lavender basket

Does French lavender survive in your climate? Because mine died with first frosts.

awk! dunno, never tried growing it before! Love lavender, wanted to get one of each variety, to find out wht the differences were, this was the only variety Lidl had.

I'm in East London, and my flat's on an internal wing of a block, so not exactly exposed to the full force of the elements - apart from anything coming down from the sky, tht is. but as I have to have evrything in pots and containers, that does make plants a bit more vulnerable to temperature extremes

Hope I don't find out for some time how frost-resistant these are! which region re you in?

I live in central Europe, in Slovakia.

ah, right, completely different weather in the middle of a continent; colder, for one thing! could you overwinter plants in a small greenhouse or something?

I had my spider plants outside, because there was nowhere to put them indoors. We had unexpected snow and i forgot to check outside for a day or two (nnot used to having a garden) and they weren't at all happy. I shoved them into a plastic mini-greenhouse and crossed my fingers. four of them survived, and are now indoors, even though I still don't have room for them - I'm having to eat from a tray on my lap because they're on the dining table.

Amazon do them cheaply, and probablyeBay would as well.

I am not sure, what helped more, if plastic greenhouse or crossing your fingers, lol.
You know, it is interesting, we have for sure drier climate then isles. On the other side, to my surprise, I have 5-year old olive tree, which I push just behind the door of my garage each winter (December-March) and it perfectly grows and last year I had first olives. However, French lavender is very sensitive to changes of weather and even needs regular watering in contrary to classic lavender.

shows how much I know, I thought lavender was lavender! sigh, got some reading up to do. Given the weather we've had around here lately, watering is no problem. I need to repot all of them, they're a bit snug in the pots I bought them in: I intend to put wicks in the botom of all my plant pots that aren't self-watering, and stand them all on gravel with water underneath, so that I only need to fill the main "reservoir" and they can help themselves.

Coastal places are generally wetter than inland, and I think that most of the UK counts as fairly "coastal"; I read somewhere that one cn't get further than a hundred miles or so from the sea anywhwere in the UK -

I should imagine that your weather is less changeable, being in the middle of a landmass - your summres would be hotter and drier, your winters would be colder and wetter? I'm totally guessing, I really need to go back to school but this time learn something useful!

I'd never think of trying to grow olives here; I suppose it's do-able, but I always think of Mediterranean climate for them. I always save fruit pips and seeds and hava a go at growing them, even melon seeds (tiny plants lasted about three weeks then fell over) but I don't eat olives so I've no incentive to try them.

ps just Googled: it's actually 71 miles.

pps - just done a check; my first port of call is usually the BBC Gardening Plant-Finder, a huge site. It says:

"An attractive and unusual lavender from hot, dry Mediterranean regions, and best grown in a warm position, sheltered from cold winds and frost. It is not fully hardy, but survives well in a sunny corner or against a warm wall, and makes an excellent container plant that can be brought under cover in winter. It has been cultivated for more than 400 years, and a favourite both for its intense fragrance and also the short dense flower spikes topped with a flourish of conspicuous rich violet bracts, rather like a set of extravagant ears. The Royal Horticultural Society has given it its Award of Garden Merit (AGM)."

heck, where am I going to overwinter eight of them? I'm going to have to get another mini-greenhouse - and cross my toes as well as my fingers!

the page link is
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/466.shtml - that'll lead to the rest of the site, which might be useful for general reference if nothing else: that's mostly what I use it for.

You see? I told you!

lol indeed, sigh, I should read up *before* I buy plants, but, oh, well, got it now. and, fingers crossed again, got a few months before i have to worry about putting them under cover

My huge French Lavender survived on my patio, Fran, last winter. That is not to say it will survive another one like that. I lost my lovely big perlargoniums last winter . After them surviving for years under fleece. Older ones bloom earlier and grow larger/more flowers, if fussed a little. It's all a bit of a lottery really. My mini greenhouse made no difference one way or the other this last winter. My Olive tree also survived outside but under an open canopy. I think it's getting Bonzaied now as its been in same pot about 5-6 years. Gets dumped in the butt bucket, up to its top for watering....loves it. Surprising what can be protected from frost if the will to fuss plants a little is there.

That's sort of encouraging, Dorjac, as far as the lavender goes, anyway. Shame about the pelargoniums - it does seem to be a bit of a lottery what will survive. I don't think that any of my plants is more than a year old, so they probably count as babies, or toddlers at the most; they won't have the resistance that "adult" plants have acquired.

I had to repot all my lavenders; I checked the soil a while ago and it was dry in all th epots, even after four days of almost constant rain! They were still in the pots that I'd bought them in, and I thought that either the soil was too compacted to allow water to soak in or the plants were just so big and so dense that water didn't get the chance to reach the soil at all.

I wondered if the plants could be split, and tried it [gingerly] with one; if both parts of that survive then I'll try some more - not that I really want more plants, but I have a lot more smaller pots than bigger ones - the only pots I have bigger than the ones they're in ow are more planters than pots and I don't have too many of them, or indeed room for too many. Besides, smaller pots will be easier to arrange if they have to be covered.

The standard mini-greenhouses only keep snow off, I think, they don't keep the cold out. I bought some sheets of thermal lining but I might protect each plant individually if needed, or at least a tray of them. As usual with something totally new, I'll have to wing it and see what happens - and then try to remember for next year!

Do you have pictures of your olive? I checked your photos [or at least I checked the tags on your photos! it'll take me a while to work though all your pics]

I'm never sure about fussing plants. I probably do a lot of it by accident, but I try to leave 'em alone if they look all right. I'm trying to develop an attitude of "benign neglect" as much as possible - I've certainly killed more plants with kindness than I have by anything else.

I suppose I 'fuss' a bit because I have apples and pears on limiting root stock in the border with loads of other plants. They need pruning twice a year, thinning out, grease banding. Even then they can be very temperamental. A lot of gardening is knowledgable fussing I suppose. If something self seeds in a clever place though I leave it there to do it's thing. That's benign neglect....see my Corydalis blog Fran

thanks, Dorjac, I'll check it out - lol the art of gardening is knowing when to step in and when to take a step back!

I've got lists of "maybe" plants; one of the criteria I look for is "low maintenance"; even better is "not neccessary" under "pruning"!