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Expert Plant Man

Advice on Gardening from the Real Experts

8 Best Soil for Lavender in Pots [Ultimate Guide]

July 16, 2020 By Expert Plant Man Author 2 Comments

I hope you can agree with me when I say:

 Whether you want to grow lavender as part of a mixed border, or a pretty low hedge, this is one adaptable, versatile flower that’ll fit right in wherever you choose to put it. 

Lavender is as beloved by the avowed ascetic trying to grow it in rows of neatly clipped balls to the cottage gardener content to let it froth through borders. And what’s more, bees love lavender too! Do your part in the fight to save our pollinators by planting a few sprigs wherever you’ve got room.

These lovely flowers may not look it, but like succulents, they’re definitely masochists; lavender loves it best when conditions are barren, hostile and very dry so as long you don’t stick them in a dark corner or a soggy plot of soil, you’re all set. Being a Mediterranean plant, lavender needs loads and loads of sun and fast draining soil! Wet soil makes lavender sulk and die, and it prefers poor, dry or moderately fertile soil. The more chalky and alkaline, the better.

Feeling a little intimidated? Don’t be! I’ve done all the research so you won’t have to. I’ve also included some tips on caring for lavender and growing it! Without further ado, here’s a list of the eight best potting soils for lavender on the market.

Best Soil for Lavender in Pots 2021:

Potting Soil for TomatoesRatingPrice
Miracle-Gro Potting Mix
9/10 (Editor's Choice)
Check Price
Espoma Organic Potting Soil9/10
Check Price
Black Gold Soil For Tomatoes8/10
Check Price
Miracle-Gro Potting Soil Mix
9/10
Check Price
Miracle-Gro Seeding Potting Mix 8.5/10
Check Price
Black-Gold Organic Tomato Soil>10/10
Check Price
Jiffy Organic Soil Mix9/10
Check Price
Miracle-Gro Tomato Plant Food 7/10
Check Price
Jobe's Tomato Fertilizer Spikes 8/10
Check Price
Osmocote Smart Release Tomato Food 8/10
Check Price

Tips And Tricks:

1. Professional Grower Mix Soil Succulent and Cactus Soil Mix 

Why we love it:

  • Relatively dry, no problems with fungus
  • Fast-draining
  • Won’t stay moist

ProsCons
✅ Drains well❌ Sometimes attracts gnats
✅ Cost effective

Imported straight from the kingdom of flowers, Denmark, this is undoubtedly one of the best soil for lavender plants on the market! At 25% perlite, it strikes just the right balance between drainage and retaining enough moisture to keep your lavender thriving and putting out new growth! If your lavender looks a little parched, or you’re worried about it being too dry, try adding some cane, hay or other mulched plant matter to improve moisture retention! Coir peat – a sustainable resource from coconut fibre, is another great option! But even sans all that, it’s still deserving of its place on our list of the best potting soils for lavender on the market!

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2. Espoma AP16 16-Quart Organic Potting Mix

Why we love it:

  • Suitable for other plants too
  • No added fertilizer
  • Espoma is a very reputable brand

ProsCons
✅ pH balanced❌ Complaints of fungus
✅ Ready to use right out of the bag

Is Miracle-Gro the only thing you can find at home depot? Tired of looking for something without added fertilizer? Look no further: this Espoma potting mix is sure to check all your boxes. Its rave reviews will attest to the fact that it’s one of the best soils for lavender in pots on Amazon, and everywhere else. The Ectomycorrhizal Fungi, coupled with the 45-55% sphagnum peat moss, peat humus, perlite, earthworm castings and limestone to adjust pH make a plush, rich medium that’s well suited to all your planting needs! And well suited to its place on our list of the best potting soils for lavender on the market.

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3. Premium Organic Potting Soil Mix – 1 Gallon (4 Dry Quarts) Great for Planters, Flowers

Why we love it:

  • Very light
  • Excellent drainage
  • Very portable

ProsCons
✅ pH balanced❌ Complaints of fungus
✅ Ready to use right out of the bag

Most drier soils on the market are very heavy and full to the brim with wood chips! We were elated to find that this isn’t: it’s both very light-weight and proffers excellent drainage. If you’ve never bought potted soil before, then when you first open the bag, you might be taken aback to find little balls of hard clay inside, but they’re a good thing! They help with drainage, and because they’re clay, absorb excess moisture to keep root rot at bay. You won’t see them very often, and certainly not in some of the more popular potting mediums around, but most people end up having to buy them later anyway. You’re well on your way to reaping the rewards of one of the best soils for lavender in pots on the market! Some reviewers complain of this being a mite too peat heavy, but we didn’t have that problem and found it drained just fine! A little perlite never hurt anybody, though. With that being said, it’s still one of the best soils for lavender plants you’re likely to find.

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4. 8 Quarts xGarden Cactus and Succulent Soil Mix

Why we love it:

  • Potent
  • Cost effective
  • Rot-resistant

ProsCons
✅ Very little❌ None
✅ Excellent drainage

You and your lavender will love this dirt — we did. That’s why it’s on our list of the best potting soils for lavender on the market! Its custom blend of peat moss, vermiculite and perlite ensures optimal drainage and encourages root growth whilst maintaining a steady pH. For fragrant, healthy and above all, dry lavender you can’t go wrong with one of the best soils for lavender plants on the market. At $14.69 for a bag, it’s a great value for money, particularly if you’re an infrequent or novice gardener that doesn’t want to spend a great deal!

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5. Houseplant and Tropical Classic Potting Mix

Why we love it:

  • Fast draining
  • No fungi
  • Won’t attract insects

ProsCons
✅ Gnat free❌ Expensive
✅ Rot-resistant

Amazon’s choice for one of the best potting soils for lavender is ours too! This is a great gnat free (seasoned gardeners will know what a considerable feat that is) robust potting mix that your lavender will adore for its rot-resistant properties and quick drainage! This potting medium is in a class all of its own: an ultra-fine blend of coir, fine vermiculite, small stalite and perlite that’s made fresh daily in small batches to ensure optimal quality, a little goes a long way with this small bag of gold!

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6. SPONGEASE Coco Coir Brick

Why we love it:

  • Very cost effective
  • 2 gallons of soil
  • Eco-friendly

ProsCons
✅ Great drainage❌ Not suitable for other plants without nutrients
✅ Minimal nutrients

Remember what I said about lavender liking to be treated mean? SpongEase is an inert natural fiber that contains pretty minimal nutrients, and ordinarily, I’d recommended adding fertilizer or blending it with compost to feed your plants, but lavender prefers low-fertility soil to everything else. It’ll love the SpongEase coco coir just the way it is, and so do we, which is why it’s on our list of the best soils for lavender plants on the market! And boy oh boy, what a lot of soil it is — once you add water it’ll expand to about 2 gallons of soil! Its neutral pH and low salt content make it one of the best soil for lavender in pots out there.

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7. Esbenshade’s Professional Potting Soil (44 Qt)

Why we love it:

  • High quality soil
  • Won’t retain moisture or become soggy
  • You can re-wet it, unlike other peat soils

ProsCons
✅ High quality peat❌ None
✅ No sogginess

This soil-less potting mix is exactly what the doctor ordered! We were wowed by its “grower grade” Canadian sphagnum peat moss — this certainly isn’t the low quality, unwettable dry-shipped stuff from the box stores that requires boiling water and, once dry, is bone dry and stays that way, impervious to all forms of assault from watering-can or rain. That alone was enough to guarantee its place on our list of the best soils for lavender plants on the market, but if that weren’t enough, this mix is airy and moist, with great drainage and substantial enough texture to develop good soil roots for transplant into garden soil. It has no sogginess and maintains its volume after planting – does not compact after watering in your transplant, so you won’t need to add more soil. The color of the surface is a reliable indicator of whether or not you need to water, and if I had an endless supply, I’d pretty much use it for just about everything. It’s undoubtedly one of the best soils for lavender in pots that you’re likely to find anywhere.

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8. Black Gold 1302040 8-Quart All Organic Potting Soil

Why we love it:

  • Good for other plants
  • Black-gold is very reputable
  • Good price point

ProsCons
✅ Excellent blend❌ You'll want to add extra perlite
✅ Potent

Black Gold’s potting soil is a classic, and for good reason. Its reviews are full of people singing its praises, and that’s why it netted a spot on our list of the best soils for lavender plants on the market! Black and Gold’s 100% organic base consists of screened earthworm castings, Canadian sphagnum peat moss, compost and humus forest, with added perlite & pumice to ensure optimal aeration and drainage so your lavender stays happy, healthy and dry! As this mix is a little rich, we recommend adding some cactus soil to ensure it’s airy and coarse: just the way your lavender likes it.

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Conclusion:

Wondering where to start when it comes to growing lavender? Look no further! I’ve compiled a list of the best lavender potting soils on the market to aid you on your search.

Planting And Caring For Lavender In Pots:

Lavender care:

How can I care for my indoor lavender plant? What about wintering lavender plants? Can I grow lavender in pots from seedlings?

First thing’s first: I learnt the most about gardening through a peculiar, haphazard combination of accident and negligence. So will you. Don’t worry about making mistakes, or killing your first plants, because it happens to the best of us!

It plants wonderfully by itself, but plays stupendously well with others, too! In containers and borders, we love it with a little bit of sparkling, silvery silverbush (Convolvulus cneorum), some vivid, eye-catching golden marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria), or some red California poppies ‘Red Chief’ (Eschscholzia californica ‘Red Chief’) for an arrangement that’s truly stately.

Whether you like it best grown fresh, preserved in a vase, drunk as an herbal tea, or left as an offering to the bees and butterflies, this is one little flower that does it all! There are 3 varieties to choose from: hardy, half-hardy and tender. The half-hardy and tender varieties, such as Lavendula stoechas, should be grown in sheltered spots. Ideally, you should cut them back after flowering keep your stems from becoming woody.

Where to grow lavender:

Your lavender will flourish in an open site, in direct sunlight, in a well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil (got acid soil? Try French lavender, Lavandula stoechas, instead). They cope very well in drought conditions (they even look as though they’re enjoying them) and hate heavy, wet soils, especially in the winter, which is a particularly bad time for seedlings.

Half-hardy and tender lavenders, such as Lavandula stoechas, are best grown in pots so that you can shift them to drafty, sunny spots in the winter-time.

How to plant lavender in pots:

You’ll want to choose terracotta pots with drainage holes, and pop in some grit for extra drainage. Pick a sunny spot, away from other overhead shrubs and such!

The best time to plant tender lavender is in spring, from March through to May. If you have heavy soil, improve drainage by adding horticultural grit to the planting hole before planting. Planting on a slight mound can also help prevent water-logging. Plant lavender at the same depth it was in its pot. Add a sprinkling of bonemeal to the planting hole, place the plant in the hole, backfill and firm in. Be sure to water well, and voila! Your very own lavender.

Different varieties:

Hardy lavenders can do well with temperatures down to about -15°C, so you can feel at ease leaving them in your garden year round. Anticipate a round of pruning following flowering, in August. Don’t be shy: cut back hard, but be mindful of old wood, you don’t want to reduce your lavender’s flowering potential. Stay away from green shoots entirely or you’ll kill your plant.

Half-hardy lavenders, such as Lavandula stoechas, flower for a long season but may not survive winter. Prune after their first blooms have faded but avoid pruning any later than early September.

If growing the more tender lavenders, such as Lavandula denata, deadhead and prune only if the plants become messy looking.

So dig out your gardening gloves and get going!

Expert Plant Man Author

Hey, I’ve been experimenting with gardening products for more than 10 years now and I must say. It’s a pretty wild ride. Through my experiments, I have managed to become an expert in the art of gardening using different products and rating them & now, I want to share with the world what I have learnt. Possibly saving you a lot of time too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary
Reviewer
Monty Don
Review Date
2020-07-16
Author Rating
51star1star1star1star1star

Filed Under: SOIL Tagged With: growing conditions for lavender, growing lavender indoors, lavender, lavender soil mix

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