Dying lavender

[Laurasanford111]

Hi all
I got some English lavender from supermarket. I know they like eracuous soil so I put some compost in a pot with sharp sand and vermiculite.. I read to do it that way on a gardening blog online, anyhow I only watered it once read they are to be watered once every 2 weeks BUT they are still brown, looking sad and now looks like bottom of stems going. Bit grey what am I doing wrong?!

Any tips or ideas? I really want lavender in the garden

Thank you

Photo please. Lavender is surprisingly fussy - it wants well drained soil but doesn't want to starve. What do you mean by 'still brown' - were they brown when you got them???

Perhaps the plant wasn't healthy to start with. Happens to me quite often with supermarket plants. Lavender grows better in the ground in my experience. It needs lots of sun (ideally no shade at all throughout the day) and not too much water. Mine thrives even in clay soil.

Here is a pic of it

Hello, no sorry wasn't brown when I got it just once I planted it 🤣

Do you mean ericaceous soil? If that is the case then that may be where your problem is - they can only tolerate mildly acidic soil without dying and prefer alkaline / neutral

That looks mummified. Watering once a fortnight, when it's in a pot with fast-draining compost, is far too little. You might be able to rescue it by repotting in non-acid compost and giving it a good drink, but it looks quite far gone.

How much sun is it getting?

I got some English lavender from supermarket. I know they like ericaceous soil
That's not my understanding, which googling supports. I've seen some comments about French lavender liking more acidic/ericaceous soil but English wants slightly alkaline.

I have acid soil and lavender dies within a day or two. I have tried several times with no success. I grow it in pots now.

Ericaceous means suitable for the Erica, ie heather family. It’s acidic, not particularly free draining - look at the moorlands where heather grows naturally.

Lavender grows on well drained often alkaline hillsides in the Mediterranean, about as far as you can get from an English moorland.

i agree with @CCSS15 , the ericaceous compost is doing your lavender no favours

It’s your soil. They don’t need acid soil.
Mine, English lavender, thrives on sandy well drained soil. It’s not acidic.