Lavender Harvest

I've been cutting the Munstead Lavender daily for about a week, and putting in bunches for market. That is almost done, and the buds that are left have mostly flowered.
In the meantime the Grosso Lavender was getting close to being ready and today one of the plants needed a good haircut. The others have a few days to go. Strange too, because this one was in the middle of the row. The two varieties side by side:

The Munstead is really beautiful, and until you see it next to the Grosso, it doesn't look like such a pipsqueak. These in the picture are about 8" long. The bunches that went to market looked nice wrapped in white tissue cones. For a deep purple flower with a nice scent, Munstead can't be beat in our zone (5b).

The Grosso stems are well over a foot long with spikes over 3" on some. They will be left to wilt today, and then Maryanne and I will spend the evening on the back deck weaving wands. I stocked up on ribbon last week when I found it on sale.
After working all week with the Munstead, I almost waited to long for the Grosso. You can see that some of the buds have flowered. It is just so pale that it can be deceiving.
The other plants will be ready within the next week or two. By the time we've plowed through one or two plants' worth of wands, we'll be ready to toss some into the still just to do something OTHER than weaving with it. This will be the first year there will be enough for that, and I can't wait!