Emergency case of dying lavender in a pot

Question

As I was shopping in a big grocery store yesterday, I found this sad little lavender pot (picture below) in the flower aisle, it is in an awful condition and the price was reduced to cents. So I immediately decided I wanted to save it and now I'm here looking for advice, since everything I read confused me even more. The tag says it's Lavandula angust. "Blue scent".

I read that lavender likes a lot of sun, but also on some threads they advised against putting it directly in the sun after buying it from a store where it was kept in the dark, but rather give it time to adapt at put it in the shadow at first. Since mine is in a really bad state and I got it from a super dark place in the store (that's probably why it's dying), should I put it in the sun, or adapt it gradually?

The soil it's planted in right now looks very, very wet and as I read, lavender doesn't like that. But I also know repotting can be quite stressful even for a healthy plant. So which is worse: keeping it in the ultra wet soil or risking repotting?

And, at last, maybe what I should've started with: is there hope at all? There's only one branch that looks healthy, all of the others are down and withering. Thanks in advance for any tips!

Here's the plant just before repotting:

Answer 1

Lavender can be tough plants, and since you don't have much money in this one, I think you can be aggressive in its treatment. You are correct that lavenders don't like wet feet, and I think you're also correct in that the over-drenched soil plus low light is causing the plant stress.

I recommend that you first cut off all of the dead leaves and stems and then repot the plant into a pot with drainage holes, using a decent potting mix that contains a lot of perlite. Do NOT put gravel or any other substance in the bottom of the pot: this causes a perched water table, which makes drainage worse not better (yes, this is counter-intuitive, but it's also science fact).

Water well, removing any water left in the saucer after thirty minutes, then follow a one-week hardening-off process:

Days 1 and 2: place the plant only in indirect light.

Day 3: Give the plant maybe an hour of direct sun (morning light is probably best if you're in a hot climate)

Day 4: Two hours in direct sun

Day 5: Three to four hours in direct sun

Day 6: Six hours in direct sun

Day 7 and ongoing: Direct sun as much as possible.

Water the pot when the pot is light when you pick it up. Depending on pot size, rain, sun, and temperature, this could be daily or every other day.

The hardening off process can be tricky if you're working away from home; in that case, you might try placing the plant in the shadow line of a building or taller plant so that it gets shaded as the sun moves behind the obstruction.