How to Grow Lavender From Seed in 7 Simple Steps

With its delicate sweet aroma and eye-catching purple spikes, lavender is one of the most coveted herbs on Earth. A close relative of rosemary and sage, lavender is a member of the Lamiaceae or mint family. It prefers hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters similar to its native Mediterranean climate, however, lavender can grow just about anywhere in the U.S.

This easygoing perennial is simple to tend once it’s established, however it has a reputation for being notoriously finicky to grow from seed. For this reason, lavender is most commonly propagated by cuttings. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to propagate from seed. In fact, with a little bit of patience and finesse, anyone can grow this aromatic herb from seed to a thriving floral garden shrub.

With these secrets for success, you can start dozens of lavender plants for very cheap. Let’s dig into the 7 simple steps to growing lavender with seeds, plus some pro tips to maximize your success!

Lavender Seeds vs. Cuttings

Like most herbaceous perennial herbs, lavender can be grown by seed or cuttings. While cuttings tend to be faster and more reliable, they require having a mother plant and lead to less genetic diversity. Cuttings are technically vegetative (asexual) clones of lavender, whereas seeds are sexually reproduced for more genetic diversity.

Professional growers prefer cuttings for their uniformity and ease of propagation. When you already have a mature lavender plant, clippings of the stems are easy to root and grow into new plants. However, home gardeners may prefer to grow from seed for four primary reasons: 

Just like garden vegetable seeds, lavender seeds require soil, water, light, and warmth to grow. The main reason most growers forego seed propagating lavender is due to their finicky germination rates and long time period until bloom.

Seeds need a special temperature treatment to break dormancy and ensure even germination. Most seeds germinate in about 14-30 days, but the sprouting rate can be uneven without cold stratification.

Cold stratification is essentially just exposing the seeds to cool temperatures that mimic the winter weather of their native climate. In doing so, it “primes” them to break out of their dormant stage and sprout up vigorously and evenly. Though intimidating for most people, this cold exposure process is actually quite straightforward (we’ll cover how to do it below).

When it comes to the time period before blooming, there is no getting around lavender seeds’ slow-growing nature. While cuttings can get established and flower as soon as the first season, lavender seeds take up to 2 years to bloom from the date of sowing. However, patience can pay off with more vigorous, diverse plantings that are extra resilient to pests and diseases.

Lavender Seeds	Lavender Cuttings
Best for intermediate and advanced growers	Best for beginners
3-4+ weeks to germinate	2-4 weeks to root
More finicky and lower success rate	Simpler and higher success rate
Require cold stratification	May require rooting hormone
Up to 2 years to bloom from sowing date	Flowers in the first season
More genetic diversity	Genetic clones
More varietal options (including heirlooms)	Limited to nursery varieties

As you can see, cuttings have several advantages for the impatient or beginner gardener. But don’t let that influence your choice, as growing from seeds can also be extremely satisfying and rewarding, especially for larger crop areas.

Tools Needed

Starting from seed requires the standard materials for seed propagation. If you’ve started seeds of any kind before, you may already have most of these on hand.

Just be sure that you opt for a super well-drained potting mix, as lavender seedlings are prone to rot and may not perform well in the standard dense seed starter mix often used for vegetables.

For Cold Stratification:

• Plastic bag
• Paper plate
• Moist paper towel
• Refrigerator

For Seeding:

• Seedling cell trays
• Well-drained seed starter mix
• Full sun: greenhouse, south-facing window, or grow lights
• Heating mat (optional)
• Humidity dome (optional)

Once you’ve gathered your materials, it’s time to get sowing!

7 Steps to Grow Lavender from Seed

Though growing lavender from seed is not complicated, it requires some patience and a bit of a learning curve. While most growers opt to produce lavender from cuttings, this route saves you a lot of money and opens the door to diverse varieties you otherwise may not be able to find.

Purchase Seeds From a Reliable Source

First, you’ll need to pick what variety of lavender you want to grow. Growing lavender gives you a much wider selection of lavender cultivars that may not otherwise be available as cuttings or potted plants.

Be sure you purchase lavender seeds from a reputable seed company to ensure there are no pathogens that may cause seed-borne diseases. You may also opt to collect seeds from a neighbor’s lavender plant. In this case, be sure that the flower spike has completely dried and matured the seed before you gather them.

Choose Direct Seeding or Indoor Sowing

Next, choose where you prefer to start your lavender seeds: in the garden or indoors?

Direct seeding in the garden is the most natural way to plant these seeds. If sown in the winter prior to your planting season, the seeds will naturally receive the cold exposure they would get when growing in the wild.

This cold period improves the chance of germination in the spring. However, directly sown lavender has a lower success rate due to the unpredictable weather and exposure to wind, water, and pests as tiny young seedlings.

Starting lavender indoors tends to be preferred for its higher probability of success. You can more reliably germinate lavender seeds in the controlled conditions of a window, greenhouse, or grow light setup. Whether you use cell trays or open flats, your seedling containers can be filled with a quick-draining seed starter mix and easily monitored for the 3 to 4 weeks they need to germinate.

Direct Seeding Lavender	Starting Lavender Indoors
Lower success rate	Higher success rate
Complete climate variability outdoors	More climate control
Grown in place, no transplanting needed	Grown in trays, transplanted after 10-12 weeks
More erratic germination	More even germination
Natural cold exposure to winter weather	Cold stratification in the refrigerator
Hands-off method	More attention required

How to Direct Seed Lavender

Contrary to popular belief, you can certainly direct seed lavender in your garden. After all, the abundant wild lavender meadows of Mediterranean slopes were proliferated by seeds flying in the wind and landing in the rocky soil to grow.

Direct seeding allows your lavender to establish in-place the way it would in nature. The main caveat, however, is a lack of control over the climate. Be sure to sow 50-60% more seeds than you need to account for unexpected losses or a lack of germination. Follow these steps when it comes to direct seeding.

1. Prepare for direct seeding in the late fall or early spring, depending on your climate.
2. A cold winter will naturally “stratify” the seed and signal it to break dormancy.
3. If needed, amend the soil with sand, fine gravel, or peat moss before planting.
4. Rake flat and mark off where you’d like the bushes to grow.
5. While they can technically be transplanted later, it’s best to sow in their permanent location.
6. Scatter seeds in perennial herb beds and barely cover with fine sandy soil.
7. Remember that lavender needs light to germinate and will not emerge if buried too deep.
8. Keep continuously moist with soaker hoses or overhead irrigation.
9. When seedlings emerge, thin to 2-3 feet apart in every direction.

The rest of this article will cover the steps for indoor sowing, which is the most common form of lavender seeding.

Cold Stratification: The Paper Plate Method

Cold stratification is just a fancy word for exposing seeds to a period of cold temperatures. This mimics the overwintering process that lavender seeds would undergo in nature.

Ideally, you should begin the cold stratification method in late winter so that your seeds are ready to sow 10-12 weeks before the last frost date. I love the paper plate method for its simplicity:

1. Simply scatter your lavender seeds on a moist paper towel atop a paper plate.
2. Make sure the paper towel isn’t soggy. Sprinkle the seeds so as to avoid clumps.
3. Place the whole plate in a sealed plastic bag and put it in the fridge for 30 to 40 days.
4. After 30 to 40 days, pull out the bagged plate of seeds out of the fridge.
5. Place it in direct sunlight in a window.
6. They should germinate on the moist paper towel in 7 to 14 days.

Alternatively, you can place a lightweight soil mix on the plate and scatter the seeds on top. However, it can be difficult to sort out the seeds for planting once they are mixed with soil. Either way, the bag needs to be sealed to protect the seeds from drying out. Keep the plate level so the seeds don’t spill.

While cold stratification is technically optional, it makes a massive difference for your lavender seeds. Without cold stratification, lavender may have only a 20 to 30% germination rate. That means a ton of your lavender seeds could completely go to waste! With stratification, however, lavender usually has a germination rate around 80 to 90%.

Prepare Seed Trays With Soil Mix

Starting lavender indoors is the preferred method of seeding because it is more reliable and climate controlled. It’s best to begin indoors around 10 to 12 weeks before the expected last frost date in the spring. This means

Anything previously used to start vegetable or herb seedlings will do. Begin by ensuring you have a seed starting setup with:

• Ample light (sunlight in a south-facing window or grow lights
• Air flow (low running fans)
• Warmth (room temperatures around 60-70°F).

You can choose any size seedling flat that suits you. I prefer to start at least 20 to 30 plants at a time to account for losses. Any extra you can give away! Fill seed starting trays or cell flats with a well-drained seed starter mix. Be sure not to overly tamper down or press the medium into the cells so it maintains plenty of drainage.

Sow Seeds Shallowly

Lavender seeds absolutely need light to germinate. It’s very important that they don’t get buried beneath too much soil.

If you cold stratify and germinated with the paper plate method, use a small spoon or trowel to gently move each sprout into a cell.

Otherwise, sow 1-2 lavender seeds per cell right on the surface of the soil. Lightly press them down so they don’t get dislodged with watering.

Barely dust the lavender with vermiculite, sand or soil. They require light to germinate, so it is important that you don’t allow them to be buried any deeper than ⅛”.

Place Seed Trays in a Warm, Sunny Space

Lavender seeds need to grow in a warm place with ambient temperatures between 60° and 70°F. You can add a heating mat set at 75°F beneath the seed trays to help promote quicker sprouting.

Ensure that there is plenty of light. A south-facing window or greenhouse nursery are ideal, but you can also hang LED grow lights from a shelf to create your own DIY seed starting set up.

The seeds will likely germinate in 2-4 weeks. But you should keep the soil consistently moist for at least 30 days. Don’t allow it to dry out, but also ensure it never gets soggy. Lavender seedlings can be prone to damping off and rotting in excessively moist conditions.

After 10-12 Weeks, Harden Off

Once the lavender seeds have sprouted and grown to fill out their cell trays, you can transplant them into larger pots just like you would with any other herb. Wait until after the last frost date to plant outside.

Be sure that you harden them off by placing them in a protected area for 1-2 weeks and easing them off water to prepare for the transition into the garden.

Frequently Asked Questions