How To Make A Lavender Wand

Lavender wands, also called lavender dollies, are a traditional English design. They are made by taking a bunch of fresh lavender, bending the stems back over the flowers, and weaving a ribbon around the stems. This holds captive the fragrant flowers, keeping their scent for many years.

The scent can be renewed by gently rolling the wand between your hands. Lavender wands are great both for their wonderful fragrance and appearance.

Here’s What To Do

1. The wand should be made from freshly harvested lavender stems. Our favorite cultivars to use are among the lavandins, including ‘Provence’, ‘Grosso’, ‘Seal’, and ‘Super’ (see the lavender section of our catalog). Though English lavenders are a bit more sweetly scented, their flower stems are much shorter than the lavandins. Try making wands from several different cultivars and see if you can identify them by scent. Pick the stems after the first few flowers have opened. You’ll need an odd number of stems for each wand. Try 13 stems for your first wand.

2. Strip off the lower flowers on each stem (see drawing A), making nice even flower spikes (see drawing B).

3. Cut off about 45 inches of number 1½ ribbon. This ribbon is about ¼ inch wide.

4. Tie the ribbon in a knot around the stems just below the flower spikes, leaving 12 inches of ribbon on the short end (see drawing C).

5. Turn the bundle of stems so that the flower spikes are facing downward. Let the short end of the ribbon hang alongside the flowers.

6. Bend the stems at the knot, one at a time, down over the flower spikes and the short strand of ribbon (see drawing D).

7. With the long strand of ribbon, weave under and over each stem (see drawing E). Keep going until you have reached the end of the flower spikes. Let the wand dry for two or three days and then tie the 2 ribbon ends into a tight bow (see drawing F).

8. Once you get the knack of making nice, tight, wands, try using more stems or different sizes of ribbon. The more stems you use, or the narrower the ribbon, the longer the piece of ribbon you will need for each wand.