Can You Use the Lavender Plant for Anything or Just the Blooms?

Lavender Landscape Plants

• Lavender adds beauty to the landscape in U.S. Department of Agriculture planting zones 5 through 11. It is drought tolerant, making it a perfect plant for xeriscaping. This type of landscaping incorporates plants into a landscape that do not require excessive watering. In areas that receive a lot of rain, lavender can be grown with proper drainage.

  Lavender thrives in sunny locations but can survive in limited amounts of shade. When using lavender, consider planting it as an accent plant or using it as a colorful, fragrant hedge.

Lavender Blooms

• Lavender blooms are traditionally thought of when this plant is considered. The blooms can be dried in bundles and placed inside a linen closet. Lavender blooms also can be stripped from the stems and used in potpourri.

  A more unique way of using lavender blooms is in food. Lavender blooms can be found in and added to cookies, cakes, jams, ice cream and even in lemonade.

Lavender Stems

• Once the blooms have been stripped from the stems, the lavender aroma lingers in the stems. To release this aroma, you must heat the stems. It is easiest to place them in a roaring fire. The stems release the lavender aroma while they burn.

Whole Lavender Plant

• The aroma of lavender can be found in the whole plant, not just the blooms. Lavender oil is harvested through a distillation process in which the leaves, stems and flowers or just the flowers are used.

  A simple way of distilling lavender oil at home requires you to harvest leaves, stems and flowers from the lavender plant early in the morning. Cut these into small pieces, but discard any woody stems. Place a brick in a stockpot and then add several inches of water until the water reaches the top edge of the brick. Place a measuring cup on the brick and add several handfuls of lavender pieces to the surrounding water. Cover the pot with a concave lid or metal mixing bowl and heat it until the water boils. Once the water begins to boil, turn down the heat and place ice cubes in the lid or bowl. Keep the steaming process going for at least three hours. After this time, turn off the heat and remove the measuring cup. The measuring cup will have liquid that dripped off the lid as condensation. The cup will contain both essential oils and floral water.

  Once the liquid in the cup has cooled, place it in the freezer. Two layers will form when one of the liquids freezes: the hydrosol, which is a solution of water and plant oils or floral water. The layer that has not frozen is the pure essential oil. To separate these two layers, simply pour the essential oil off the frozen hydrosol and into another container.