Join me!

DIY Lavender Wreath

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.

DIY lavender wreath

Be sure to read our Essential Guide to Growing Lavender for information on caring for, pruning, and harvesting lavender.

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 favs is to make it into pretty, fragrant wreaths. The fresh flowers dry on the wreath and it looks so decorative.

A homemade lavender wreath

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).

Thumbelina lavender

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 their color the longest if they are harvested in 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.

the budding stages of lavender

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, then don’t worry about it too much. Leave that to the lavender farms. Because no matter when you harvest it, it will make a lovely wreath with a heavenly perfume.

Materials:

materials for a lavender wreath

Make it!

Gather lavender into small bunches and snip the ends to get a nice neat edge.

lavender bundles for wreath making

Wrap your wire or twine around the stems of one bunch several times tightly.

making lavender bundlesSecure 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).

Side note: 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.

adding lavender bundles to wreathLeaving the wire on the roll, wind each new bunch onto the form as they are added. Continue adding bunches until you complete the circle.

Making a lavender wreath
Tuck a final bunch under the first bunch, then cut and secure the wire. Hang the wreath up and enjoy!
a beautiful DIY lavender wreath
In 2011, I made a dried lavender wreath using this same basic technique on a wire coat hanger bent into a circle for the wreath form.Coat Hanger Wire Wreath Form In a Japanese Maple
Here is how that looks with dried buds after many years!.

More Lavender Crafts!

.

Comments

  1. Pingback: AliLily | 35 Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
  2. Pingback: gardenfuzzgarden.com Dried Lavender Wreath | gardenfuzzgarden.com
  3. Pingback: How to Use Dried Lavender in Your Home - All Natural Daily | All Natural Daily
  4. I look forward to reading your posts when I settle down for the evening. You have good advice and great ideas for gardening and crafting with flowers. Thank you for being here for us gardeners

    Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Kickstart

your garden!

This FREE 5-day mini course will help you set up a thriving garden for wellness and joy quickly and easily.

I want the free course!

Join one of my free email courses!

Natural skincare

made easy!

This FREE 5-day mini course will teach you the small changes you can make to your skincare practices that will make a HUGE difference in how you feel.

I want the free course!

Kickstart

your garden!

This FREE 5-day mini course will help you set up a thriving garden for wellness and joy, quickly and easily.

I want the free course!

Learn and Live
with Nature

SHOP BOOKS

Garden Therapy Online Courses

SHOP COURSES