How Often to Water Lavender? Tips to Keep Lavender Beautiful

If you want to beautify your home with natural elements, then you’ll love growing lavender around your house. They’re one of the most common types of flowers people use to adorn their homes and gardens. The beautiful colors of lavender, along with their fantastic fragrance, will completely change the ambiance of your surroundings. Apart from their soothing smell and gorgeous look, these flowers can also provide a wide variety of medicinal benefits. 

Since they require minimum maintenance, you can easily grow them in pots or backyard gardens. But before you start growing lavender, it’s important that you know some basic facts about these amazing flowers. You also need to know things like how often to water lavender or what kind of environment they need to thrive. So, here’re some essential tips for watering lavender that’ll help you keep them fresh and beautiful every day. 

Watering Lavender in Pots

Lavender plants are drought-tolerant. That’s why they don’t need much water to survive. So, the lavender in your garden won’t require additional water as they collect all their nutrients from the soil. But if you plant lavender in pots or containers, you need to manually water them on a regular basis. The reason behind it is that the soil in the pots is very dry. So it won’t be enough for the flowering plant to collect all its necessary nutrients from only the soil. That’s why you need to pay extra attention while watering the flowering plants in pots.   

How Often to Water Lavender in Pots 

When it comes to watering potted lavender, you have to understand that they demand more water than other plants. For this reason, you should water your potted lavender every two weeks. You can change the frequency based on the weather as well. For instance, you can water your lavender once or twice a week in dry weather. You can also reduce the frequency of watering in the rainy seasons if you think the plant’s getting water naturally from the rain. 

When watering lavender, you have to be generous and make sure that the water reaches the roots of the plants. How much you should water lavender also depends on things like where your lavender is located and how much sunlight it’s getting. But you must be very careful about not over-watering the lavender and letting the water drain properly from the pot.

The frequency of watering lavender can also change depending on whether the plant is situated indoors or outdoors. 

Watering Lavender in Winter 

For outdoor lavender plants, you don’t need to water them during the winter or autumn seasons. If it rains once or twice, that will be sufficient for these types of flowering plants. To adjust to the dry environment, their growth will also slow down during this time. 

But for indoor plants, the requirement is different. Since indoor plants don’t receive rainwater, it’s important you water them even during the winter. In terms of frequency, it’s advised to water the indoor plants once a month. 

Watering Lavender in Summer

How often to water lavender in summer is a frequently asked question. The answer also depends on where it’s located. The temperature creates a massive difference in how much water is needed for outdoor plants. If your area has high temperatures, and the soil becomes very dry in the summer, your lavender might need daily watering. But if your area has a moderate temperature and occasional rain even during the summer, you might need to water them once or twice a week. 

Indoor plants also require some additional water during summer. If your home temperature is higher, you should also increase the frequency as well. If your indoor plants have high exposure to sunlight, they also need a higher amount of water.

Factors of Watering Lavender Plants 

To understand how often to water lavender, you must consider some crucial factors that heavily dictate how much water these plants need. These factors are as follows:

Potting Soil 

For a fresh and beautiful lavender plant, it’s not recommended to use potting soil. Potting soil has the capacity to hold water which is not ideal for these types of plants. These kinds of soil can cause rotting and several other issues that can significantly damage the plant. While choosing the soil, you have to make sure the soil has the ability to drain the water properly. To increase the draining capacity, you can add elements like sand, gravel, or even stones to the potting soil. 

Humidity 

Humidity can also change the watering frequency of lavender. A high level of humidity can allow the lavender to take water from the air. So if you live in a tropical country or a highly humid area, you have to apply less water to the plants. If you don’t control the watering frequency in more humid areas, you might run the risk of overwatering your plants. Besides, lavender usually doesn’t thrive in highly humid areas. So, you should always keep these plants in a dry environment. 

Sunlight Intensity 

Exposure to bright sunlight is the perfect thing your lavender needs to bloom nicely. They collect most of their necessary nutrients from direct sunlight. If you keep these flowers in areas where they don’t get proper sunlight, it will significantly affect their growth. But too much sunlight can also burn these flowers. So the intensity of the sunlight can affect the frequency of watering as well. If you keep the flowers under intense sunlight, you also need to water them more frequently. 

Container size

Container size is also an important factor that determines how frequently lavender needs water. Many of us like to plant lavenders in small pots because they have more aesthetic value. But sometimes, small containers are not ideal for different types of lavender.  They contain less amount of soil, and as a result, they become dry pretty fast. That’s why you need to water small potted flowers more frequently. So it’s important that you consider the size of the container when planting lavender in a pot. 

Water Requirements of Lavender

If you keep your lavender outdoors, it’s recommended to use one gallon of water for each fully-grown plant. But there is no hard and fast rule on how much water is required for each plant. It all depends on the climate and the nature of the soil. If you plant lavender in your garden, make sure the garden has a good drainage system. In this way, the plants can get the perfect amount of water. When it comes to indoor plants, keep watering the lavender until the water starts to drain from the button holes of the pot. Thus, you can ensure that the water has reached the roots. 

Watering Newly Planted Lavender

Newly planted lavender needs some special care from you, especially in terms of watering. Usually, newly planted lavender needs more water than a fully-grown plant. It’s because the roots of the newly planted lavender takes some time to adjust to the new environment. Additional water will allow the roots to settle more quickly and smoothly. Right after planting the lavender, you should water the plant once every two or three days. Repeat the process for a week, and after that, you can reduce the frequency by watering the plant once every four days. After two weeks, you can water the plant once a week until it’s fully grown. 

How Do You Know When to Water Lavender?

Compared to other plants, lavender usually doesn’t require much water. However, they need water to look beautiful and fresh, just like any other plant. So how can you understand when your lavender needs water? Well, there are some common indications that can help you with that, including: 

• The leaves of the plant will start to droop down and wilt.
• The stems of the lavender plant will turn gray or brown 
• The soil of the pot will become very dry, and the soil level will drop.

If you observe any of these indications in your plants, you’ll have to realize that they need water immediately to stay alive. 

For Further Reading

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• Russian Sage vs Lavender
• Does Lavender Grow Back Every Year?
• Growing Lavender from Seeds
• Spanish Lavender: A Complete Growing and Caring Guide
• Lavender Companion Plants

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What Happens if You Overwater Lavender? 

One of the biggest threats to lavender plants is overwatering. Lavender is usually comfortable in dry environments. When you apply too much water, it can cause fungal infections in the roots of the plants. This disease is called “Root Rot” which is deadly for these types of plants. Many people don’t know about this disease and apply an excessive amount of water to the plants. As a result, the leaves will start to become yellow and fall off easily. These are the signs that indicate that your plants might be overwatered. The poor drainage system of the pot can also cause a lavender plant to die. So you must be careful about not applying too much water, which can lead to these issues. 

How to Avoid Overwatering Lavender?

Understanding how to avoid overwatering lavender is just as important as learning how often to water lavender. To avoid overwatering, you can take the following measures: 

• A pot or container with a good drainage system is very important in avoiding overwatering. The pot must have holes that allow the excess water to flow.
• You must keep the lavender plants under direct sunlight regularly. It can reduce overwatering by drying out excess water. 
• Don’t water a regular lavender plant more than 2 times a week. In case of heavy rainfall, avoid watering the plants if you keep them outside. 

Further Watering Suggestions 

If you planted lavender in your garden, it’s a good idea to use mulch in hot weather. This will allow the soil to keep its moisture and prevent it from drying out. Besides, you should be very careful about what type of soil you choose for these types of plants. It’s best if you use soil with a minimum amount of compost. When it comes to choosing pots or containers, you should remember that a terracotta container is the best for lavender. 

Final Thoughts on How Often to Water Lavender

Lavender is one of the most gorgeous-looking flowers that can uplift your mood. Although they’re resistant to drought, you still need to know how often to water lavender properly to keep them refreshed and beautiful. By following the above-mentioned tips, you can take proper care of your favorite lavender and avoid unwanted overwatering.