This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Humidity and L. stoechas . . .

On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, William M. Groth wrote:

> I just got a Spanish Lavendar (Lavendula steochas .....) Does anyone know
> about this (hopefully) more heat tollerant Lavendar species? It was
> advertised as heat tollerant and drought resistant. My question will probably
> be what does it think about HUMIDITY? Is this one any Mediterranean plant
> people have seen?
> ______________________________

Since you are in the Houston area, where you get even more heat and humidity
than I get in the Carolinas, you might consider a trick that I learned from
Art O. Tucker of Delaware State.  Art is one of the country's experts on
essential oils in herbs and has to grow them for his research in Dover on
the Chesapeake peninsula.  He noted that his climate is similar to that of
the south of France, except for summer humidity.  

Having visited Grasse for research once, he noted that wild lavender thrived
on the decomposed granitic slopes.  The soils had a lot of quartz and mica
and were highly reflective.  His Delaware growing site is a black sandy,
peaty swamp-based soil that had grown his rosemarys, thymes, and lavenders
poorly.  He then decided to lay down some cleaned builder's sand (about 1
inch) over his next plot of Mediterranean Lamiaceae, mostly lavenders.  Next
to it was a smaller test plot in ordinary soil.

The next year, he observed that the plants in the treated plot grew well,
and didn't need much weeding.  As long as there was a nice layer of
reflective sand to bask the underside of the foliage withreflected sunlight,
the plants thrived.  Only a little weeding was necessary.  Those on the
adjacent plot gradually disappeared the second year amongst weeds.

I have raised beds of sandy loam in North Carolina and remove the thickest
of dead foliage around the base of the plant to allow air drainage.  This
thicket of foliage helps keep down respiration in dry climates, but becomes
a home for pathogens in humid areas if not thinned out, especially during
long, rainy spells.

Moral:  make sure you have a reflective soil, and remove enough foliage
around the base of the plant for air drainage.

Rich Dufresne
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index