Lots of people grow lavender in their gardens because of its wonderfully strong smelling flowers, the fact that bees and butterflies love it, and how you can use it in things like scented bags, flower arrangements, homemade soap, and even cooking. However, a surprising number of gardeners who do manage to grow lavender don’t quite get the hang of when to pick it similar to confusion around what days to maturity really means and this impacts how lovely the smell and look of the dried flowers are. If you harvest before they’re ready, the buds will be a light colour and won’t have much of the oil that makes lavender special. Leave it too long, and the flowers fall apart, losing all their petals while they are drying.

The Ideal Harvest Lavender Window

You’ll get the best lavender harvest when about half to two-thirds of the flowers on a stem are actually open, and the rest are still in tight buds. That’s when the flowers have the most essential oil. To keep the best smell, harvest in the morning, once the dew is gone but before it gets really hot. Environmental factors like heat can reduce oil content, similar to how extreme summer heat damages garden plants. Open flowers are busily making fragrant substances at this time, and those unopened buds have a lot of concentrated oil that’s still locked inside. To keep the best smell, harvest in the morning, once the dew is gone but before it gets really hot and the sun starts to evaporate the oil into the air. Exactly when to do this depends on your climate and the type of lavender, but English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is usually ready for picking in early or middle of summer.

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How to Cut Lavender Correctly

With nice, clean, sharp pruning shears or garden scissors, cut quite a lot of lavender stems at once, removing around a third of the plant’s height. Make each snip just above where the leaves grow in pairs on the stem (a leaf node) and this will get the plant to spread and make even more stems for flowers later in the year. To keep things tidy and easy to handle, collect the stems into groups of fifty to a hundred, and tie them with a rubber band. The stems will get smaller as they dry, and the rubber band will get tighter around them.

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Key Takeaway

You’ll get the most essential oil and the best smelling dried lavender if you pick it when about half to two-thirds of the flowers are actually open. Do this in the morning, but wait until the dew has gone. Trimming the stems just above where the leaves grow will get you another flowering. To keep the color and smell, hang bunches of lavender upside down to dry in a warm place that’s not in the light. Lavender buds that are dried and kept in good condition will smell lovely for a year or possibly two.