I have Yvonne's salvia, and Black and Blue salvia. I am interested in your Agastache Golden Jubilee, and Agastache Rupestris. Thank you, djune

You could start lavender seed now outside in zone 10, where it should still be warm enough to germinate within 30 days. You will need to be sure to keep the seed bed damp yourself if the rainy season has not started. Lavender seed will germinate without stratification and will grow right through the winter where you live. Al

I started with 1 gal lavender plants, I lived in the mountains with only a 3 month growing season for way too long, LOL. I just wasn't thinking these would grow faster here in the valley than just 70 miles away. They are actively growing now. They're so nicely rounded I hate to chop on them but I had wanted to plant some other things where they're going to be taking up the space for unplanned. It's not going to be looking very balanced soon. Balanced is the wrong word too but a mini rose is supposed to be going in a bare spot there and a couple of daylillies are coming up now and there are going to be problems I didn't foresee. Each of these bushes measure over 2 feet across now, appearances deceiving in the pics. I have two of the English Lavenders in one flower bed now within 3 feet of each other as they've grown. The Spanish Lavender is in a different flower bed and will outgrow it's place soon too. It was really hard for me to get used to growing in the mtns, now I'm finding it out in reverse:) Everything grows bigger and faster, LOL Leslie

aimeekitty, I would like clarify that you will need to create a hill for your lavenders. Don't dig a hole in a clay based ground - that's like a well in clay soil, - the water won't drain out. Adding compost won't help either. It would be like a well with wet compost in it. The idea is to create a 'volcano' and plant the lavenders at the very top. Water can then drain out safely. Also, unless you have well composted chicken manure, don't use this product. It's very hot for plants. A safer composted manure is cow or sheep poo. In fact, my many lavenders enjoy an addition of compost, bone meal and only a hint of composted manure and that's it. I don't do much more. I have very heavy clay soil too BTW. It's very easy to fix. Just break it up with a shovel and sprinkle compost in between cracks and eventually it will help break the clay apart. It's a lucky thing to have clay based soil. Clay actually contains a lot of nutrients plants need. The only problem is because of it's consistency, plants can't get access to those nutrients. So adding compost helps in this. One other thing you can use to aid your ailing plants. Add MYKE which helps roots access the nutrients. I can say with confidence that this isn't a natural die back. I see this when there's root damage.