Help! Waterlogged lavender - will it survive?

[LadyFlumpalot]

I am very much am amateur gardener, I've spotted today that my lavenders are all wilty so I (stupidly) assumed they were dry as I have a tiny sun trap of a garden. I chucked a load of water on, then realised they were wilty because they are waterlogged! It was like soil soup in the pot!

I've tipped out as much water as I can, chucked a load of dry soil on top to try and soak it out and dragged the pot to a sunny spot to try and dry it out. Can any more experienced gardeners give a prognosis?

I'm not an experienced gardener but is there plenty of drainage out the bottom of the pot?

Is it a new plant this year, or has it over wintered a couple of years?

Once established, its hard as nails, and half dead can be revived, if it's new they can be a bit fickle, have you got any drainage holes in the bottom of the pot? If not poke some in, apart from that I think you've done what you can.

There weren't any, but DH has just drilled six holes around the plastic pot and the water is absolutely pissing out!

It's three new plants this year, they were doing really well last time I checked which was Thursday, so I don't think they can have been waterlogged too long.

Excellent, that'll do it in this heat, they might die off this year, so the leaves may go brown and die, it will look dead but just leave it alone and then give a good prune (look up on the rhs website for when and how much) and it will likely bounce back next year, and when it bounces all the new foliage is brilliant.

Is that the French lavender, the punk one? I don't think it's always fully hardy. It might need protection if we have any really cold spells overwinter. Should be okay for a little while though, not sweater weather yet.

It is indeed French Lavender. I've got a little greenhouse thingy (green tarp with shelves) that lives in the garden all year round so I'll put it in there for the winter

Ahh brilliant, that's good to know. Thank you!

Overwatering kills because the roots rot. If they havent been waterlogged for long, the roots wont have had time to rot

Lucky you spotted the lack of dranage holes. It doesn't look anywhere near death's door so should recover.

I've tried to be big brain about it today and have shoved a load of tissue paper into the drain holes to draw out excess water as there was nothing draining, but if I pushed the sides of the pot I got water trickling from them. The soil is definitely soil consistency again, not liquid so we are doing well. Hopefully it'll recover.

On the other hand, my clematis that I assumed had died and had cut right back has re-emerged and has grown 5/6 inches in a week.

I suck at gardening, but I like pretty flowers 🤣

Is that a fake lawn the pots are sitting on?
The water won’t be able to drain out very well from the pot, even now they have drainage holes.
You need some lovely terracotta pot feet (or just stones) to lift the pots off the ground.

It is a fake lawn yes, the drainage holes are in the side though. I will see if I can raise it though as the astro turf isn't brilliant for the pots.

Please don't blame me for the plastic monstrosity, it was here when we moved in as the "soil" in our garden in barely a few inches deep covering a pit of builders rubble, or so the previous owners said.

Don’t worry, no lectures from me.
Wildflower meadows thrive on poor soil though… just saying 😁

It would be the worlds tiniest wildflower meadow 🤣 I do quite like that idea though, would be very cute. Second picture is the lavender now. I think I will lose the one on the far right definitely, the one on the far left has perked right up, not sure about the one in the middle!