4 Easy Ways to Dry Lavender Flowers

Find out how to easily dry lavender flowers at home.

Lavender plants are a popular addition to any garden. The beautiful, aromatic blooms are cultivated and harvested for decorative, culinary, and even medicinal uses. It’s easy to grow and harvest lavender, but what do you do when you have a surplus of lavender flowers?

Drying lavender flowers is an easy and effective method to store an abundant supply. You can even try it without using any specialized equipment. To get you started, here are 4 ways to dry lavender flowers.

How to Dry Lavender Flowers

Drying lavender on a drying rack

This is the easiest way to dry your lavender flowers. You just need to put them on a drying rack and let warm dry air do its thing.

The good thing about lavender flowers is that they dry quickly. This is in comparison to, say, drying herbs like basil and bay leaves. Lavender flowers have a smaller moisture content that speeds up the drying process.

First, you need to harvest your flowers.

You can cut directly below the blossoms or include a bit of stem.
Use sharp garden scissors to make nice clean cuts. Clean cuts will keep your plants healthy.
Try to harvest your flowers early in the morning, after the dew has naturally evaporated from the plant. Around 10 am is best.

Then, clean your flowers.

Run the cut flowers under running tap water to clean off any dust, soil, or bugs.
Gently shake and rest them over paper or kitchen towels to rid of most of the water.

The drying process.

Line your blooms on a drying rack, giving each cut stem ample space. Make sure they don’t touch each other.
You can also use an old newspaper if you don’t have a drying rack.
Leave them to dry until the flowers feel brittle.

Air drying

You can opt for this one if you’re drying a fair number of stems and don’t have enough counter space to dry them flat.

Harvest your flowers: If you’re using this method it’s best to leave a bit of stem when cutting your flowers.
Gather them in groups of 15-20. Make sure all the stems point one way.
Tie the stems with a rubber band, kitchen string, yarn, or anything that’s handy.

Hang your lavender flowers.

Hang the bunches upside down, by the stems. Choose a warm, dry, and dark place in your house, like the basement or cellar.
Make sure to put space between each bunch so air can circulate.
If you don’t have a basement or cellar, you can hang them in a closet.
You can also cover the bunch with paper bags to keep them shielded from sunlight. Just make sure to cut a few air holes in the bag first.

The lavender flowers will take a couple of days or more to dry completely.

Drying lavender flowers in the oven

You can use the oven if you want a quick way to dry your blooms.

Preheat your oven: Set your oven temperature at 40-80°C or 100-180°F (the lowest setting). This will prevent the flowers from burning.
Arrange your flowers on a sheet tray. Make sure they’re all lying flat and with ample space between them. Make sure nothing overlaps.
Dry them in the oven for 10 minutes.
Keep the oven door slightly open to let air circulate inside.
Check the flowers if they’re brittle. If they still feel moist, flip them over then dry them in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Never leave a running oven unsupervised, especially if you have pets and/or small children.

Drying lavender flowers with the dehydrator

If you always have a lot of lavender blooms, or if you want to dry large quantities of lavender flowers often, getting a dehydrator might be the best option. It’s an extra piece of equipment, but it’s made especially for drying lavender flowers and other stuff so you’ll produce the best quality dried flowers with it.

Clean your flowers: Don’t wash your flowers. Just trim off any wilted flowers or stalks. Pick off bugs and shake off dust and dirt.
Turn the dehydrator on: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions stated in the manual.
Place the stalks in a single layer on the dehydrator trays. Place them inside the dehydrator and wait for at least a couple of hours before checking.
If the flowers are brittle and papery, they’re completely dry. If they still feel moist, dry them for another hour.

How to Store Dried Lavender Flowers

You can use and store dried lavender flowers in many ways, sometimes depending on the type of lavender you grew and dried.

You can store the blooms still in stalks, or in flowers only, stripped from the stalks. Store them in airtight containers like mason jars to preserve their scent.