Lavender and flower picking in New Zealand

Not everything worth picking is fruit. Lavender opens across late spring and summer, which covers part of the year when the berry season is still patchy, and it is the one pick where a small bunch is a full result.

The Waikato carries lavender on this site. Fields elsewhere come and go with the seasons, so check the listings rather than assuming.

When to go

Lavender flowers from roughly November through January, with the peak in high summer. The window is longer than a berry crop because different cultivars flower in sequence, but the best cutting is in the middle weeks when the field is fully out.

Go in the morning, before the heat. Two reasons: the oils are strongest in the cool of the day, so the scent is much better, and the bees are less active early. There will be bees. That is the point of a lavender field, and they are entirely uninterested in you.

Cut it properly

Take snips, or use the ones the farm hands out. Tearing a lavender stem damages the woody base and the plant does not recover well.

Cut long, but stay in the green. Follow the stem down to just above where the leaves start and cut there. Cutting back into the bare wood below can kill that part of the plant, which is why farms are particular about it.

Cut before the flowers are fully open. For drying, the ideal moment is when the bottom third of the flower spike has opened and the rest is still in bud. Fully open lavender drops its flowers as it dries and you end up with bare stalks.

Drying it

This is the easiest crop in the country to preserve, and the result lasts years.

Bundle the stems loosely, no thicker than your wrist, and tie with a rubber band rather than string, because the stems shrink as they dry and string goes slack. Hang the bundles upside down somewhere dark, dry and airy. A cupboard is better than a sunny window: light bleaches the colour out.

Two to four weeks. When the stems snap rather than bend, it is done.

To take the buds off for a sachet or for cooking, roll the dried spikes between your palms over a bowl.

What else is worth knowing

Wear closed shoes. Lavender fields are dry, uneven and often full of stones.

Full sun, no shade. The same rules apply as anywhere else in a New Zealand summer: hat, sunscreen, water.

Take a container with water in the car if you want the flowers fresh rather than dried. Twenty minutes in a hot boot and they are dried whether you meant it or not.

Updated 10 September 2026