Hanging a lavender wreath around the garden could be just the aromatherapy needed to help decompress after a long day, or perhaps it will just make you smile. Regardless, this lavender wreath is a quick weekend project that will leave you calm enough for an afternoon read or a good night’s sleep.
In order to keep your lavender plants neat and tidy, it’s important to prune them. Two prunes per season works best—once at the beginning of summer and then once again in August.
The great thing about pruning back your lavender plants is that you can harvest lavender to use in a myriad of ways! One of my faves is to make it into pretty, fragrant wreaths. The fresh flowers dry on the wreath, and it looks so decorative.
Be sure to read my Essential Guide to Growing Lavender for information on caring for, pruning, and harvesting lavender.
This year, I made a miniature 6″ wreath using “Thumbelina Leigh” English Lavender plants, which are planted in my kitchen garden. The plants are quite small, but they produce more than enough flowers to keep me in lavender all summer long (and then some).
Here’s what you need to know about making your own dried lavender wreath!
Harvesting Lavender for Your Wreath
When harvesting lavender, it’s best to pick it at the budding stage, after the flower bugs turn purple but before they open into flowers. The stems will hold the colour for the longest if they are harvested in the bud.
The image below shows the three stages of lavender flowers: budding, flowering, and after flowering. In reality, I try and cut the flowers when they are budding, but in practice, I usually get a mixture of buds and flowers, and a few early bloomers that are starting to die back.
It’s hard to perfect the timing, but it’s even harder to take all that lovely lavender away from the bees! I like to let my lavender flower a bit for the bees to enjoy and then add it to a wreath when it has some buds and some open flowers.
It looks lovely and gives me (and the pollinators) more time to relish it in the garden. The open flowers will eventually fall off, but what’s left behind is still attractive and aromatic.
If you are crafting with lavender at home for personal use, don’t worry too much. Leave that to the lavender farms. No matter when you harvest it, it will make a lovely wreath with a heavenly perfume.
How to Make a Lavender Wreath
The process for making this lavender wreath is very similar to my other wreaths. Perhaps even simpler because it’s entirely one kind of flower!
Materials
Make It!
Gather lavender into small bunches and snip the ends to get a nice, neat edge.
Wrap your wire or twine around the stems of one bunch several times tightly.
Secure the bunch to the form by winding the twine or wire around it a few times and pulling tight (or tying a knot if you’re using twine).
Pro tip: I personally prefer to use wire rather than twine, as it is easier to tighten it later once the lavender bunches have dried and shrunk down a bit. To tighten a dried wreath made with wire, use needle-nose pliers to twist knots in the wire at the back of the wreath and hold the stems in snugly.
Leaving the wire on the roll, wind each new bunch onto the form as they are added. Continue adding bunches until you complete the circle.
Tuck a final bunch under the first bunch, then cut and secure the wire. Hang the wreath up and enjoy!
I’ve also made a dried lavender wreath using this same basic technique on a wire coat hanger bent into a circle for the wreath form.
Here is how that looks with dried buds after many years! It will hold its colour for quite a while. As you can see, this one has seen a few seasons and still looks beautiful.
FAQ About Lavender Wreaths
What is the most fragrant lavender?
English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is typically revered for its scent, as well as hybrids.
What is the best way to dry lavender?
For this lavender wreath, I recommend using fresh lavender and letting it dry directly on the wreath form. When you work with dried lavender, it will be more brittle and you’re more likely to lose buds while you make the wreath.
For other lavender projects, I like to hang my lavender upside down in bunches in a cool, dry place. See more tips on harvesting and drying lavender.
How long will dried lavender’s smell last?
The smell of your dried lavender wreath should last you for a few months. If you squeeze the buds, you should release the oils that contain the fragrance.
