Hanging a lavender wreath around your garden might be just the aromatherapy boost you need to help relieve stress after a long day, or maybe it just makes you smile. Either way, this lavender wreath is a quick weekend project that will help calm you down enough to read a book in the afternoon or get a good night’s sleep at night.
To keep your lavender plants neat and tidy, it is important to prune them. Two prunings per season are best—once in early summer and again in August.
The great thing about pruning lavender is that you can harvest the lavender and use it in countless ways! One of my favorite ways is to make beautiful fragrant wreaths. Dried fresh flowers on a wreath look so decorative.
Be sure to read my Ultimate Guide to Growing Lavender for information on caring for, pruning, and harvesting lavender.
This year, I made a 6″ miniature wreath using English lavender “Thumbelina Leigh,” which grows in my kitchen garden. These plants are quite small, but they produce more than enough flowers to keep me in lavender all summer (and beyond).
Here’s what you need to know about making your own dried lavender wreath!
Harvesting lavender for your wreath
When harvesting lavender, It is best to pick it at the germination stage.after the flowers turn purple but before they bloom. The stems will retain their color longest if they are harvested while still in bud.
The image below shows the three stages of lavender: budding, blooming, and post-bloom. In practice, I try to cut the flowers when they are budding, but in reality, I usually take a mixture of buds and flowers.and some of the early bloomers are starting to fade.
It’s hard to get the timing right, but even harder to get all those lovely lavender flowers away from the bees! I like to leave the lavender blooming a little so the bees can enjoy it. and then add it to the wreath when it has some buds and some blooms.
It looks beautiful and gives me (and the pollinators) more time to enjoy it in the garden. The last blooms will eventually fall, but what remains is still attractive and fragrant.
If you are making lavender at home for personal use, don’t worry. Leave it to the lavender farms. No matter when you harvest it, it will make a beautiful wreath with a wonderful fragrance.
How to make lavender wreath
The process for making this lavender wreath is very similar to my other wreaths. Maybe even simpler since it’s all one flower!
Materials
Let’s do it!
Collect lavender in small bundles and trim both ends to get a nice, neat edge.
Wrap wire or rope tightly around the stem of a bouquet several times.
Secure the bouquet to the mold by wrapping the wire or string around the bouquet several times and pulling tight. (or tie a knot if you are using rope).
Pro Tip: Personally, I prefer string over twine, as it is easier to tighten once the lavender bunches have dried and shrunk a bit. To tighten a twine wreath, use needle-nose pliers to tie a knot in the twine at the back of the wreath, securing the stems.
Leave the wire on the roll, wrapping each new bundle into the mold as they are added. Continue adding bundles until the circle is complete.
Tuck a final bundle under the first bundle.Then cut and secure the wire. Hang the wreath and enjoy!
I also made a dried lavender wreath using this basic technique on a wire coat hanger bent into a circle to make a wreath.
This is what the dried buds look like after many years! It will keep color for quite a long timeAs you can see, this painting has been through many seasons but still looks beautiful.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lavender Wreaths
English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is often revered for its scent, as are hybrids.
For this lavender wreath, I recommend using fresh lavender and letting it dry directly on the wreath mold. When you use dried lavender, the flowers are more brittle and you are more likely to lose buds as 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.
The scent of your dried lavender wreath can last for several months. Squeezing the buds will release the essential oils that carry the scent.
More lavender crafts!
