How to Dry Lavender (Air & Oven Methods)

Today we’re talking all about how to dry lavender…without using a dehydrator! I have been on the hunt for a solid secondhand dehydrator for a few months now and haven’t found one yet. We downsized ours when we moved to this house, and I kind of regret the convenience of it.

But, never fear! If you don’t want to invest in yet another kitchen utensil you have to store, there are other ways to dry lavender. The old fashioned way—air drying—and using a conventional oven. So let’s walk through taking cuttings and how to use those two methods to dry lavender cuttings.

Taking cuttings

The first step, of course, is to take some stem cuttings from your lavender plant. I’m cutting from my large English lavender today. You can take cuttings from anywhere on the plant. So if you’re pruning your plant and have a bunch of cuttings, you can dry those.

This is unlike propagating lavender when I recommend taking cuttings only from the soft growth tips. If you take cuttings that are too woody, they have a much lower chance of rooting and growing new plants.

After taking the cuttings, make sure to rinse them thoroughly. This removes any excess dirt, cobwebs, little bugs, etc. Shake the cuttings to remove excess water and pat dry with a towel.

Air drying method

Let’s walk through the air drying method first. This is the easiest method as it takes almost no supplies. However, it takes the longest. Simply remove the bottom-most sets of leaves and hang the cuttings upside down in a dry place.

I like using pipe cleaners for this because I have a 7-year old and have plenty of craft supplies. But you can also use twine. I just think pipe cleaners are handy because you can create a little “hook” to hang them with!

Let the cuttings hang and dry for several weeks until the leaves become brittle. If you can easily snap a leaf in half, that’s usually a good sign that the cutting has dried completely.

In a traditional oven

If you’d like to dry your lavender cuttings faster, you can use your oven. To do this, I simply remove the leaves from cuttings and spread them out evenly over a piece of aluminum foil. I then bake them on the lowest setting my oven has—170 degrees Fahrenheit.

I do recommend checking in on the process every half hour when you’re getting started. This will give you a good idea of how long the process will take, and you can monitor for signs of burning. I ended up baking mine for about 3 hours total, but the timeframe depends a lot on the moisture content in your leaves.

Remember, low temperatures for a long time are much better than frying them with higher temps. Think “slow and low” like when you’re cooking meats 🙂 I know my cuttings are done when I am able to easily crumple them with my fingers to break them into smaller pieces.

I store my dried lavender in a little bowl on my windowsill until I use it—but I generally am drying it for a specific purpose, so I use it pretty quickly and don’t store for very long at all. Questions? Let me know!

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