Hi Mike,

We are gardeners here, -- meaning we are the consumers not marketers of flowers. Our knowledge is probably very limited.

I would suggest that you contact your local area horticultural organization for advise or even contact other lavender farms for at least some basic info. In Ontario we have such organizations.

You will need to know what kinds of lavenders to grow for oil production, when to harvest, what kind of equipment to use, how is the product distilled or is there another organization doing the extractions, etc.....

Ianna

There is a Market Garden forum here on GW, at least there used to be. I don't know how busy it is.

Mike, I know a bit about essential oils but not much about growing the right type of lavender or how to distill the oil.

I've heard there used to be someone who traveled on the west coast and distilled oil from growers' plants. However I no longer have that link. There's a link below with a source for a copper still if you decide to distill your own oil.

You will have quite a learning curve but have time because your plants will need time to establish.

Are there lavender farms in Michigan where you perhaps could get some info from other growers? I know there are many lavender producers on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state as we visited some of them last year. Here's a link with info on the growers in that area: http://www.lavenderfestival.com/

You might find this story about a Canadian couple interesting: http://www.tuscanfarmgardens.com/pages/tuscan-farm-gardens-history

From what I understand about growing anything and selling it is that you need to sell a huge amount to make a good profit and that can be difficult. I think it is more profitable to create retail products from what you grow altho that is very labor intensive.

Good luck with this enterprise however you do it.

Here is a link that might be useful: copper still

To get oil you need a distiller, not and easy task. If you hire that out, you want them to be fairly close to you. Do you already have the plants growing? They are an easy crop but make sure you have some that will survive your climate. Sometimes a u-pick farm does well and you can also sell plants.