, and moisture to ensure ongoing healthy growth and a summer of delicate, aromatic lavender flowers.
