today we're going to make a lavender wand this is Gus Toffoli 11 Daria I think is the way you pronounce it or lavond una and it comes from the Greek word meaning to wash this was the first antiseptic that was used by mankind to wash and now we use it specifically for lavender ones for tea for cooking everything you can imagine you can do with lavender but today we're going to do a three-step process to make a lavender wand first you will cut 18 lavender flowers about 18 inches long and then we'll sort them and then we'll tie them those are the three steps first I'm going to cut no lavenders ready when the flowers are in bloom you want to cut all the way down where the first little white leaf is starting so that you have a nice long stem I'll cut about 18 sometimes when there are this many and they have overwhelmed me this year I just grab a handful and start cutting but for the most part you want about 18 wanna paint flowers okay we have about 18 here so we're gonna go get a string first we're going to sort and then we're going to tie it to make the one you sort your lavender from the bottom and I'm going to start with in this hand and it's going to go to this hand as I sort and we're starting at the lowest part of the flower and we're lining them up together and that's why I have one in one hand and one in the other and there they go once you've done this a couple of times it gets a lot easier you see how that last little flower down there really makes a nice base for the wand there we go another good thing about lavender is when you make these no matter how old they are and I mean at 20 years old they still smell good there and of course lavender is also used as a calming property hmm just the smell of it will make you calm I had a little piece of string this fishing line my husband's a fisherman and he gives me all his old string this is what I'm going to do I'll rap three or four or five times however many times I can get around it and that holds it rather tightly see that and now I'm going to tie it and usually I tie three or four times two because I want everything tight you want to be careful not to the first the first round you want to be careful that you don't tie it so tight that you cut the flower pick the flower heads off there now that step someone take my scissors and I'll cut that off so it's just a nice nice short little knot right there now another thing you can do is you can choose to dry it like this just lay it flat and let it dry then after its dried it will stand upright in a vase but we are going to make a lavender wand now this is the easy part it looks tricky but it's not take take the flower head in your hand and gently hold then start turning these down and what we're creating is a basket effect that surrounds the flower heads and you can tell which one needs to go next just by looking you'll know where it needs to go on a cool morning it's very relaxing come out and just put one together thank you Tom and all but it's very satisfying for me just to have lavender blooming my face the other day I read that yet by cutting your lavenders back and keeping them short they bloom better well this past winter we had a really bad ice storm and I think that's why the lavenders have bloomed so well this year and now I noted to trim back but I didn't know that before I'm kind of doing this these plants behind me I bought at a little garden show one year in little 3 inch pots and now you can see how tall they are and they're about 12 years old what lavenders not even supposed to live that long but it has outdone itself and there we have the one now I have another piece of string right here I say strands fishing and I'm rapping again and tying it and the other thing that you can do if you choose is you can say that in a minute that you cut off the end if you want to and trim it up so that it's a neater package the other thing that you can do though is the leaves are aromatic also every part of this plant has the beautiful lavender scent so what you want to do is if you cut it all up save it any way you can make a sashay out of it put in a little bag and it will make you a nicer shape now the ladies go back in the day I guess put these in their underwear drawer and their lingerie of course when you open the drawer everything smells beautiful you can trim this off and I just make a nice we shape trim like that and you can pick the leaves off if you choose if you choose to leave it that way you can leave it with all of it on and I like to use a ribbon of some sort and tie a pretty little ribbon around it and you know especially for gift-giving and you don't have to wrap it or anything to send it to and I haven't had any one yes I hmm I don't like it everybody likes but there you have it 11