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Is My Lavender Plan Alright?Feb 12, 2009 - I've had a couple of people ask me about this lately, so I thought you might be wondering too. Lavender plants are woody shrubs and they go dormant in the winter. My lavender field looks like row after row of hedgehogs right now. The plants look pretty bare and twiggy, but if you look closely down then stems, you will see tiny sets of leaves. There are many species of lavender, but the three most commonly grown in the Pacific Northwest are L. angustifolia, L. x intermedia and L. stoecha. Both the angustifolia and intermedia species are generally believed to be hardy to about zero degrees fahrenheit. The stoecha species is a bit more tender, but still should be hardy to about twenty degrees fahrenheit. So most of them are going to do just fine through Northwest winters. In past winters, I have lost a few smaller stoecha plants when it has been cold for a long stretch of time. This winter has been cold, but I'll know more when the plants start showing new growth. Here in Sequim, that is usually around the beginning of March. So, don't start tearing anything out yet. Give the plants sometime to respond to the warm spring weather that will, hopefully, get here soon. |