This spring I planted 20 small plants of Lambrook Silver in sandy soil in a typical city garden. The plants are doing well, they've grown to about 35 cm in height and they're quite wide, about 45 cm. I was just wondering how tall they're about to become and when I should harvest them. Right now they smell great, very aromatic and they look very pretty. There is one thing I've noticed which puzzles me a bit. All the branches with the flowers at the end are hanging glose to the ground or they're on the ground, at the same time there are also new branches sprouting from the middle of the plant. Can anyone give me some more info about growing and harvesting these plants.

Thanks

ps: the attached photo is from 2 months ago

It's past harvest time, you need to begin harvesting A.a. on the first day in July and end on the last. Plants are harvested as they begin to flower.
I believe lambsbrook silver is an ornamental variety and not the typical medicinal type.

Barski, Call me.

Thanks for the advice Eric! I'm harvesting a little every two weeks now and it seems to be working just fine. The first flush ( if I can call it that) is almost dry enough to be used. I think I'm going to try a batch next week, I'll let you know how that comes along.

Not in our neck of the woods, no. At least not the last two years.

Flowering is based on the length of day, not the temperature.
A.a. begins to go into the flowering stage when the days are long,
it's best to pick it as the flowers form but before they reach their zenith.
After July the plant will go back into a growth stage but the vitality is largely spent.

Mine doesn't even have flower buds beginning July. It just started to blossom on the 5th of August, and it took three more weeks for all the flowers to open.

It is strange land you live in.
There are no flowers in the beginning of July, that is true everywhere but that is when the harvest traditionally begins, the thinking was that it is better to catch some early than to be caught harvesting after the peak, which is generally the end of July. Cutting A.a. back can stimulate flowering into late summer but it's unusual for a plant that hasn't been harvested to continue flowering into late August early September. The length of daylight is directly related to the amount of and type of aromatics contained in the plant at the time of harvest. Over ripe flowers signal a change in the plant that was considered undesirable for absinthe.

Belgium?

I finally pulled everything down out of the drying shed last week, and I finished stripping all the flowers and leaves off the stems last night.

I harvested late t his year compared to last year, and have a much higher percentage of flowers. I suspect it will turn out to have been harvested too late. Time will tell.

Damn but it is fragrent!

I harvested a plant in mid-July. Lot's of flowers. Finally got to stripping off the flowers and leaves -- juicyfruit city.

I had my first flush hanging from the cealing for the last couple of weeks. I looked dry enough so today I sat down and started to pull the leaves and flowers from the twigs and stems. To avoid the dust I took the precaution of wearing a facemask, which helped a lot. After 20 minutes I ended up with 320 grams of very aromatic lambrook silver. Tomorrow I'll harvest the rest of the plants and hopefully they'll make it till next year. Right now my plants have no more flowers but plenty of leaves. When I'm done I should end up with a little less than a kilo from 20 small plants. This truly is a lot of fun.

After you get it all processed down you might want to dry it for a little longer, the processing exposes plant material that wasn't able to thoroughly dry while still whole, additional drying will prevent any mold or decomposition while in storage. Long term storage requires as low humidity as you can get, %35 to %45 is probably ideal. Never store supple plants, they should be crispy. If properly processed and stored herbs can easily last the full year it takes to grow some more. Vacuum packing can extend that for several years.
The whole conversation about when to harvest, how to dry, etc really means nothing,
these are all ideals, some bordering on the esoteric, if there are any rules when it comes to herbs they might be:
1. Use the right herbs.
2 Never use brown, dirty, moldy or damaged herbs.

Thanks for the advice Kirk. I'll keep it in mind when I go into the garden tomorrow, there\ll be lenty of brown and muddy leaves because we've had a lot of rain last month. The rainiest month in over a hundred years they say. Anyway, I think I'll let the processed lambrook silver dry for another week before putting it into a few big glass jars. Right now it's not quite crispy but it's getting there.

This is the first 300 grams I harvested. Great stuff with a fantastic smell.

Indeed!

Very nice!

Now make a
suppository.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppository

I had to look that word up.