Drying Lavender

The lavender is blooming now, so it’s time to start drying it – I love having it around for sachets and crafts.  It’s well known for its insect repellant properties and we love the fragrance.

There’s really nothing difficult about drying lavender - simply gather the flowering stems just as the flowers start to open and hang in small bunches to dry.  When cutting the stems, be sure to leave a few inches of green growth on the plant – don’t go all the way down to the woody portion of the stem.  When you’ve cut enough blossoms to fill your hand, wrap a rubber band around the bottom of the bundle, straighten a paperclip, and use it as a hook to hang the lavender bundle upside down in a dry, dark place.  The dark helps the lavender retain its color, and drying it upside down helps the lavender retain its bloom shape.

The lavender should dry for about a week or until there is no moisture in the stems at the center of the bundle.  Once dry, the lavender can be used for dried floral bouquets, sachets, culinary purposes, or crafts.  The color of dried lavender flowers in bouquets will begin to fade after about a year of exposure to sunlight, but the fragrance remains so they can still be used for sachets.  In the photo to the left, the bundle in the middle has just been harvested for drying while the bundle on the right is about a year old and ready to turn into sachets like those on the left.

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