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Little River Cooperative

West Indian Lemongrass

$10.00 USD
$10.00 USD
Sale Sold out

Lemongrass
Cymbopogon citratus

days to maturity:
plant spacing: 1 plant every 3 feet
sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours
look out for: rust
harvest notes: prune
perennial

Lemongrass is a perennial grass often grown for its fragrant leaves and stalks. There are two common varieties of Lemongrass: West Indian and East Indian. West Indian is grown more for its stalk, the East Indian is grown more for its leaves. We prefer West Indian because the plants get larger but also it produces thick stalks that are more traditionally used in cooking than East. While perennial, lemongrass typically has a life span of around 4 years before it looses vigor and should be harvested entirely and replanted. 

The stalks (leaf bases) of the plant are commonly used to flavor dishes in Southeast Asia & India and the heart of young shoots may be cooked and consumed as a vegetable. The tougher less edible leaves are used to flavor dishes or made into tea. Try using your lemongrass to flavor marinades for fish, stews and curries.

The extracted essential oil is commonly used in insect repellents, perfumes and soaps, and while people think that means a lemongrass plant in the yard will keep mosquitos away, thats actually not the case since the plant needs to be crushed and its oils extracted in order for it to repel insects. To capture its aromatic oils put fresh plant matter in hot or cold oil or alcohol. Most aromatics are fat soluble and are not easily captured in water.

Our resident herbalist, The Garden Jules, says “Lemongrass is super rich in vitamins A & C, so this is one of my favorite plants to make a Hydrosol out of for my skin care routine. I also love using a Hydrosol blended with a lemongrass and beautyberry witch hazel extract tincture as a natural mosquito repellent." 

Materials

All of our plants are produced using OMRI certified organic materials (potting mix, fertilizer & pesticides) however our nursery is not certified organic. Plants are shipped in compostable peat moss pots and we use heirloom & organic seeds whenever possible.

Shipping & Returns

We ship plant orders every Monday. Due to the nature of shipping plants we only offer expedited shipping for our live plant orders. Our returns & exchanges policy is also quite strict since its hard to control the quality of a plant once it leaves our facility, however we do our very best to make sure that each and every customer is satisfied with their plants. Read more about our policies here. 

Size

All of our plants are potted in 4" pots and their foliage size varies based on how large the plant is naturally when its root ball is the correct size for the pot. If a plant is too tall for our shipping box we may prune it to fit (bonus: many plants do better after being pruned since they make bushier growth). We do our very best to ship all of our plants in the "sweet spot" of maturity however so long as the roots have colonized the pot we will consider a plant mature enough to ship.

Care Instructions

When you receive your plant its critical to get it out of its box and into the light the day it arrives. It will also want to be removed from its compostable plastic wrapping and given fresh water to drink. Keep in mind, this plant was grown in the tropical humid climate of South Florida, so if it's terribly cold or dry where you are it'll need to be hardened off before planting outdoors. Visit our care instructions page for more thorough info about caring for your new plant friend.

  • What Our Customers Have to Say:

    This is a great, local organization with really knowledgeable & friendly staff. They make gardening easy and accessible, and I've purchased many high quality plants and equipment from them.
    -Kate Black (5 star google review)

  • And Another One:

    How lucky we are to have a resource like Little River Cooperative here in Miami, not only for the access they offer to a great selection of plants and produce, but also for the knowledge they provide and the sense of community they foster!
    -Nick Vagnoni (5 star google review)